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THE TRUTH OF THE BLUES - BACK TO WHERE IT ALL BEGAN ... Our Company is PD Productions based in the South West of the UK, but here isn't where our journey into the blues began.... It all started, way back in the 1980’s in a small town bar in Louisiana; it was like travelling back in time, dusty, rickety tables, chairs, and a bare wooden floor. Sat on a little platform was a lady and a guy with a guitar, and then the lady began to sing the blues. I could have closed my eyes, although I didn’t realise it at the time, I could have been listening to Ma Rainey or Bessie Smith. Quietly listening, and with encouragement from others we joined with the, ‘Tell us your story' - and oh yes, we know.
We knew and felt the songs were telling us of a deep sadness, if you will the truth of the blues, borne of a deprivation, beyond our comprehension. I was listening to the 'Blues' long before that, but never really understood, until then, what was meant by 'Feeling the Blues' ... Each time we produce ‘Backtracking’ we try to show our love and respect for the people and the lives these songs are about, this deprivation, sadness and misery. We are honouring them by keeping their presence and their simple music alive and well.
Each time, we are inviting our listeners to journey back with us in time to the abomination of slavery, the depth of the spirituals and of course the expressive, authentic blues from all those years ago. Our research and journey since that day has been a discovery of the ‘Blues’ that never ends, of a culture and history that has faded in the mists of time, but remains there, sleeping for us to find. We're honoured and privileged to share with you this great music and its history, back a hundred years and beyond, a genre so rich, so vast so diverse and so real.
Now based in Somerset (UK) What started all those years ago with a handful of blues tracks, a few faded photographs and books has grown exponentially with the help of our good friends, Alan, Terry, my dear friend, Graham, the ‘Doc’ my late cousin Len (Houston) and Bob (Humble Texas) the never ending patience of our group and so many people from around the world, far too many to mention, Backtracking has become a library of music and resources so vast it’s often difficult to keep track of it all, as it continues to grow.
Our radio production, ‘Backtracking’ is available to blues stations around the world, totally free and non contractual. We upload the latest production to subscribing stations direct from our UK offices every Thursday. We cordially invite you to visit our website and review the latest show, we hope you will choose to join our friends around the world, as we go ‘Backtracking’ to the Roots of the Blues’ Back, to where it all began.
David R Howard – PD Productions (UK)
Get in touch at: ... syndicatingtheblues@gmail.com |
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Every Friday we have the blues: 25th April 2025 - Thank you for visiting with us, we cordially invite you to review and download the current production below. 'Backtracking' is a result of our research a journey of discovery that never ends, and our love of the Blues. All this simply because the music, the history and the culture of the blues never ends. We're honoured and privileged to share the music within the genre of the Blues back in time a hundred years and beyond, a genre so vast and so diverse.
Backtracking is streamed online and is broadcast worldwide. It's free to join the 'Backtracking' time machine - Get the authentic blues on your radio station ..... |
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| Featured on Backtracking .. |
- The lady sings the blues.
- Blues on the Bayou.
- Gospel blues train.
- Featured artist of the week.
- Spirituals – The blues connection.
- Prison work songs.
- Myths and Legends of the blues.
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Bessie Smith - St Louis Blues (1929) - As far as is known, this is the only film production in which Bessie took part, apparently at the request of W C Handy. Bessie arrives at her rooming house where the participants of a hallway craps game tell her that her man, Jimmy, has just gone to her room with a beautiful young woman.
When she confronts the couple, Jimmy knocks her to the ground, and leaves with the other woman. Bessie begins to sing the blues. Later, in a nightclub, Bessie mournfully continues her song, accompanied by the band and the patrons.
Jimmy enters, laughing, glad-handing, and dancing up a storm. Everyone is delighted to see him. When the song ends, Jimmy calls out to Bessie, who turns and smiles, happy to have him back. They begin to dance. After a few minutes, Jimmie reaches down, steals Bessie's bankroll, and shoves her back to the bar. Holding up her money, he exits laughing, as Bessie returns to singing her sad song. Bessie Smith - St Louis Blues
There may well be licensing / copyright issues regarding this production, consequently, we are unable to offer an option to download, and would request that visitors refrain from doing so. |
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Review / Download page ..... The Birth of the Blues
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Well over a hundred years ago, what is generally acknowledged as the first recording of Blues / jazz was released. 'Livery Stable Blues' performed by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and recorded in 1917 later that same year by W C Handy's Memphis band. It became a best-selling record for the Victor label, This 'first' became problematic to a point where many wished it had never been recorded, it is a recording of a white band performing an African American genre, an enormous cultural problem at the time.
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There followed an acrimonious copyright lawsuit concerning authorship / ownership of the piece. But worse, far from crediting the New Orleans African American musicians they learned from, these young musicians claimed to have 'invented' Blues / jazz. However, thank heavens it was published at an interesting moment in US music history, as emerging African American genres of blues and jazz were beginning to become part of American consciousness that would spread across the country and then across the world. |
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Myths and Legends of the blues ..... Her name was Hattie Ellis
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.... some of the earliest blues artists are such a mystery, one such lady is Hattie Ellis. Like so many of the women who came to the Goree State Prison Farm in the thirties, she is indeed a mystery. All that can be known about her comes from meagre scraps of information—a trial transcript, the few references to her in the transcripts of the WBAP radio show Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls, and some reference of her in the Echo, the newspaper written and edited by Texas prison inmates.
Hattie was a black woman living in Dallas, she has been described as ‘a bootlegging sister’—which probably meant that she worked for a bootlegger or was a bootlegger herself. Another indication of her lifestyle comes from a statement she once made in court: ‘I never have paid any fines for being a prostitute’
When she was just twenty years old, Hattie was sentenced to thirty years at Goree for murdering another black woman named Henrietta Murphy. Henrietta and some other women had shown up at Hattie’s house, wanting to buy whiskey for a dollar from Hattie’s boyfriend. Hattie wouldn’t sell them whiskey, and she and Henrietta got into an argument. Hattie allegedly drove up to Henrietta’s talked to her for a few minutes while sitting in Hattie’s car, Hattie then drew a pistol, and shot her in the stomach and then in the back |
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Featured artist of the week .... Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey
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Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey - April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was a blues singer and influential early-blues recording artist. Often referred to as the Mother of the Blues, Gertrude bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic southern blues, influencing a generation of blues singers. Gertrude was known for her powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a moaning style of singing.
Gertrude Pridgett began performing as a teenager, she became known as Ma Rainey after her marriage to Will ‘Pa’ Rainey in 1904. Together, they toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and later formed their own group, Assassinators of the Blues.
Her first recording was made in 1923. In the following five years, she made over 100 recordings. Gertrude collaborated with, amongst others, Thomas Dorsey, Tampa Red, and Louis Armstrong. Touring until 1935, she then largely retired from performing. Rumours and legends of that relationship are many and most impossible to verify. For example, it was also rumoured that Bessie once bailed Gertrude out of jail.
Many legendary artists started with Ma Rainey or grew with her. Thomas Dorsey said, ‘after performing and working with Ma Rainey there was nowhere else to go but to the Lord’. it is fair to say, her voice made a statement. It was strong. It was unapologetic. They didn’t have technical expertise or equipment we are familiar with today. It was just music point blank to your soul. It was how she was feeling at the time.
In 1935, having parted company with Pa Rainey, Gertrude returned to her home town, and became the proprieties of three theatres, the Liberty in Columbus, and the Lyric and the Airdrome in Rome, Georgia, until her death in 1939.
She has been posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Gertrude has been portrayed in several films including the 2020 film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
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Copyright: PD Productions ... All rights reserved .. Registered 2021 |
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