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| PD Productions. Media, Broadcasting and Radio productions for stations worldwide |
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Back to where it all began ... Thank you for taking the time to visit us. My name is David Howard, PD Productions is based in the South West of the UK, but that isn't where our journey into the blues began .... It all started 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’...
We knew and felt the songs were telling us of a deep sadness, 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 I produce ‘Backtracking’ I try to show my 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 taking a journey back in time to the abomination of slavery, the depth of the spirituals and of course the expressive 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 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 and Graham, the ‘Doc’ even my dear late cousin Len (Houston) the never ending patience of Pam 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.
Thank you for listening to ‘Backtracking’ from here in the UK. At PD Productions, we extend our best wishes to you all.
David – PD Productions (UK) |
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Every Friday we have the Blues ... At PD Productions, our research and journey of discovery never ends, simply because 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.
So many people from around the world have contributed to our research, and indeed, our library of music, far too many to mention by name. Released every Friday, we invite you to join Backtracking, the blue time machine as we go back to the Roots of the Blues, back, to where it all began. |
| 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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Review / Download page .....
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This week featuring Appalachian blues |
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The ‘mountain cousin’ of the Delta blues, Appalachian blues bears the stamp of a distinctive regional blend of European and African styles and sounds born at the cultural crossroads of railroad camps, mines, and rural settlements. Drawn from the bedrock of blues, performers such as Pink Anderson, Lesley Riddle, Etta Baker, John Jackson, and Doc Watson shines bright, claiming Appalachia as a key cradle of American acoustic blues |
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Current production ....
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| Drawn together over the years, In our collection are several albums, documents and singular recordings that represent some of the oldest and traditional work songs found among African American communities of incarcerated people in the southern United States. Mostly recorded in Texas and Louisiana these songs were typically sung while groups of 10-30 people performed tasks such as chopping and hoeing. With origins reaching back to their West African ancestry as well as during the era of African American enslavement, work songs served the purpose of alleviating the mundane nature of repetitive tasks as well as providing a forum for the song leader to keep the group together through rhythms and lyrics. |
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Featured artist of the week .... Black Boy Shine
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Black Boy Shine (c. September 12, 1908 – March 28, 1952), born Harold Holiday, was an American Texas blues pianist, singer and songwriter. Little is known of his life outside of his recording career. He was part of the Santa Fe Group, a loose ensemble of black blues pianists who played in the many juke joints abutting the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. He recorded almost twenty tracks between 1936 and 1937. Two of his tracks illustrate clearly his life, ‘Hobo Blues’ and ‘Ice Pick and Pistol Woman Blues’, depicted the more lurid and potentially violent lives of Harold and his listeners.
Adopting the stage name ‘Black Boy Shine’, Harold spent most of his life based in Houston; he was noted as a smooth singer and pianist, with an unusually sweet melodious vocal refrain and elegant playing. His songs included ‘Dog House Blues’ and ‘Back Home Blues’, which were in the barrelhouse style, the majority of his repertoire dealt with the realities of life for his predominately black audience.
 In the mid 1930s, Harold often met up with another pianist, Moon Mullican, for a short time in the 1930s, they performed as a duo called ‘Moonshine’ In 1935 and 1936, he recorded as an accompanist on a number of tracks for both Bernice Edwards and J. T. Smith.
Harold died on March 28, 1952, in Sugar Land, Texas, from tuberculosis. He was 43 years old. He was buried in Stafford Coloured Cemetery, Stafford, Texas. |
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