Week beginning: ... Friday 15th March 2024

 
PD Productions. Media, Broadcasting and Radio production for stations worldwide
 

Back to where it all 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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Going Back, to where it all began ... 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.
1   Download current Backtracking
1   Backtracking archive (Download)
1   Blues Research resources (Links / articles)
Featured artist of the week .... Bukka White
 

Booker T. Washington White was born sometime between 1900 and 1909 .....

He was a fan of Charley Patton, often telling friends, ‘I wants to come to be a great man like Charlie Patton’. In May 1930 came Bukka's first recording session, Like those of many other bluesmen, these were gospel songs. From fourteen songs recorded, two were released under the name Washington White.

Back home in Aberdeen (Mississippi) in October, he was arrested and charged with murder after allegedly shooting a man in the thigh. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, to be served in Mississippi State Penitentiary, commonly known as Parchman Farm. He was released from prison after serving two years. Soon after, in early 1940, he went to Chicago to record. He arrived with 12 songs he intended to record, they included two relating to his experience in prison – 'Parchman Farm Blues' - 'When can I change my clothes' and 'Fixin' to die blues'.

In 1942, he settled in Memphis, where he worked for two years as a labourer at the Memphis Defence Depot, he next worked in the manufacturing of storage tanks at the Newberry Equipment Company, where he remained for 20 years. He continued part-time with professional music, playing small gigs often with Frank Stokes, that went on for several years, during which time he also played with Memphis Willie B - (Willie Borum) ... In the second half of the 1940s his younger cousin B.B. King moved to Memphis and lived with Bukka for a number of months during which time Bukka helped introduce him to the Memphis music community and to get a job at Newberry.

The 1950s were lean years for Bukka musically, as new styles of music had largely replaced the country blues he played.  He died of cancer in Memphis on 26 February 1977.

 
 
     
    Bukka White - Parchman Farm Blues
    Download featured artist track of the week
    Next time - ... Esther Bigeou (1921/23)
 
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