BBC Four’s history of the blues, Blues America, takes a fresh look at the music. Usually heard as the sound of racial suffering and personal misery, Blues America shows blues was a new style of black pop music that first took America, and then the world, by storm.

The blues is often described as primitive music born in the cotton fields of the Deep South. Blues America sees the men and women who first sang the blues as innovators, using the latest media to bring their music to the public. If they had one foot in the cotton field, the other was firmly planted in showbiz. This is the story of how the blues crossed borders – from black to white, from South to North, from weak to powerful.

Woke Up This Morning looks at minstrel and medicine shows as the academies of blues musicians at the beginning of the 20th century.

If blues began as a folk music, it was commercialised almost immediately. WC Handy, an educated black musician, was fascinated by the new, disreputable music he heard around him – the blues. Handy’s 'St Louis Blues' was a sheet music hit in 1914.

With the arrival of records in the 1920s, women singers like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, who developed their art in travelling tent shows, became the first blues recording stars. The film reveals that, initially, black women were more able than black men to sing the blues on their own terms.

Soon, record scouts brought guitarists like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Charlie Patton to the ears of black audiences. An intense blues style flourished around the cotton plantations and juke joints of the Mississippi Delta. The music was also recorded by a new kind of folklorist, such as John and Alan Lomax, who headed South, eager to take black folk music seriously as art. With the innovations of microphones and radio, blues singers such as Leroy Carr developed a subtler, smoother style.

By the 1930s, economic depression was driving tens of thousands of black Americans from rural poverty in the South to factory jobs in the North. The blues musicians heading for the cities, including Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, were about to change the world.

With contributions from Keith Richards, Taj Mahal and Chuck D.

[www.bbc.co.uk]

Sweet. Wish I could watch BBC 4. Sounds like an interesting show. Gonna have to keep a lookout for internet broadcasts as well as US showings.

Peace,
Mr DJA

Thanks, good to know !! Should be fun.

Very short clip featuring Keef here:
[www.bbc.co.uk]


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

I wonder who was the first blues artist to use the phrase "Woke up this morning".

It's the most plagiarized line in the history of songwriting.

Somewhere in the southern U.S. there sits on a front porch a 115-year-old man with two strings on his guitar, one tooth in his mouth, and no idea how much money a lawsuit would bring in.

Can anybody find when this show is scheduled? I've got people in the UK standing by to record it for me (and by extension, hordes of my US pals), but I can't discover when it's being broadcast.

Quote
stonehearted
I wonder who was the first blues artist to use the phrase "Woke up this morning".

It's the most plagiarized line in the history of songwriting.

Somewhere in the southern U.S. there sits on a front porch a 115-year-old man with two strings on his guitar, one tooth in his mouth, and no idea how much money a lawsuit would bring in.

Many, many English folk songs traditionally begin "As I walked out one morning" or something of the kind - and of course many of them crossed the pond with the early settlers and went into the melting pot of American roots music, where everyone was listening to everyone else.

Maybe this is where "woke up this morning" comes from - or maybe it is indeed that old guy with the one tooth and the beat-up guitar. But you might as well ask who was the first person to begin a story with "Once upon a time...."

First part to be shown on November 29th and then the second part on December 6th by the look of things, here's another link.

BBC BLUES AMERICA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-11-15 12:10 by nobodysbusiness.

I'll book the date - those BBC4 music documentary seasons are always worth watching.

Ah woke up dis mornin'....

... but instead of being thankful for that, I'm going to whinge for the next three minutes about eveything else

Ah said, Ah woke up dis mornin'...



Some people are never satisfied !

Quote
nobodysbusiness
First part to be shown on November 29th and then the second part on December 6th by the look of things, here's another link.

BBC BLUES AMERICA

Thanks!

Keith seems busy recording his new album and participating in blues documentaries.

On december 1st BBC Four will broadcast a new one, about Big Bill Broonzy.

"Big Bill Broonzy would inspire a generation of musicians, yet he was not the man they believed him to be. This first, very intimate, biography of the pioneering bluesman uncovers the mystery of who Broonzy really was and follows his remarkable and colourful journey from the racist Deep South to the clubs of Chicago and all across the world. With contributions from: Pete Seeger, Ray Davies, Keith Richards, Martin Carthy, John Renbourn and members of the Broonzy family. Broonzy's own words are read by Clarke Peters."

[www.bbc.co.uk]

For those who couldn't see it (like me), the first episode is on YouTube now:

This is great...thank you!!! Earlier today I sent away for the DVD, "In Search for Robert Johnson", in which Keith Richards and Eric Clapton (and many others) participated. Bought it from Amazon. Hope they don't deliver it by drones!
Have you seen that on the news??

I already saw this documentary. It was produced by John Hammond, Jr., isn't it?

Yes he does, and he performs in it, as well. The reviews are good...can't wait to watch it!!

It's a very good documentary, and definitely worth to watch it. One of my favorite scenes is when Love in Vain is played in it, but I will not talk more about it 'cause I don't want to spoil it.

Thank you. I'm really getting into studying Blues History. I'm pretty much at the beginning of my journey and want to enjoy every minute of it. I know the music was born out of suffering, but it's beautiful and I think the story needs to be told.

And I've just found this Big Bill Broonzy documentary, that was aired last sunday:

Another video to bookmark and watch at home..thanks!

Thanks much, Cristiano...home from work now, so I'll watch it later.

For those interested, here's part 2 of Blues America:

I know there was a discussion before about this documentary on this thread and this other one too, but now it is on YouTube.