Category Archives: – Blues history

– Marketing Patent Medicine Folk and Blues

Acknowledgements I am grateful to Willem van Dullemen, who in his passion for folk (music) helped me in getting at my disposal part of the reading material. I also owe a great deal to watching the documentary “Free Show Tonight” produced, in 1983, by Paul Wagner, Steven J. Zeitlin, and Barr Weissman. It is a […]

Posted in - Blues history, - Pre Blues era, Minstrelsy, Vaudeville | Leave a comment

– Blues from the circus tent

Acknowledgements The credits for the essay below go completely to Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff whose invaluable research in the historical archives have permitted to unearth the role of the circus side show in the spread of the popular music (Ragged but Right, 2007) ________________________________ The circus brings to mind feelings of joy, laughter and […]

Posted in - Blues history, - Pre Blues era, Minstrelsy, Vaudeville | Leave a comment

– Butler May: was he the real Father of the Blues?

Acknowledgements: I sincerely thank Kevin Nutt of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, and the Alabama Folklife Association for putting at my disposal the writings of Doug Seroff and Lynn Abbott, published in: “Tributaries, Journal of the Alabama Folklife Association”, 2002, Joey Brackner editor. It has to be mentioned, in addition, that the main […]

Posted in - Blues history, Butler May, Vaudeville | Tagged as: , , , | Leave a comment

– Blues and Black folk music shine on the American Titanic

Acknowledgments: I thank Robert Sacré and Alan Balfour for putting at my disposal earlier publications. Ray Templeton, Paul Petraitis and John Clarke kindly pointed me to interesting song recordings. —————————————————————- When I told my 12 year young daughter, Blijke, after having watched the Cameron block buster on the Titanic, that I intended to write an […]

Posted in - Blues history | Tagged as: , | 1 Comment

– The preacher they called the “Blues King”

Read the article in e-format here Acknowledgement: The bulk of the information comes from Dr. David Evans (°) who traced Ruben Lacy in 1966. I sincerely thank Dr. Evans for reading a draft of this essay and formulating very useful comments to it. The final version with its shortcomings remains of course my sole responsibility. […]

Posted in - Blues history, Rubin Lacy | Leave a comment