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Category Archives: – Key figures
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[Read the print-friendly version here] Introduction & acknowledgement In his book “The Bluesman: The Musical Heritage of Black Men and Women in the Americas” (1992), Julio Finn, himself a blues musician wrote: “[White blues performers] can never be bluespeople […] because the blues is not something they live but something they do – which makes […]
– 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: blues, butler may, early blues, vaudeville
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– Roll, Jordan, Roll: The Slave song Lucy McKim taught the world
Abstract : The article puts the spots on Lucy McKim, whose role in the documentation of the sounds of slavery is largely underestimated. The publication at her initiative of two slave songs in 1862 is situated against the historical context of the battle at and the experiment of Port Royal. The major significance of this […]
Posted in - Pre Blues era, Lucy McKim
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– The blues cradle stands on indian mounds
Many places in the Southern states claim the title of birth place of the blues. Memphis, Clarksdale, New Orleans, Texas… In the most spread collective image the cradle of the blues stands in the Mississippi Delta. The fact that the self proclaimed father of the blues, W.C. Handy, was unfortunate to be stuck in the […]
Posted in - Blues history, Charles Peabody
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– The Happenstance Blues
The study of history is often big fun because it leaves room to speculate in terms of “what if”. For instance : “what if” the African Americans would have had full control on their music production in the 20s instead of being “colonized also in wax”? What if for instance the Black Swan Label or […]