THE ZOOT SUIT
A Zoot Suit is a baggy, but well tailored, matching jacket and pants. The coat is long and flared, usually reaching down to the knee, with a high waistline, wide lapels, broad padded shoulders and a big pleat in the … Continue reading
Category Archives: Blues Music History
JOHN DOPYERA (National Steel Guitar)
It is impossible to picture Son House without a National Steel guitar in his hands. This iconic instrument was favoured by many Blues players for its loud ringing tone that could penetrate down the street or across a noisy room. … Continue reading
RACE MUSIC
Blues, jazz, R&B, funk, rap and hip-hop are all examples of the Black music that helped to shape our culture today, but this music grew and developed in a historical context. From the beginning of the 20th Century, African music’s … Continue reading
WEST COAST BLUES
California is not the place you expect to find the Blues. It does not reek of the murderous working conditions of Chicago‘s killing floor, the hardscrabble existence of sharecroppers in the Delta, or the relentless dehumanision of production lines in … Continue reading
CHICAGO BLUES
The Blues was born in the Delta and grew up on its journey from the country to the city, but the place it came of age was Chicago. When Muddy Waters got off the train from Mississippi in 1942, he … Continue reading
BLUES AT THE CROSSROADS
The Summer of Love swept a warm wind of change through the music industry. When the Beatles issued Sargeant Pepper then disappeared to India with their guru, it seems everyone was wafted away in a psychedelic haze. When the acid … Continue reading
BOOM, BOOM. BRITISH BLUES
In 1962, four guys from Liverpool were playing R&B tunes in the Star Club and the Indira Club on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg’s red light district. They played mostly covers of black American music they had copied from records brought … Continue reading
AMERICAN EXPORTS
British audiences in the 50′s didn’t have much exposure to the Blues. Some dance bands played jazz and jump-blues based repertoire and American servicemen had left a legacy of more up-beat dance music. There was a revival of interest in … Continue reading
RECORDING THE BLUES
“Thank God for recording. It’s the best thing that’s happened to us since writing” Keith Richards. ‘Life’ C.2010. Keef was right. Recording is a paradigm shift on a parallel with the rise of literacy. Before recording, music was only available … Continue reading
THE DEATH OF BESSIE SMITH
It is 3a.m. in the middle of a sultry, moonless Saturday night in late September 1937. A Packard car is cruising south down Highway 61 in Coahoma County, Mississippi. At the wheel is Richard Morgan, a well known Chicago club … Continue reading