Understand the Past, See the Future, & Make an Impact
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Dockery Farms and the Birth of the Blues
Dockery Farms and the Birth of the Blues Dockery Farms began as a cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta. Although cotton was king in the post-Civil War South, it has been the music from the fields and cabins of Dockery Farms that make it famous as a birthplace of the blues. From its beginnings in the late 19th century through the rise of such unforgettable Delta bluesmen as Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Son House, and Howlin' Wolf, to the many legendary blues musicians today, Dockery Farms has provided fertile ground for the blues. The vivid poetry, powerful songs, and intense performing styles of the blues have touched people of all ages around the world. The music that was created, at least in part, by Dockery farm workers a century ago continues to influence popular culture to this day. It was a welcome diversion from their hard lives and a form of personal expression that spoke of woes and joys alike in a musical language all its own. Will Dockery, the son of a Confederate general that died at the battle of Bull Run, founded the plantation. Young Will Dockery had graduated from the University of Mississippi and in 1885, with a gift of $1,000 from his grandmother, purchased forest and swampland in the Mississippi Delta near the Yazoo and Sunflower Rivers. Recognizing the richness of the soil, he cleared the woods and drained the swamps opening the land for cotton. Word went out for workers and before long African-American families began to flock to Dockery Farms in search of work in the fields and, as tenant farmers (sharecroppers,) they cultivated cotton on the rich farmland. -
Reengaging Blues Narratives: Alan Lomax, Jelly Roll Morton and W.C. Handy ©
REENGAGING BLUES NARRATIVES: ALAN LOMAX, JELLY ROLL MORTON AND W.C. HANDY By Vic Hobson A dissertation submitted to the School of Music, In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of East Anglia (March 2008) Copyright 2008 All rights reserved © This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that no quotation from the thesis, nor any information derived therefrom, may be published without the author’s prior, written consent. i Acknowledgments This for me has been a voyage of discovery and I count myself fortunate to have enjoyed the process. This has been due, in no small part, to the support, help and encouragement that I have received along the way. People who, in the early days of my research, had been only names on the covers of books are now real; all have been helpful, most have been enthusiastic and some I now count as friends. The School of Music at the University of East Anglia is a small school in a rapidly expanding university which was led for many years by David Chadd who sadly died before the completion of this work. Fortunately the foundations he laid are secure and I have benefited from the knowledge and experience of all of the staff of the school, in particular my supervisor Jonathan Impett. Among Jonathan’s contributions, above and beyond the normal duties of a PhD supervisor is to have shown faith in a thesis that initially must have seemed rather unlikely. -
NEH July 2016 Daniel Warner Rich Soil, Poor People- a Week in The
Rich Soil, Poor People: A Week in the Mississippi Delta by Daniel Warner The Mississippi Delta has a certain agreeability to it. The people are humble here, acquainted with patterns of patience as seasons of planting and harvest and the give and take of drought and flood continue to shape their lives. Maybe they are humble because they know they are dependent. They depend on the land, the river, the harvest, the planter, the Lord. Like many charming places and charming people, you get a sense that you understand the Delta before you do. It invites you in, but it does not rush to show its cards. The quest for empire and glory in the heart of its historic characters is reminiscent of a Steinbeck novel. The sheer flatness of the land, though, pauses the parallel to life in the desert valleys of central California. Cotton in the fields of the Delta did not shine with the same opportunity for a new life as gold did in rivers of the West. There has always been an arrangement of things here, a set social order, a clear understanding as to whose the opportunity was. In the late 19th century, the Delta was still uncharted wilderness at the heart of a country already explored—swamp and jungle in the early era of iron horses and skyscrapers. Roaming panthers and bears haunted the cypress trees. The fear these beasts inspired can still be heard in the melodies of the oldest surviving Delta blues players. The Delta ceded this ancient landscape as it was reimagined by planters as a crescent of unprecedented fertility, stretching from Memphis to Vicksburg. -
Birthplace of the Blues?”: Dockery Farms, Mythic South, and the Erasure of the African American Lived Experience in Mississippi Blues Tourism
“BIRTHPLACE OF THE BLUES?”: DOCKERY FARMS, MYTHIC SOUTH, AND THE ERASURE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVED EXPERIENCE IN MISSISSIPPI BLUES TOURISM Phillip MacDonald A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Folklore Program, Department of American Studies Chapel Hill 2015 Approved by: William R. Ferris Glenn Hinson Malinda Maynor Lowery ©2015 Phillip MacDonald ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT PHILLIP MACDONALD: “BIRTHPLACE OF THE BLUES?”: DOCKERY FARMS, MYTHIC SOUTH, AND THE ERASURE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVED EXPERIENCE IN MISSISSIPPI BLUES TOURISM (Under the direction of William R. Ferris) From humble grassroots beginnings, blues tourism has expanded to a multimillion-dollar industry for Mississippi. This thesis utilizes Dockery Farms historic site as a case study to discuss the representation of African Americans within blues tourism. Dockery is particularly important because it is deemed the “Birthplace of the Blues” and presents two common narratives found in blues tourism- William Dockery’s “Great White Man” narrative along with Charley Patton’s “periphery black musician” narrative. Utilizing personal letters, photographs, historic sites, and theoretical concepts including the “Old” and “New” South, this thesis offers a critical analysis of the history presented at cultural tourist sites in Mississippi. Both myth and memory inform constructions of the past through cultural tourism and this thesis argues that blues cultural tourist sites and publications consistently underrepresent the African American lived experience. This work aims to lead to the reassessment of tourist sites and the addition of an inclusive history. -
Masters of Blues Guitar
Masters of Blues Guitar q~ÄäÉ=çÑ=`çåíÉåíë CopyrightmêÉÑ~ÅÉ Q mêÉêÉèìáëáíÉë=~åÇ=jÉíÜçÇ R póãÄçäë Masters S m~êí=NW=píóäáëíáÅ=máçåÉÉêë T 1. Charley Patton 7 2. Blind Blake 14 3. Blind Willie2013 Johnson Samples20 4. Memphis Minnie 28 5. Mississippi John Hurt 36 6. Eddie Son House of 44 7. Tampa Red 52 8. Robert Johnson 58 9. Big Bill Broonzy by Blues66 10. Bukka White 73 11. Fred McDowell 81 12. Muddy Waters AMA 89 13. Lightnin' Hopkins 96 14. Elmore James 104 15. John Lee Hooker 112 Guitar m~êí=OW=^=cÉï=`çåíÉãéçê~êó=^êíáëíë MusikverlagNOM 120 16. Ry Cooder 126 17. Bonnie Raitt 132 18. Eric Clapton 137 19. Keb' Mo' 142 20. Rory Block j~ëíÉêë=çÑ=_äìÉë=dìáí~ê=`a NQT CD Index Numbers 147 MP3 Files 148 © 2013 by AMA Musikverlag 3 Masters of Blues Guitar mêÉÑ~ÅÉ “The problem with the music scene today is that most people hardly know about the true origins of contemporary music anymore.” (Ben Harper) If you're lucky, some people you know may barely be still aware of the beginnings of rock Copyright music; they also think that these outmoded times represent the beginning of the musical chain. Sometimes it really hurts when, out of pure ignorance, third generation blues musicians are celebrated as trailblazing pioneers. The fact is that the circle begins much earlier during the age of acoustic blues. Audio artifacts of this music have existed since the 1920s when the commercial breakthrough of the gramophone record began. The folk blues boom of the 1960s - one of the greatest sources of inspiration for the founders of rock music at the time - was Mastersbasically the revival of a music that already existed. -
June-2012-Portfoliocompressed.Pdf
The Most Southern Place on Earth: Music, Culture, and History in the Mississippi Delta Sponsored By: The National Endowment for the Humanities Presented By: The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University Director: Dr. Luther Brown Coordinator for Student & Community Outreach: Lee Aylward Faculty: Mark Bonta, Henry Outlaw, Reggie Barnes, John Strait, Charles Wilson, Charles McLaurin, Scott Baretta Portfolio Created By: Minhazul Islam Robertson Scholar Duke University, Class of 2015 For More Information: Please visit the Delta Center website: www.blueshighway.org Or e-mail Dr. Luther Brown: [email protected] Delta Center for Culture & Learning Dr. Luther Brown (Director) [email protected], 662-846-4310 Welcome from the Director Dear Colleagues The Mississippi Delta is simultaneously a unique place and a place that has influenced the American story like no other. This paradox is summed up in two simple statements. Historian James Cobb has described the Delta as "The most Southern place on earth." At the same time, the National Park Service has said "Much of what is profoundly American- what people Dr. Luther Brown (Director) love about America- has come from Delta Center for Culture and Learning the delta, which is often called 'the Delta State University cradle of American culture.'" This is the Mississippi Delta: a place A place that has produced powerful political of paradox and contrast, a place leaders, both for and against segregation. A described by Will Campbell as being place in which apartheid has been replaced "of mean poverty and garish by empowerment. A place of unquestioned opulence." A place that has artistic creativity that has given the world produced great authors yet both the Blues and rock 'n' roll, and is also continues to suffer from illiteracy. -
Deal Festival's 'Heritage of the Jazz and Blues' Music Education Programme and Is Intended for Use at Secondary School Music Level
DEAL FESTI VAL www.dealfe stival.co.uk The Heritage of the Blues Teaching Resource Pack Written by Russell Callaghan Grooms 1 Introduction The Blues is a musical style that dates, as far as recorded music goes, to the early 20th Century. It is the music of the deep south of America and of Highway 61, a road that runs South out of Memphis along the Mississippi River. The Blues is a melting pot of styles, from African traditional songs to field hollers (work songs) to songs of freedom and oppression, travel, poverty, celebration, love, good times and hard times. We’re going to travel down Highway 61 and along the way, we will learn that the themes and the sounds of the Blues are as present and relevant today as they were back in the 1920’s, right through the last century and into present day. We will learn the songs, the artists and the soul of the music and even write our own blues song. It’s impossible to say where the blues first started because it’s been around in one form or another for 1000‘s of years, and it would take a lifetime to document the history of the Blues as it has become so deeply embedded into the fabric of music, history and culture of the 20th and 21st Centuries but we will try to get a snapshot of the music, the artists who made it famous and a glimpse at the feeling of the blues, the soul of the sound and the very real human emotion that comes from a deep longing for change. -
Bill Lester-Dockery Farm Interview]
BILL LESTER Executive Director, Dockery Farms Foundation * * * Date: August 9, 2012 Location: Dockery Farms Service Station – Cleveland, MS Interviewer: Amy C. Evans Transcription: Shelley Chance, ProDocs Length: 1 hour, 8 minutes Project: Dockery Farms Bill Lester - Dockery Farms 2 [Begin Bill Lester-Dockery Farm Interview] 00:00:02 Amy Evans: This is Amy Evans for the Southern Foodways Alliance on Thursday, August 9, 2012. I am at Dockery Farm in between Ruleville and Cleveland, Mississippi, and I’m with Mr. Bill Lester. And Mr. Lester, can I get you to state your name and your occupation, I guess, for the record? 00:00:18 Bill Lester: My name is Bill Lester, and I’m the Executive Director of the Dockery Farm Foundation. I’m retired from Delta State [University], and I was Chair of the Art Department for a couple of years there. And if I get to teach this coming fall, it’ll be forty years I’ve been there, so that’s a pretty good long time. But I spend most of my time out here at Dockery now, overseeing the site and just helping with all the different visitors we get. 00:00:40 AE: And tell me how you first became affiliated with Dockery and when that was. 00:00:45 BL: Well, it’s a long time ago, back in 1973, when I came to Cleveland. I came out here to Dockery. My family has a farm at Estill[, Mississippi], which is about thirty-five, forty miles south of here, and my great-grandfather came there in the 1880s. -
Bluesman, Guitar, and Migration
University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2016 Bluesman, Guitar, And Migration Yaeko Takada University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the Music Commons Recommended Citation Takada, Yaeko, "Bluesman, Guitar, And Migration" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1160. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1160 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BLUESMAN, GUITAR, AND MIGRATION A Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Southern Studies The University of Mississippi by YAEKO TAKADA August 2016 Copyright Yaeko Takada 2016 ALL RIGHT RESERVED ABSTRACT This project examines how the bluesman, guitar, and migration have interacted with each other and brought about transformations to American popular music, based upon scholarly works, magazine articles, and the sound recordings of the prewar blues performers. In popular theory, the blues sprang out of the cotton fields and articulated the life experiences of the oppressed people in isolated areas, particularly the Jim Crow South. These are certainly truths of the blues. Also true is that the blues was a product of modernization in every way and a representation of the African American bluesman’s aspiring life. The bluesman’s mobile lifestyle was one way of his response to the changes of society. Chapters One and Two investigate the instruments of African American people past and present and closely look at the pathway of the guitar to become a bluesman’s choice of instrument. -
A Social History of the Electric Guitar
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works School of Arts & Sciences Theses Hunter College Spring 5-2-2019 Why Does It Have To Be So Loud? A Social History Of The Electric Guitar Thomas Dunne CUNY Hunter College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/429 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] 1 Why Does It Have To Be So Loud? A Social History Of The Electric Guitar by Thomas Dunne Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts History, Hunter College The City University of New York 2019 Thesis Sponsor: May 2, 2019 Jonathan Rosenberg Date Signature May 2, 2019 Kevin Sachs Date Signature of Second Reader 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 3 2. Chapter 1 The Instrument 8 3. Chapter 2 Social Impact 34 4. Chapter 3 Guitar Gods 65 5. Conclusion 98 3 In the summer of 2017, I taught a Project-Based Learning course on the blues and the electric guitar at the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City. The course curriculum included learning about the electric guitar, the blues, and rock ‘n’ roll. I had the kids write blues songs, and showed them my Gibson Les Paul electric guitar and let them play it. We also learned about some of the most celebrated guitarists who played this type of music, of which the children had little to no knowledge. -
Black Masculinity, Racial and Intimate Violence, and the Blues in the Mississippi Delta, 1918-1945
1 “These hard times gon’ kill you”: Black masculinity, racial and intimate violence, and the blues in the Mississippi Delta, 1918-1945 by Alexa Dagan Supervised by Dr. Jason Colby A graduating Essay Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements, in the Honours Programme. For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts In the Department Of History The University of Victoria April, 2018 2 Introduction In the state of Mississippi between the years of 1882 and 1968, the NAACP estimates that 581 African-Americans were lynched, making Mississippi the lynch capital of all the southern states.1 Between 1877 and 1950, approximately 12 people were lynched in Sunflower County, which despite this statistic, is a county legendary for its music above all else.2 Between the towns of Cleveland and Ruleville is Dockery, Mississippi, home of the famous Dockery Plantation. The plantation earned its fame through the number of blues musicians who found their beginnings there, the most famous being Charley Patton. It is no coincidence that the state with the highest number of lynchings is also the one most renowned for its blues, nor that both blues musicians and lynching victims were overwhelming black, male, and working class. While the fear of lynching played a significant role in the daily lives of black men, music served an equally strong role as an opposition to this fear. Music became a form of release from the pain and violence of oppression. No matter its form, music was prevalent in all walks of life, from work songs sung by labourers and chain gangs, to holy church music, and finally to the melancholy of the blues. -
Grunge and Blues, a Sociological Comparison: How Space and Place Influence the Development and Spread of Regional Musical Styles
Grunge and Blues, A Sociological Comparison: How Space and Place Influence the Development and Spread of Regional Musical Styles Tara Talley Introduction In the early 1990’s, a new type of rock music exploded onto the popular music scene in America. Labeled “grunge” by the media, this new sound was seemingly an overnight hit with America’s youth. The rise of grunge may seem extraordinary and unique to many who experienced it. However, the birth and spread of grunge was not a new phenomenon. Other types of popular American music have come about in a similar fashion. One example is the rise of the Delta blues in the first decades of the 20th century. The genesis and spread of both Delta blues and grunge have several important details in common. First, the birth of both types of music can be understood using the sociological idea of historical contingency; moreover, Delta blues and grunge were influenced by similar contingencies. Second, both went from being strictly regional music to attaining national popularity through essentially identical marketing strategies. Large music corporations marketed Delta blues, to both blacks and whites, as a more authentic representation of the black experience, taking full advantage of the recording and home entertainment technology of the time. Seven decades later, grunge became a national phenomenon via this same strategy, marketing grunge as the “authentic” music of America’s dissatisfied white youth, and exploiting the current music technology, especially MTV. Third, both Delta blues and grunge foster a sense of social solidarity in fans. This paper investigates the social processes that create and spread unique musical forms.