Playlist
Black History Month: Blues
Blues history across early recordings, women performers, jazz, African connections, Czech song, country and YouTube comedy.
14 selections · 14 with a playable sample
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Maxine Sullivan · Saint Louis Blues
Roots And Roads · Music sample
Black History Month: blues
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Songs in order
- 1Thrill Is Gone · BB King
- 2Hoochie Coochie Man · Muddy Waters
Why it was chosen The speaker describes Muddy Waters as "the father of Chicago blues" [53] and "one of the big influencers in the world of blues" [55].
- 3Green Corn · Leadbelly
Why it was chosen He brought a certain kind of blues to the attention of the world and influenced people like Bob Dylan
- 4Maybe Someday · Addie Williams
Why it was chosen The presenter wants to highlight that early blues recordings were often by women, noting that this "surprised me when I first found about it".
- 5Down By The Riverside · Sister Rosetta Tharp
Why it was chosen The song was played as part of a show "looking into the roots of blues in celebration of Black History Month" [99].
- 6Malted Milk · Robert Johnson
Why it was chosen The song is part of a look into the "roots of blues in celebration of Black History Month" [99] and is described as a "big number" [101] by an artist who was the "favorite of many" [100].
- 7Six Three Oh · Robert Nighthawk
Why it was chosen The speaker notes that this recording is "one way that the blues can present itself to us" [125].
- 8Saint Louis Blues · Maxine Sullivan
Why it was chosen The presenter wants to "go back to some women blues artists" and "look at some crossover with jazz as well".
- 9Backlash Blues · Nina Simone
Why it was chosen The presenter highlights that "women have played a big role in shaping" the sound of the blues, and notes that Nina Simone has "done a lot for, well, for music in general, and occasionally for the blues as well".
- 10Badialo · Boba Karr Traore
Why it was chosen The presenter wants to include a song not in the English language from Africa, a place where the blues "had many of its inspirations", as part of a "typical segment".
- 11Blues Na Cestu Poslední · Jiří Suchý
Why it was chosen The song is part of a "segment of songs not in the English language" [179] and is a "jazzy popular version" [180] by a Czech artist who "soaked it all in" [180] despite having no African or American roots.
- 12Working Man's Blues · Merle Haggard
Why it was chosen The presenter wants to show how the blues has had an "impact far beyond the supposedly or black or you know exclusively black origins" [194] and is now "part of the wider culture" [195].
- 13Cat's Nine Lives · Retinlink And Hannah Horita
Why it was chosen The song is part of a segment called "Sounds of YouTube" and uses the blues because the show is focusing on the genre for Black History Month.
- 14Sattu · Detroit Women
Why it was chosen The presenter wants to "go back to people of color and women" [222] and play a "great blues song" [223] as part of the show's focus on Black History Month.