Show
Roots And Roads: Black History Month And The Blues
About this show
Introduction
In this episode of Roots and Roads, Dominik celebrates Black History Month by exploring the history and evolution of the blues. The programme examines the contributions of women to the genre, the migration of Muddy Waters, and the role of Alan Lomax. Dominik also discusses the global influence of the blues and the complexities of cultural appropriation versus cultural blending.
Dominik presents a programme celebrating Black History Month in October by exploring the history and evolution of the blues. The broadcast covers the contributions of women to the genre, the migration of Muddy Waters from Mississippi to Chicago, and the role of Alan Lomax in discovering Lead Belly. Dominik discusses the global influence of the blues on non-black artists, including a white country singer from California and a Czech artist. The segment also touches upon the complexity of cultural blending in music versus cultural appropriation and mentions a humorous 'biscuit series' from YouTube featuring 'The Cat's Nine Lives' by Retinlink and Hannah Horita.
Topics
- The history and evolution of the blues
- Women's contributions to the blues genre
- Global influences and crossovers of the blues
- Black History Month and the blues
- Cultural appropriation in music
- YouTube music creativity
Participants
- Dominik
Names are taken from the archive as written and may include spelling variants.
Listen · this show’s clips
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Roots And Roads · Show Opening
Roots And Roads · Spoken extract
20151004150001 - Black history month - Blues
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Passages from the broadcast
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Black history doesn't mean you know separating one history from the other because it was always mixed in one way or another, often not in very happy ways. But but this is as one of the blending of cultures that that perhaps we could call a bit more fortuitous, even though some people make.
Selected music
- 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.