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  • 2022 CD Reviews
    • Ol' Savannah - They lie in wait
    • Erika Lewis - A walk around the sun
    • The Miners - Megunticook
    • Mama's Broke - Narrow Line
    • Hezekiah Goode - Humansville
  • 2020 C.D Reviews
    • November 2020 >
      • William Elliott Whitmore - I'm with you
  • 2019 C.D Reviews
    • December 2019 >
      • Them Coulee Boys - Die happy
      • Resonant Rogues - Autumn of the World
      • Erik Koskinen - Burning the deal
    • November 2019 >
      • Lasers Lasers Birmingham - Warning
    • September 2019 >
      • Will Beeley - Highways & Heart Attacks
      • Tui - Pretty little mister
    • August 2019 >
      • Rachel Harrington - Hush the wild horses
      • Steel Blossoms
      • Kelly Hunt - Even the Sparrow
      • The Lowdown Drifters - Last call for dreamers
    • July 2019 >
      • Abigail Lapell - Getaway
      • Jonathan Warren and the Billy Goats - Cletus
      • Jamie Freeman - Dreams about falling
    • June 2019 >
      • The Howlin' Brothers - Still Howlin'
      • Daniel Meade & the Flying Mules - Live Mules
      • Nicholas Mudd
      • Son Volt - Union
    • May 2019 >
      • An American Forrest - O Bronder, Donder, Yonder
      • Allison De Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves
      • Foghorn Stringband - Rock Island Grange
    • April 2019 >
      • Tylor & the Train Robbers - Best of the worst kind
      • The Oldtime Stringband - Pretty little horses
    • March 2019 >
      • Carson McHone - Carousel
      • JP Harris - Sometimes dogs bark at nothing
  • 2018 C.D Reviews
    • October 2018 >
      • The Hot Seats - Stupid mountain too big
      • Luke Tuchscherer - Pieces
    • September 2018 >
      • Clay Parker and Jodi James - The lonesomest sound that can sound
      • Davis Kathriner - Losing habits
      • Green Rock River Band - Edgelands
    • August 2018 >
      • Curse of Lono - As I fell
      • Melissa Carper & Rebecca Patek - Brand new old-time songs
      • Kendl Winter - Stumbler's business
      • Carter Sampson - Lucky
    • July 2018 >
      • Cold Tone Harvest - After you
      • Oliver the Crow
      • Dan Israel - You're free
      • Jeb Barry and the Pawn Shop Saints - Texas etc.
      • The Mammals - Sunshiner
    • June 2018 >
      • Gwenifer Raymond - You were never much of a dancer
      • Dusty Rust - Stolen horse
      • The Tillers
      • Anna & Elizabeth - The invisible comes to us
      • Wesley Randolph Eader - Highway winds
      • Vivian Leva - Time is everything
      • Gareth Owen - Rolling by
      • The Local Honeys - Little girls actin' like men
    • May 2018 >
      • Lonesome Ace Stringband - When the sun comes up
      • Old Crow Medicine Show - Volunteer
      • My Darling Clementine - Still testifying
      • Michael McDermott - Out from under
      • Foghorn Leghorn - All at sea
      • The Vagaband - Something wicked this way comes
      • The Nowhere Brothers - Down Life Boulevard
    • April 2018 >
      • Charley Crockett - Lonesome as a shadow
      • June Star -East on Green
      • Daniel Meade - When was the last time
      • 3hattrio - Lord of the desert
      • Jamie Freeman - Hasia dreams
      • Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers - Don't think about tomorrow night
      • Mashville - Another place
    • March 2018 >
      • Dean Owens - Southern wind
      • The Sumner Brothers - To Elliott in remembrance of Wolf
      • Red Pine Timber Company - Sorry for the good times
      • Ash Grey - Chickenwire
      • Orphan Colours - All on red
      • Steph Cameron - Daybreak over Jackson Street
    • February 2018 >
      • James Edwyn & the Borrowed Band - High fences
      • A Different Thread - High Time (e.p)
      • Penny Black Remedy - Maintaining dignity in awkward situations
      • Sleepy Driver - Sugar skull
    • January 2018 >
      • Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards - California calling
      • Thunder and Rain - Start Believing
      • The Winterlings - American son
      • Wild Ponies - Galax
      • Tyler Childers - Purgatory
  • 2017 C.D Reviews
    • December 2017 >
      • Orphan Brigade - Heart of the Cave
      • The Strange Blue Dreams
      • Dori Freeman - Letters never read
      • Luke Tuchscherer - Always be true
      • Jeremy Pinnell - Ties of blood and affection
      • Prinz Grizzley - Come on in
    • November 2017 >
      • RT 'n' the 44s - Both hands on the bottle
      • The Wynntown Marshals - After all these years
      • Heather Lynne Horton - Don't mess with Mrs. Murphy
      • The Mixus Brothers - To hang me high
      • The Coal Creek Boys - The wolf and the bear
    • October 2017 >
      • Big Sadie - Keep me waiting
      • When Rivers Meet - Liberty
      • Ryan Koenig - Two different worlds
      • Daniel Wylie's Cosmic Rough Riders - Scenery for Dreamers
      • Elliott Brood - Ghost Gardens
      • Sarah Jane Scouten - When the bloom falls from the rose
      • Red Moon Joe _ Time and Life
    • September 2017 >
      • Chris Blevins - Better than alone
      • Steve Welner - Sweet simple life
      • Corn Potato String Band - Good job everybody
      • Murder Murder - Wicked lines and veins
      • Slaid Cleaves - Ghost on the car radio
      • Zoe & Cloyd - Eyes brand new
      • Hope in High Water - Never settle
    • August 2017 >
      • Over the Moon - Moondancer
      • House & Land
      • The Whiskey Charmers - The Valley
      • Amanda Anne Platt & the Honeycutters
      • Oh Susanna - A girl in teen city
      • Zane Campbell - Ola Wave
      • Amelia Curran - Watershed
    • July 2017 >
      • Pierce Edens - Stripped down, gussied up
      • John Alexander - Of these lands
      • Lauren Barth - Forager
      • Amber Cross - Savage on the downhill
      • Zephaniah Ohora and the 18 Wheelers - This Highway
      • Front Country - Other love songs
    • June 2017 >
      • Curse of Lono - Severed
      • Scott Cook - Further down the line
      • John Craigie - No Rain, No Rose
      • The Harmed Brothers
      • Hillfolk Noir - Junkerpunch
    • May 2017 >
      • Ezio - Daylight Moon
      • Nathan Bell - Love>Fear
      • The Long Haul - Beautiful Lies
      • K Phillips - Dirty Wonder
      • The Most Ugly Child - Copper & Lace
      • Dan Tuffy - Songs from Dan
      • Lil' Lost Lou
      • Donald Byron Wheatley - Moondogs and Mad Dogs
      • Pete Mancini - Foothill Freeway
    • April 2017 >
      • Steve Hussey & Jake Eddy - The Miller Girl
      • Secret Emchy Society - The stars fall shooting into Twangsville
      • Best of the Old Crow Medicine Show
      • Son of the Velvet Rat - Dorado
      • Ags Connolly - Nothin' Unexpected
      • The Delta Ladies - Hillbilly Trance
      • Bill Kirchen & Austin De Lone - Transatlantica
      • Rayna Gellert - Workin's too hard
    • March 2017 >
      • Real Sharp - Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers
      • Daniel Meade - Shooting stars and tiny tears
      • The Harmed Brothers - A lovely conversation
      • June Star - Sleeping with the light on
      • Travis Linville - Up ahead
      • Robert Vincent - I'll make the most of my sins
      • Karen Jonas - Country Songs
      • Elouise - Deep Water
    • February 2017 >
      • Sea Star - Never go back
      • Hat Fitz & Cara - After the Rain
      • Chuck Westmoreland
      • Pappy Fisher & his Old Time Entertainers - The little old log cabin down the lane
      • David Simard - The Heavy Wait
      • Stevie Ray Latham - Winter in London
      • Red Sammy & Some Charming Trespassers - True Beliver
      • The Waydown Wanderers
    • January 2017 >
      • Adrian & Meredith - More than a little
      • Jack Grelle - Got dressed up to be let down
      • Bap Kennedy - Reckless Heart
      • Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms - Innocent Road
      • Trevor Alguire - Perish in the light
      • Pony Hunt - Heart Creek
      • Justin Wells - Dawn in the distance
      • Furnace Mountain - Shadow of Plenty
      • Zach Schmidt - The day we lost the war
  • 2016 C.D. Reviews
    • December 2016 >
      • Goat Roper Rodeo Band - Cosmic country blue
      • Wicklow Attwater - The fallen Flame String Band LP
      • J Shogren Shanghai'd - Why so blue, bird
      • Mascot Theory - Trust and bones
      • Red Tail Ring - Fall away blues
      • Southern Tenant Folk Union - Join Forces
      • Martha Fields - Southern White Lies
      • Anna Elizabeth Laube - Tree
      • Eliza Mary Doyle - It ain't what it seems
    • November 2016 >
      • Courtney Marie Andrews - Honest life
      • Western Flyers - The Wild Blue Yonder
      • The Jigantics - Seconds out
      • The Vaudevillian - Bringing Satan Down
      • The Youngers - Picture of you
      • 3hattrio - Solitaire
      • The High Bar Gang - Someday the heart will trouble the mind
      • The Lucky Strikes - The motion and the moving on
      • David Waddell - The last of the outlaws
    • October 2016 >
      • Waiting for Henry - A town called Patience
      • Evening Bell - Dying stars
      • The Honeycutters - On the ropes
      • Vicky Emerson - Wake me when the wind dies down
      • Curse of Lono (e.p)
      • Country Lips - 'Till the daylight comes
      • Screamin' Miss Jackson & the Slap Ya Mama Big Band - I heard the voice of a donut
      • Dana Immanuel & the Stolen Band - Comw with me
      • Pine Street Ramblers - Hazy Shades of Gold
    • September 2016 >
      • California Feetwarmers - Silver seas
      • Them Coulee Boys - Dancing in the dim light
      • The Stray Birds - Magic Fire
      • Blue Moon Marquee - Gypsy Blues
      • Mark Harrison - Turpentine
      • Richie and Rosie - Tractor beam
      • Martha L. Healy - To be free (e.p)
      • Kalyn Fay - Bible belt
      • Kaia Kater - Nine Pin
    • August 2016 >
      • Tia McGraff - Crazy Beautiful
      • Jacob Miller & the Bridge City Crooners - Pacific Ragtime
      • Jesse Furay Lynch
      • The Devil Makes Three - Redemption & Ruin
      • Oldtime Stringband - Cat's got the measles
      • The Georgia Shackleton Trio - The dog who would not be washed
      • Corpse Reviver - Volume 2: Dry bones
      • The Buffalo Skinners - Cease your dreaming
      • Hubert Murray - Shorten the Road
      • Lilly Hiatt - Royal blue
    • July 2016 >
      • The Lowest Pair - Fern girl & ice man
      • The Dead Tongues - Montana
      • Western Centuries - Weight of the world
      • Luke Whittemore - Northern Town (e.p)
      • BJ Barham - Rockingham
      • Keegan McInroe - Uncouth Pilgrims
      • The Danberrys - Give and Receive
      • Jonathan Warren & the Billy Goats - Bless my soul
    • June 2016 >
      • Mean Mary - Sweet
      • Thomas Hine - Some motion or novelty
      • The Lowest Pair - Uncertain as it is uneven
      • Farmington Hill - More rock than eagle block
      • Michael McDermott - Willow Springs
      • Brooks Williams - My turn now
      • Rod Melancon - LA14
      • Wink Burcham - Cleveland Summer Nights
      • Rodeo Gypsy - Southern Proof (e.p)
      • Andy Ferrell - At home and in Nashville
    • May 2016 >
      • Corn Potato String Band - Put on your old grey bonnet
      • Daniel Meade and the Flying Mules - Let me off at the bottom
      • Eli West - The Both
      • Steve Dawson - Solid states & loose ends
      • June Star - You're still here
      • Carrie Rodriguez - Lola
      • Tom Blackwell - Tyrone the Gun
      • Hackensaw Boys - Charismo
    • April 2016 >
      • Carter Sampson - Wilder Side
      • The Westies - Six on the out
      • Hogie - River of Mercy
      • Cale Tyson - Carelss Soul
      • Glade City Rounders - Don't get weary
      • Evie Ladin Band - Jump the Fire
      • Norrie McCuloch - These Mountain Blues
      • The Orphan Brigade - Soundtrack to a Ghost Story
      • Gunther Brown - North Wind
      • Rod Picott - Fortune
    • March 2016 >
      • Cam Penner - Sex & Politics
      • Matt Patershuk - I was so fond of you
      • Sheesham and Lotus and Son - '78
      • The Paul Benjaman Band - Sneaker
      • Skillet Licorice
      • 3HatTrio - Dark Desrt Night
      • Nathan Bell - I don't do this for love, I do this for love
      • Alex Culbreth - The High Country
      • Danny Barnes - Got Myself Together (Ten years later)
    • February 2016 >
      • Malcolm Holcomb - Another Black Hole
      • The Boxcar Boys - Cicada Ball
      • Dori Freeman
      • Nouveaux Honkies - Blues for Country
      • Austin Lucas - Between the Moon and the Mid West
      • The Curst Sons - The Jumping Flea
      • Rita Hosking - Frankie and the no go road
      • Ben Hunter & Joe Seamons - Take Yo' Time
    • January 2016 >
      • Mashville - Tripping On Wires
      • The Delta Jacks - Trouble Ahead
      • Peewee Moore - American Outlaw
      • Holcombe Family String Band - Ragtime! Hokum! Western Swing!
      • The Honeycutters - Me Oh My
      • Ben Rogers - Blood red yonder
      • Paul McClure - Songs for Anyone
      • Greg Trooper - Live at the Rock Room
      • Richie Syrett - From The Feet Up
  • 2015 C.D. Reviews
    • December 2015 >
      • Dennis Ellsworth - Romatic As It Gets
      • Rollie Tussing and the Midwest Territory Band
      • DH Lawrence & the Vaudeville Skiffle Show - Sons and Lovers
      • Brent Best - Your Dog Champ
      • The Slocan Ramblers - Coffee Creek
      • WillieTea Taylor - Knuckleball Prime
      • Danni Nicholls - Mockingbird Lane
    • November 2015 >
      • Feral - Aromatic Bitters
      • Butchers Blind - A Place In America
      • Amanda Pearcy - An Offering
      • Finnders & Youngberg - Eat The Moon
      • Self Help Group - Dead Stars
      • 10 String Symphony - Weight of the World
      • The Sumner Brothers - The Hell In Your Mind
      • Bumper Jacksons - Too Big World
    • October 2015 >
      • Woody Pines
      • The Resonant Rogues - Here & Gone Again
      • Honey Dewdrops - Tangled Country
      • Sugarcane Jane - Dirt Road's End
      • Stevie Agnew & Hurricane Road - Bad Blood & Whiskey
      • Drunken Prayer - The Devil and the Blues
      • Case Hardin - Colours Simple
      • The Grahams - Glory Bound
    • September 2015 >
      • The Glade City Rounders - They're After Us
      • Dubl Handi - Morning In A New Machine
      • Squirrel Butter - Chestnuts
      • Hillfolk Noir - Pop Songs For Elk
      • Sean Taylor - The only good addiction is love
      • Adam Hill - Old Paint
      • Mike & Ruthy Band - Bright As You Can
      • Don Gallardo - Hickory
      • Kaia Kater - Sorrow Bound
    • August 2015 >
      • Weldon Henson - Honky Tonk Frontier
      • Simon Stanley Ward
      • Murder Murder - From The Stillhouse
      • Anna & Elizabeth
      • The Piedmont Brothers Band - Compasses and Maps
      • J.P. Whipple - Moab
    • July 2015 >
      • Daniel Romano - If I've Only One Time Askin'
      • Eastbound Jesus - Hollerin'
      • Wynntown Marshals - The End Of The Golden Age
      • Trout Steak Revival - Brighter Every Day
      • John Coinman - Already Are
      • John Moreland - High on Tulsa heat
      • Deer Run Drifters - Restless Youth
    • June 2015 >
      • Memphis Dawls - Rooted in the bone
      • Kenneth J Nash - The Fall of Eden
      • The Westies - West Side Stories
      • Coal Creek Boys - Out West
      • Porchlight Smoker - Water Into Sand
      • Anthony Toner - Miles & Weather
      • Joe Fletcher - You've Got The Wrong Man
      • Foghorn Stringband - Devil In The Seat
      • The Rubber Knife Gang - Broken Lines
    • May 2015 >
      • Johnny Dowd - That's your wife on the back of my horse
      • Wink Burcham - Cowboy Heroes & Old Folk Songs
      • Pharis & Jason Romero - A Wanderer I'll Stay
      • Delta Ladies - Refugee
      • Wookalily - All the waiting while
      • Wrinkle Neck Mules - I never thought it would go this far
    • April 2015 >
      • Goodnight Texas - Uncle John Farquhar
      • June Star - Pull Awake
      • The Whiskey Charmers
      • I Draw Slow - White Wave Chapel
      • Ben Hunter & Joe Seamons - Take yo' time
    • March 2015 >
      • Jim Keaveny - Out Of Time
      • David Corley - Available Light
      • Mulligan Brothers - Via Portland
      • New American Farmers - The Farmacology Sessions
    • February 2015 >
      • The Stray Birds - Best Medicine
      • Red Pine Timber Company - Different Lonesome
      • Billy Strings and Don Julin - Fiddle Tune X
      • Denver - Rowdy Love
    • January 2015 >
      • Daniel Meade - Keep Right Away
      • The Mascot Theory - Hand Me Down Miracles
      • Front Country - Sake of the Sound
      • Ags Connolly - How About Now
      • The Wellfeds - Short Man Syndrome
  • 2014 C.D. Reviews
    • December 2014 >
      • Oh Susanna - Namedropper
      • Trailerpark Idlers - Fifty Gallons of Lightning
      • Doug Seegers - Going Down The River
      • The Oldtime Stringband - Chicken Crows For Day
      • American Thread - Songs in the war
      • Mario Matteoli - Hard Luck Hittin'
    • November 2014 >
      • J.P. Whipple - Thinking of you .... staring at the power lines
      • Good Luck Mountain Too
      • Bob Wayne - Back To The Camper
      • Blue Moon Marquee - Lonesome Ghosts
      • Joseph Huber - The Hanging Road
      • Hook and Anchor
      • Mr Plow - Not the beginning, not the end
      • Grifters & Shills - Watershed
      • Barnyard Stompers - Highway Gospel
    • October 2014 >
      • The High Stepping Music of Sheesham, Lotus & Son
      • The Loudermilks
      • Cale Tyson - High On Lonesome
      • Girls, Guns and Glory - Good Luck
      • Sleepy Driver - Ignatius
      • Locust Honey String Band - Never Let Me Cross Your Mind
      • Fire Mountain - All Dies Down
      • Betty and the Boy - The Wreckage
      • Red Molly - The Red Album
    • September 2014 >
      • Fish & Bird - Something In The Ether
      • Ben Glover - Atlantic
      • Petunia - Inside Of You
      • Ben Rogers - Love Stories, Vol. 1
      • The Howlin' Brothers - Trouble
      • Anna Tivel - Before Machines
      • Three Times Bad - American Sojourn
      • Vagabondage - Slow Room Bar
    • August 2014 >
      • Patrolled by Radar - Cool Your Jets
      • Luke Tuchscherer - You get so alone at times that it just makes sense
      • Melody Walker & Jacob Groopman - We Made It Home
      • Melissa Ruth & the Likely Stories - Riding Mercury
      • Introducing Fife & Drom
      • Hans Chew - Life and Love
      • New Madrids - Through The Heart Of Town
    • July 2014 >
      • Scott 'Snake' Miller - After Church
      • Hannah Aldridge - Razor Wire
      • Mark Harrison - The World Outside
      • The Annie Ford Band
      • Bronwynne Brent - Stardust
    • June 2014 >
      • Greg Trooper - Incident On Willow Street
      • Scott H. Biram - Nothin' But Blood
      • Brandon Isaac - Here On Earth
      • Just A Season
      • Ellie Ford - Show Night In
    • May 2014 >
      • Hatful of Rain - The Morning Key
      • The Knights of Mentis - New Pound Coin
      • Ash Gray - Once I Got Burned
      • Jacob Miller and the Bridge City Crooners
    • April 2014 >
      • The Deer Run Drifters - Appalachian Blues
      • Paul McClure - Smiling From The Floor Up
      • 100 Mile House - Wait With Me
      • Redlands Palomino Company - Broken Carelessly
      • Holy Moly - Brothers Keepers
    • March 2014 >
      • Peter James Millson - Sweet The Love That Meets Return
      • The Don Darlings
      • The Kestor Stringband - The Moorgrass Album
      • Gregory Hoskins and Gary Craig - The map of above the map of below
      • Chuck Lemonds - The Rivers Call
    • February 2014 >
      • Dan Baker - Pistol In My Pocket
      • Nathan Bell - Blood Like A River
      • Possessed By Paul James - There Will Be Nights When I'm Lonely
      • Stevie Agnew - Wreckin' Yard
    • January 2014 >
      • J.B. Beverley - Stripped To The Root
      • Sean Pinchin - Rust Bucket
      • James Keyes - The Middle
  • 2013 C.D. Reviews
    • December 2013 >
      • Ashleigh Flynn - A Million Stars
      • The Harmed Brothers - Better Days
      • Eric Strickland and the B Sides - I'm Bad For You
      • Danny and the Champions of the World - Stay True
    • November 2013 >
      • Israel Nash Gripka - Israel Nash's Rain Plan
      • Wooden Horse - This Kind Of Trouble
      • Jamie Freeman Agreement - 100 Miles From Town
      • Tim Grimm - The Turning Point
      • Horseshoes & Hand Grenades - This Old Town
      • J.D. Wilkes & the Dirt Daubers - Wild Moon
      • Barnyard Stompers - Outlaws With Chainsaws
    • October 2013 >
      • Michael Meeking & the Lost Souls - Ride On
      • The Coloradas - Big Empty
      • Benjamin Folke Thomas - Too Close To Here
      • The Piedmont Brothers Band - Back To The Country
      • Carolina Still - The Color Of Rust
      • My Darling Clementine - The Reconciliation?
      • Ol' Savannah - Death On The Mountain
      • Kendl Winter and the Summer Gold - It Can Be Done
    • September 2013 >
      • Austin Lucas - Stay Reckless
      • Crow Quill Night Owls - Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams
      • Eastbound Jesus - Northern Rock
      • Sheesham, Lotus & Son - 1929
      • John Moreland - In The Throes
      • Underhill Rose - Something Real
      • Red Tail Ring - The Heart's Swift Foot
      • Scott Cook - One More Time Around
    • August 2013 >
      • Jack Marks - Blues Like These
      • Foghorn Leghorn - Not Before Time
      • Dennis Ellsworth - Dusk Dreams
      • Michael & the Lonesome Playboys - Bottle Cap Sky
      • The Tillers - Hand On The Plow
      • Hezekiah Goode - Two Billion Acres Of Salt
      • The Carper Family - Old Fashioned Gal
      • The Wynntown Marshalls - The Long Haul
      • The Bills - Yes Please
    • July 2013 >
      • Jeffrey Foucault & Cold Satellite - Cavalcade
      • Hillfolk Noir - What's That hat For
      • Jeff Finlin - My Moby Dick
      • Sturgill Simpson - High Top Mountain
      • Leeroy Stagger - Truth Be Sold
      • Waiting For Henry - Ghosts and Compromise
      • Chastity Brown - Back Road Highways
      • The Revelers
    • June 2013 >
      • Charlie Parr - Barnswallow
      • Rattleshack
      • Susan James - Driving Toward The Sun
      • Desolation Angels - Hell Or Highwater
      • Cara Luft - Darlingford
      • Jenny Ritter - Bright Mainland
      • Sean Burns - Cold Beans and Broken Eggs
      • Red Moon Joe - Midnight Trains
      • Introducing the Wagon Tales
      • Chicago Farmer - Backenforth, IL.
      • J.P. Whipple - Racket
      • Christa Couture - The Living Record
      • Corpse Reviver - Vol.1: I'll Be Rested When The Roll Is Called
    • May 2013 >
      • Michael Tarbox - Works and Days
      • The Miners - Miners Rebellion
      • Danni Nicholls - A Little Redemption
      • Glenn Jones - My Garden State
      • Old Man Markley - Down Side Up
      • Cam Penner - To Build A Fire
      • Piedmont Brothers Band - PBBIII
      • Vanessa Peters - The Burn the Truth the Lies
      • Dubl Handi - Up Like The Clouds
      • Woody Pines - Rabbit's Motel
      • Anders & Kendall - Wild Chorus
      • The Stray Birds
      • Phil Lee - The Fall & Further Decline of the Mighty King of Love
    • April 2013 >
      • Jarrod Dickenson - The Lonesome Traveler
      • Frankenpine - In that black sky
      • Hayward Williams - Haymaker
      • Annabelle Chvostek - Rise
      • Kevin Breit & the Upper York Mandolin Orchestra - Field Recording
      • Pharis & Jason Romero - Long Gone Out West Blues
      • DH Lawrence & the Vaudeville Skiffle Show - Escape This Wicked Life
      • Rebecca Pronsky - Only Daughter
      • Rita Hosking - Little Boat
    • March 2013 >
      • J.P. Whipple - Ghosts
      • Daniel Romano - Come Cry With Me
      • Thomas Hine - Forgive My Future
      • Adam Kiesling - Unclouded Day
      • J.J. Schultz - Carolina
      • Jack Klatt - Love Me Lonely
      • Rhubarb Whiskey - Same Sad End
      • Free Range Folk - 444
      • The Give 'Em Hell Boys - Barn Burner
      • David Hope - Scarecrow
      • Jimbo Mathus & the Tri-State Coalition - White Buffalo
    • February 2012 >
      • The Black Twig Pickers - Rough Carpenters
      • Rachel Brooke - A Killer's Dream
      • Amanda Pearcy - Royal Street
      • Rob Heron & the Teapad Orchestra - Money isn't Everything
      • Thea Hopkins - Lilac Sky
      • Rob Lutes - The Bravest Birds
      • Kevin Bowe & the Okemah Prophets - Natchez Trace
      • Ben Bedford - What We Lost
      • J Shogren & Shanghai'd - God Bless These Crooked Little Songs
      • Self Help Group - Not Waving But Drowning
      • Southern Tenant Folk Union - Hello Cold Goodbye Sun
      • Cameron Brothers Band - Ratios
    • January >
      • Lindi Ortega - Cigarettes & Truckstops
      • The Earl Brothers - Outlaw Hillbilly
      • Mudgrass - Just That Way
      • Leon Hunt N-Tet -- Farewell Blues
      • Old Man Luedecke - Tender Is The Night
      • Vera Van Heeringen - Standing Tall
      • Bean Pickers Union - Better The Devil
      • The Locust Honey String Band - He Ain't No Good >
        • Dirty River Boys - Science of Flight
  • 2012 C.D. Reviews
    • December >
      • Some Dark Holler - Hollow Chest
      • Rosie Flores - Working Girl's Guitar
      • Otto Mobile & the Moaners - Restless Sun
      • Caroline Herring - Camilla
      • The Mystix - Mighty Tone
      • Melissa Ruth & the Likely Stories - Ain't No Whiskey
      • Ash Gray & the Girls - Born In The Summer
      • Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit - Old Excuses
      • J.Tex & The Volunteers - House On The Hill
      • Cahalen Morrison & Eli West - Our Lady Of The Tall Trees
    • November >
      • The WellDiggers - Hope & Fear
      • Debonzo Brothers - One Damn Heart
      • Midday Farm Report
      • Al Scorch & the Country Soul Ensemble - Tired Ghostly Town
      • Josh Harty - Nowhere
      • Blind Corn Liquor Pickers - Myths & Routines
      • Drew Nelson - Tilt-A-Whirl
      • Trevor Alguire - Till Sorrow Begins To Call
      • The Lost Brothers - The Passing Of The Night
      • Hat Fitz & Cara - Wiley Ways
      • Stephanie Fagan - Heart Thief
      • Stevie Tombstone - Greenwood
    • October >
      • Lewis Brothers - Folk & Camp Fire Songs
      • Jack Klatt & the Cat Swingers - Mississippi Roll
      • Susan Cattaneo - Little Big Sky
      • Porchlight Smoker 2
      • The Vagaband - Town & Country
      • Blame Sally - Live At KVIE Studios
      • Ol' Savannah - Underneath The Old Red Barn
      • Anna Coogan & Daniele Fiaschi - The Nowhere, Rome Sessions
      • Heritage Blues Orchestra - And Still I Rise
      • Kelly Joe Phelps - Brother Sinner & the Whale
      • Random Canyon Growlers - Dickey Ain't Got All Day
    • September >
      • Will Scott - Keystone Crossing
      • The Harmed Brothers - Come Morning
      • Nathan Bell - Only The Most Important Thing
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A History of the Blues: Chapter 1

1/

  General Notes;

The Mississippi Delta Starts at Vicksburg, Mississippi, 300 miles from the mouth, & extends 250 miles northwards to Memphis. People started to settle the area in about 1835 and cleared much of the woodland to grow cotton. As well as cotton; rice, sugar cane and tobacco were grown. After the civil war the whole area was gradually cleared.

 

Pre civil war; Spirituals were popular with slaves. They used the lyrical concept of gospel hymns and adapted them to suit their own needs. This was in part due to the majority having a limited (English) vocabulary and not being able to relate to the intended concepts. Drums & Horns were banned for slaves in case they used them for signalling to each other between plantations. Post war, they adapted the spirituals and made their secular songs. (worldly as opposed to sacred). These were banned by the church and were considered to be ‘devils music’. One of these 19th century spirituals is ‘Swing low sweet chariot’.

Post war, many blacks worked the railroads, steamboats, mining, lumber, levee gangs.

The most famous railroad song was ‘John Henry’, the story of a 220 lb. black man who worked himself to death in an attempt to beat a mechanical steam drill.

Blues probably started to take a shape we would find recognisable in the late 19th century following the civil war. The only way of listening to music was live; this was well before recording became possible. Their styles developed slowly; someone would hear a song, perhaps from a travelling musician or even in church, and would change it to suit their needs.  Their influences came from the oral tradition, which would have been passed down from the African slaves through the generations, but also incorporated white influences. Many of the whites would be newer to the U.S than the blacks and so their Celtic or French (Cajun) music would still be fresh to them and would influence the blacks. It all went into the huge melting pot.

Minstrel companies started after the civil war.

Post war – Southern prisons worked in a similar way to slavery. They toiled all day in the fields and road gangs, all the while singing to create a working rhythm.

Sharecropping and farm workers were now much smaller groups than pre-war and could be several fields apart so ‘hollerin’ developed.

The blues was born in the area between Georgia and Texas and included the Mississippi delta. The area was made up mainly of forests, farms and plantations.

Many of the songs were very sexual lyrically.

 

17th Century.

Through the century there were three real areas of music. Hymns or psalms in the churches or meeting houses, mainly vocals. Dances; violin or fiddle, by black or white players. Military; trumpet, fife and drum.

 

1619.

The first shipload of African slaves sold to the colonies docks in Virginia. Field-holler singing subsequently develops. Through the ensuing centuries African work songs, call and response patterns, oral tradition, religious beliefs and practices, and rhythms intermingle with European melodies and eventually white American folk forms. The seeds of the blues are planted.

1652.

Rhode Island was the first state to pass any anti-slavery laws, limiting it to 10 years.

 

ca.1700.

Approx. 28,000 slaves in the colonies.

1707.

A book, ‘Hymns and spiritual songs’ was published and was credited with being a huge influence on black musicians.

1750.

230,000 slaves in the colonies. 206,000 south of pennsylvania.

1774.

A journal written by a Maryland man, describes slaves dancing to a ‘guitar like instrument based on a gourd. They called it a 'banjer'.

1782.

First all black church, in Georgia.

1793.

Cotton Gin invented. This was used to separate the cotton seed from the fibre.

 

Late 18th Century & early 19th.

New Orleans was becoming the music capital mainly because of its diverse mixture of races although negros, most of them slaves, accounted for about one third of the population. All types of music, such as Brass band, creole, string bands, were poular. These various types gradually spread up to the Mississippi delta by way of the river boats.

19th Century.

Black musicians were used more in orchestras and theatres in the north and the major southern cities. The value of a slave was enhanced if they could play or sing, so some owners actually had slaves educated musically.

Philadelphia had an all black marching band.

ca.1800.

Approx. 1,000,000 blacks in America. Were mainly in the southern states on plantations growing cotton, rice and tobacco. Most of them were slaves.

1807.

Britain abolishes slavery.

1808.

Importation of slaves into the U.S. is banned.

300,000 free blacks in the northern U.S.

1810.

1.38 million blacks in the U.S.

1816.

First black Bishop

1817.

Frank Johnson becomes the first black person to publish sheet music.

1819.

Memphis founded with a population of 364. Known as the ‘Home of the Blues’ and the ‘Birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll. 1857; railroad linking the Mississippi to the Atlantic was completed. Received city status in 1861, when pop. was 22,000. 1870 pop. was 40,000. 1880 pop. was 33,000, due to a yellow fever epidemic. 1900, pop was 120,000. Beale street is the best known road in Memphis; one mile long, and is known as the birthplace of the blues.

ca.1830.

T.D.Rice introduces blackface and ‘Jump Jim Crow’.

2.3 million blacks in the U.S.

1833.

Christian Frederich Martin builds his first American made acoustic guitar.

1838.

Frank Johnson’s band toured Europe and played before Queen Victoria. He was so popular because of his ability to ‘Jazz up’ his music.

1840.

2.9 million blacks in the U.S.

1843.

First public minstrel show is performed by the all-white Virginia minstrels in blackface, sparking a desire for ‘black’ entertainment.

1848.

Stephen Foster publishes ‘Oh Susanna’

California gold rush.

1850.

3.6 million blacks in the U.S.

1852.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’.

1855.

Leon Scott invents the ‘pnonoautograph’, a primitive ‘record player’.

1860.

4.4 million blacks in the U.S.

1862-64.

A series of congressional acts facilitates the building of the nation’s first transcontinental railroad, the Union pacific.

1863.

The Emancipation proclamation frees slaves in the Confederate states.  In the 1870’s, following reconstruction, southern states will enforce segregation.

1865.

End of the civil war. It accounted for the lives of 615,000 men, of which about 225,000 were killed in action and 390,000 died of disease. There were 1.1 million total casualties.

The thirteenth ammendment abolishes slavery.

In granting basic rights to ex-slaves (including the right to marry and to own land) the ‘Black codes’ passed by most southern state legislatures in the aftermath of the Civil war also ensures segregation of public facilities.

Ex-slaves became tenant farmers or ‘Sharecroppers’. They rented a small parcel of land and shared the profits with the landowner. This was little more than slavery because everything they needed was supplied by the landowner for a price. Many large estates printed their own money that could only be used in their own stores.

1866.

Formation of Fisk Jubilee singers.

The Ku Klux clan formed in Pulaski, Tennessee.

1867.

First collection of spirituals published; William Allen, Charles Ware & Lucy McKim Garrison’s ‘Slave songs of the United States’.

1870.

Section one of the Fifteenth ammendment supposedly guarantees that ‘the right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged….. by any State on account of race, colour or previous condition of servitude’.

Ca.1870,s.

Often assumed that the blues started to gain shape at about this time in the southern states.

1875.

A Civil Rights bill was passed saying that public racial discrimination was illegal.

1876.

Custers last stand at the Little Big Horn.

1877.

Reconstruction ends as Federal troops are withdrawn from the south.

Thomas Edison files patent on a phonograph consisting of a metal cylinder with a fine spiral groove, two diaghram and needle units (one for recording, the other for playback) and a small speaker horn – a vast improvement over Leon Scott’s ‘phonoautograph’ of 1855.

Emile Berliner invents the first microphone and sells the rights to Bell telephone. Thomas Edison invents a better microphone, which in 1878 becomes the one used by Bell.

1878.

The world’s first phonograph company, The Edison speaking phonograph company, is established in New York. The first phonograph for home use is sold by Edison for $10; It is called the parlour speaking phonograph.

Emile Berliner patents the ‘gramophone’ a talking machine that employs laterally cut discs.

Ca.1880’s – 1890’s.

Jazz probably developed into a style around this time in the Storyville district of New Orleans. This area was full of bars, brothels, etc. and was open 24 hours a day, so musicians had to improvise to keep the crowds happy.

1881.

Gunfight at the O.K. corral.

1883.

The Supreme Court declared that the 1875 Civil Rights bill was unconstitutional.

1884.

The likely year in which the first ‘Rag’ was published. It was ‘New coon in town’. Part of what made a rag was the piano trying to imitate the banjo.

1887.

Emile Berliner files for a patent for the gramophone, which plays discs rather than Edisons’s cylinders. (Berliner, a few years later invents a matrix system whereby an unlimited number of copies can be mass produced from an original master).

The first demonstration of disc recording and reproduction by Berliner takes place in Philadelphia. A 12 year old pianist makes a 2 minute cylinder recording in Edison’s laboratory.

1888.

The kodak box camera is introduced.

1889.

The Oklahoma land rush.

A toymaker (Kammerer & Reinhardt) starts making Berliners hand wound gramophones that play 5 inch discs. Frank Goedde, a piccolo player, makes the first commercial cylinders, for the north American Phonograph Company, who had purchased the rights from Edison in 1888.

1890.

Mississippi’s redrawn constitution includes a clause under which a prospective voter could be required to read and interpret any part of the constitution in order to be eligible to vote. This ‘literacy clause’ becomes the model by which many other southern states disenfranchise blacks.

Columbia enters the record business with recordings by John Philip Sousa.

Berliner makes recordings which include ‘The lords prayer’.

1891.

George Washington Johnson’s ‘The laughing song’ & ‘The whistling coon’.

Miss Stewart becomes the first vocalist to record a cylinder, ‘My love & I’, Pattison’s waltz song.

Columbia opens up a ‘Negro music’ section.

1892.

The Boll weevil crosses the mexican border into Texas and eventually spreads to most cotton growing regions, including the Mississippi delta.

The first known recording by a black artist is ‘Mama’s black baby boy’ by the ‘Unique Vocal Quartet’. Music’s first million seller is ‘After the ball’, by J.Aldrich Libbey.

1893.

First public showing of an Edison Kinescope.

1894.

Berliner launches the United States Gramophone Company, from Washington D.C.

1896.

Plessy v. Ferguson. In upholding an 1890 Louisiana statute mandating separate but ‘equal’ railroad cars for blacks, the U.S. supreme court rules that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth ammendment  (ratified in 1866) had guaranteed blacks political, but not social, equality. Ironically, the railroad lines were among those calling for repeal of the Louisiana state law. The court’s decision made white compliance with subsequent ‘Jim Crow’ laws mandatory, not discretionary.

1897.

The first recording studio opens over a shoe shop in Philadelphia, where Berliner also opens the first record shop. The Sousa band releases several dance records.

1898.

Bob Cole’s, ‘A trip to coontown’. (Book).

Annexation of the Hawaiian islands.

Eldridge Johnson perfects the first system of mass duplication of pre recorded discs. Johnson improves on Berliners methods by mastering on wax instead of the acid etching method and by using several metal positives which each make multiple stampers.

1899.

Johnson presses the first commercial 2 sided discs, which are children’s records.

Scott Joplin’s, ‘The maple leaf rag’.

Late 1890’s.

An archaeologist, Charles Peabody, was carrying out some excavating near Stovall, Mississippi, when he noticed that his black workers were singing improvised songs that were blues in nature.

 

ca.1900's.

Jazz started to emerge.

The end of the 19th century up to the start of W.W.1. was the ‘heyday for Delta blacks’. 15% owned land.

By the end of the 20’s there were as many Delta blacks in the northern cities such as Chicago as there were in the delta. There were even rumours that record companies would pay them well to record!

Large families were encouraged in the sharecroppers because of the workload. Charley Patton was one of 12 children. Rube Lacy & Tommy Johnson both had 12 brothers & sisters.

 

1900.

Columbia starts producing and selling disc records.

By 1900, 14 states had segregation laws.

1901.

Booker T Washinton’s ‘Up from slavery’. (Story).

Oil is discovered at Spindletop, Nr.Beaumont, Texas.

1902.

The Dinwiddle Colored quartet records for Victor.

1903.

The auto industry begins.

The Wright brothers first flight.

W.E.B.DuBois, ‘The souls of black folks’. (Book).

Victor introduces 12 inch and 14 inch disc records under the Deluxe name. Columbia boasts that it is now producing 2 million records a month, a claim which is refuted by Edison.

W.C.Handy, (A black bandleader and ‘Father of the Blues’) – He was sitting on the station late one night in Tutweiler, dozing, and waiting for a train that was 9 hours late. He was woken when another negro with a guitar started playing. He sang the line ‘Goin’ where the southern crosses the dog’ (repeated 3 times)(a reference to the junction of 2 railway lines) and playing the guitar with a knife pressed on the strings. He was used to hearing the jazz band versions of the blues and was hugely affected by this sound, ‘the Delta blues’.

1905.

The first U.S. movie theatre opens in Pittsburgh.

1905-08.

Folklorist, Howard Odum, travelled Georgia and the delta collecting folk songs. Over half of them were blues and many were adapted and recorded in later years. He said they were sung after church and at social gatherings, front porches, dances etc.

1910.

National Association for the Advancement of Coloured people (NAACP) is founded by W.E.B.DuBois and seven whites in response to the lynching of two black men in Springfield, Illinois.

1912.

Leroy ‘Lasses’ White’s ‘Nigger Blues’, Hart Wand and Lloyd Garrett’s ‘Dallas Blues’, W.C.Handy’s ‘Memphis Blues’ and Baby Seals ‘Baby Seals blues’ are all published within a few months of each other; but in a sense, the first published ‘blues’ was Nat D.Ayer & Seymour Brown’s ‘Oh, you beautiful doll’, a pop hit of 1911, whose opening verse had made knowing use of the 12 bar form.

The Titanic sinks.

The Chicago Defender (newspaper) urged black people in the south to flee to the north, thus began the migration to an easier life! Between 1915 & 1925, 1.5 million blacks left the south for a new life. Between 1916-18, 110,000 went to Chicago.

1914.

Handy’s ‘St.Louis Blues’ published, which throws the genre into the mainstream of American popular music.He is later acknowledged as the ‘Father of the blues’.

Borrowing an idea from the meat packing industry, Henry Ford introduces the assembly line to speed production & lowers the selling price of the Model-T. (introduced 6 years earlier).

1915.

Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha is staged in new York.

D.W.Griffith’s The Birth of a nation, based on Thomas Dixon’s novel The Klansman (also the source for a long running play), revolutionizes motion pictures and triggers both NAACP boycotts and the revitalization of the Ku Klux Klan (this time a national, rather than an exclusively southern, organisation, as antagonistic towards Jewish & Catholic immigrants as to blacks).

1917.

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band becomes the first Jazz group to record.

The Bolshevik revolution.

The U.S. enters W.W.1.

Birdseye begins to experiment with frozen food, a process not perfected until 1949.

1918-19.

Influenza epidemic kills 500,000 in the U.S. and over 21,000,000 worldwide.

1919.

The underside of the migration: Bloody race riots in a number of northern cities, including Chicago.

Ratification of the Eighteenth ammendment enacts prohibition. Music filled illegal speak-easies, house parties and juke joints attract drinkers. (Juke; West African word; one meaning is wicked or disorderley). Most Juke joints had a bar, dance floor and a back room for gambling. Some were also brothels. Most travelling musicians played the juke joints. It was in one of these that Robert Johnson is known to have studied Son House and Tommy Johnson first studied Charley Patton. The early versions of these joints could be in a persons house and would sell bootleg liquor. Muddy Waters described Juke joint Saturdays as ‘Saturday night fish fries’ or ‘Juke houses’ or even ‘suppers’.  A Honky Tonk is the ‘redneck’ equivalent of a juke joint. The difference between the two is the music you’ll find on the jukebox and the colour of the women in the beer adverts. Barrelhouses are much the same and take their name from the fact that beer was kept in barrels. More commonly associated with piano blues, barrelhouses were usually to be found in towns.

1920.

Commercial air travel begins.

Gennett records changed from vertical cut records to lateral and were sued by patent holders Victor. Three years later Gennet won and opened up the market to small independants.

Ca.1920’s.

There were 2 basic styles of blues starting to evolve. The blues played in cities such as Memphis and Chicago were more sophisticated and became known as Urban blues. Rural blues was the type played in the deep southern areas, such as the Mississippi delta; also known as Country blues.

Recording companies concentrated on the Urban style but from 1927 onwards they sent talent scouts to cities such as Dallas, Atlanta, Memphis etc. to try and find rural blues players.

The first blues Superstar was Blind lemon Jefferson.

Memphis’ Beale Street became known as ‘where the blues began’. Charley Patton & Son House recorded some of the greatest blues ever there.