Blood & Soil.

Elder Burch.

I don’t know much at all about the history of American Blues music, but I had an epiphany last night. At about 1.00 in the morning when flicking through the channels I stumbled across a documentary on BBC 4 called Blood & Soil. It was an episode of a series called American Epic about the roots of American music. It was narrated by Robert Redford. I found it quite fascinating and educational and the music was great.

It begins with the story of Elder Burch who founded a Pentecostal church in Cheraw, South Carolina. He made some recordings in about 1927. The church services were like music events with audience participation. Even the white folk in the town would listen from outside to the music. The great jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie was one of the neighbours who attended the services. You could see where the likes of James Brown got their moves from. Taj Mahal was one of the main contributors interviewed in this programme. Music from the coal mining areas of West Virginia was also featured with the likes of the Williamson Brothers & Curry. Dick Justice was one of the white musicians who recorded a handful of songs which were ignored, and he went back to the obscurity of being a coal miner in Logan. He was rediscovered when his song Henry Lee was included in the Anthology Of American Folk Music.

Honeyboy Edwards.

Charley Patton was one of the most influential Blues singers, even though no film of him exists and only one photo. Even Bruce Springsteen sang one of his songs Die With A Hammer In My Hand. The music from Dockery Farm Plantation, Mississippi was important and there was a film of a young Honeyboy Edwards from 1942 (See film below) and later an interview with him when aged 91. He was talking to Homesick James and Robert Johnson’s stepson Robert Lockwood Jnr. Son House sang Death Letter Blues. At the end of the show Mississippi John Hurt was featured singing Avalon Blues. I will certainly look out for further episodes of this great series.