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Back to the Roots of the Blues ... Backtracking
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Latest release 5th February 2026 - Thank you for visiting with us, we cordially invite you to review and download the current production below. 'Backtracking' is a result of our research a journey of discovery that never ends, our love of the Blues and respect for the artists that left us this legacy of music.
All this simply because the music, the history and the culture of the blues never ends. We're honoured and privileged to share the music within the genre of the Blues back in time a hundred years and beyond, a genre so vast and so diverse.
Backtracking is streamed online and is broadcast worldwide. It's free to join the 'Backtracking' time machine - Get the authentic blues on your radio station ..... |
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Featured artist of the week .... Memphis Minnie
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It’s been said that Memphis Minnie played guitar like a man. – in 1897 she was born Lizzie Douglas in Louisiana and raised in Algiers, across the river from New Orleans. . Her parents nicknamed her Kid and her early life as a performer saw her performing under the, not surprising name Kid Douglas. Conversely to the claim on her guitar playing, there were plenty of men who wanted to play guitar like Memphis Minnie. She once even beat the great Big Bill Broonzy in a picking contest. Her title Queen of the Country Blues was no hype. Minnie perhaps suggests a timid lady, far from it, she did everything the boys could do and more, and she did it in a fancy gown with full hair and makeup. She had it all: stellar guitar, a powerful voice, a huge repertoire including many original, signature songs and a stage presence simultaneously glamorous, bawdy and tough.
She transcended both gender and genre. Her recording career reached from the 1920s heyday of country blues to cutting electric sides in 1950s Chicago. Minnie helped form the roots of electric Chicago blues, as well as R&B and rock ‘n’ roll, long before she plugged in. Her unique storytelling style of song writing drew such surprising fans as Country Music Hall of Famer Bob Wills, the King of Western Swing, who covered her song about a favourite horse, Frankie Jean, right down to copying Minnie’s whistling. Though she inspired as many men as women, her influence was particularly strong on female musicians, her disciples including her niece  Lavern Baker, a rock and R&B pioneer in her own right, as well as Maria Muldaur (who released a 2012 tribute CD) Bonnie Raitt, Rory Block, Tracy Nelson, Saffire and virtually every other guitar-slinging woman since.
She died following a stroke in 1973, Bonnie Raitt paid for a headstone to be erected at her grave in Walls, Mississippi. She remains one of the greatest women guitarists and blues singers in American history. |
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 People say, Haven’t you got anything better to do? – The answer to that is well, yes, I have, but then as I wander through and research the history of the blues, yet another story pops up ... I got the blues has the distinction, albeit, a somewhat dubious distinction of being the first blues song every published, its claim is in the sense that it has blues in the title and used a 12-bar pattern.
Antonio Maggio published this song, but he didn't write it - the man who did has never been identified. Antonio emigrated from Sicily to Louisiana in 1982. A violinist, he settled in New Orleans, where he heard this song in the Algiers district of the city.
Antonio tells us, I heard an elderly Negro with a guitar playing three notes over and over again. I didn't think anything with only three notes could have a title, so to satisfy my curiosity I asked him what was the name of the piece. He replied ‘I got the blues’ which probably meant how he felt at the time rather than the title of the song; such are the myths of the blues. Having this on my mind, (Antonio, not me) I wrote an arrangement by making the three notes dominating most of the time. That night, our five-piece orchestra played at the Fabaker Restaurant ‘I got the blues’, the song was composed as a musical caricature, and to my astonishment became our most popular request number.
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Get in touch, How to contact ... PD Productions
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Every day we have the blues ..... PD Productions Audio / Video ...
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| Welcome to the PD Productions video archive. We are delighted to receive video clips from our very good friends around the world to include in our 'Backtracking' program. Below is a list of the clips scheduled for the next few weeks ... |
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The Staple Singers - I'll Take You There |
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47th Street Jive - June Richmond with Roy Milton's band |
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B. B. King - The Thrill Is Gone |
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Diunna Greenleaf & Blue Mercy |
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Nina Simone - Ain't got no, I got life |
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Raymunda Dutch Blues - Pity the fool |
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Take Me to the River LIVE - Sharde Thomas and Rising Star |
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Send us a video clip of your gig (mp4 format) - Click here |
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| Current clip: ....Delta Gator Swamp Blues |
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| Play the current video clip |
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| Legal / Copyright stuff |
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Myths and Legends of the blues ..... Maxwell Street Blues
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In our music there are plenty of references to ‘Maxwell Street - The music the migrants played on the Street was different from the acoustic blues they brought from the South. It relied on borrowed electricity from businesses, run via extensions to the street, to amplify the Mississippi Delta blues sound so it could be heard above the market noise.
The idea of attracting crowds of listeners appealed to business owners, too, these were potential customers. The resulting amplified and distinct Chicago blues sound was made famous by people such as Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, and Bo Diddley—the latter of whom played on Maxwell Street with his band, the Hipsters, who were later called the Langley Avenue Jive Cats.
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