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| PD Productions. Media, Broadcasting and Radio productions for stations worldwide |
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 Back to where it all began ... It all started in a small town bar in Louisiana; it was like travelling back in time, dusty, rickety tables, chairs, and a bare wooden floor. Sat on a little platform was a lady and a guy with a guitar, and then the lady began to sing the blues. I could have closed my eyes, although I didn’t realise it at the time, I could have been listening to Ma Rainey or Bessie Smith. Quietly listening, and with encouragement from others we joined with the ‘Tell us your story’...
We knew and felt the songs were telling us of a deep sadness, borne of a deprivation beyond our comprehension. I was listening to the 'Blues' long before that, but never really understood, until then, what was meant by 'Feeling the Blues' ... Each time I produce ‘Backtracking’ I try to show my love and respect for the people and the lives these songs are about, this deprivation, sadness and misery. We are honouring them by keeping their presence and their simple music alive and well.
Each time, we are taking a journey back in time to the abomination of slavery, the depth of the spirituals and of course the expressive blues from all those years ago. Our research and journey since that day has been a discovery of the ‘Blues’ that never ends, of a culture and history that has faded in the mists of time, but remains for us to find. We're honoured and privileged to share with you this great music and its history, back a hundred years and beyond, a genre so rich, so vast so diverse and so real.
Now based in Somerset (UK) What started all those years ago with a handful of blues tracks, a few faded photographs and books has grown exponentially with the help of our good friends, Alan, Terry and Graham, the ‘Doc’ even my dear late cousin Len (Houston) the never ending patience of Pam and so many people from around the world, far too many to mention, Backtracking has become a library of music and resources so vast it’s often difficult to keep track of it all, as it continues to grow.
Thank you for listening to ‘Backtracking’ from here in the UK. At PD Productions, we extend our best wishes to you all.
David – PD Productions (UK) |
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| Backtracking, to where it all began ... At PD Productions, our research and journey of discovery never ends, simply because 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. So many people from around the world have contributed to our research, and indeed, our library of music, far too many to mention by name. Released every Friday, we invite you to join Backtracking, the blue time machine as we go back to the Roots of the Blues, back, to where it all began. |
| Featured on Backtracking .. |
- The lady sings the blues.
- Blues on the Bayou.
- Gospel blues train.
- Featured artist of the week.
- Spirituals – The blues connection.
- Prison work songs.
- Myths and Legends of the blues.
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Featured artist of the week .... Gabriel Brown
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Gabriel Brown (1910 – 1972) was an American Piedmont blues singer and guitarist. Gabriel is sadly, these days, thought of as a forgotten artist, Rarely does one of his songs get covered by a present-day artist. He was born in Florida in 1910, and was first recorded in 1934. It is documented Gabriel was the finest guitar player of his era, considering the various guitarists that were around at that time, that is some statement.
Gabriel was born in Orlando, Florida, he performed at the first National Folk Festival in St. Louis, Missouri where he was discovered by folklorist Zora Neale Hurston who then arranged his first recording session.
Similar to Ralph Willis, Alec Seward and Brownie McGhee, he then relocated from the Southern United States to New York, where Zora gave him a part in her light opera, Polk County. In 1935 Gabriel started a four year tenure with the Federal Arts Theatre, initially under Orson Welles' direction. By the late 1930s, he appeared as a singer on Cincinnati radio, and took part in the show, St. Louis Woman. Gabriel had Joe Davis as his record producer on his first full recording session in 1943, and then in 1945 they released the classic, ‘I can't have no luck at all, the jinx is on me. Gabriel and Joe worked together until Gabriel 's final sessions in 1952.
 Several of his recordings were not released during his lifetime, and some of those that were not always promoted tastefully, or accurately
Gabriel died from drowning in Florida in 1972, following a boating accident |
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