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THE TRUTH OF THE BLUES - BACK TO WHERE IT ALL BEGAN ... Our Company is PD Productions based in the South West of the UK, but here isn't where our journey into the blues began.... It all started, way back in the 1980’s 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' - and oh yes, we know.
We knew and felt the songs were telling us of a deep sadness, if you will the truth of the blues, 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 we produce ‘Backtracking’ we try to show our 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 inviting our listeners to journey back with us in time to the abomination of slavery, the depth of the spirituals and of course the expressive, authentic 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 there, sleeping 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, my dear friend, Graham, the ‘Doc’ my late cousin Len (Houston) and Bob (Humble Texas) the never ending patience of our group 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.
Our radio production, ‘Backtracking’ is available to blues stations around the world, totally free and non contractual. We upload the latest production to subscribing stations direct from our UK offices every Thursday. We cordially invite you to visit our website and review the latest show, we hope you will choose to join our friends around the world, as we go ‘Backtracking’ to the Roots of the Blues’ Back, to where it all began.
David R Howard – PD Productions (UK)
Get in touch at: ... syndicatingtheblues@gmail.com |
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Every Friday we have the blues: 2nd May 2025 - 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, and our love of the Blues. 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 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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You don't need us to remind you that 'Pop' music has no place at PD Productions, unless it happens to be a very large portion of R&B from deep down on the Louisiana bayou. Join us and our contributing friends over the pond on Texas radio and enjoy their two hour show ....
Swamp pop is a music genre indigenous to the Accadian region of south Louisiana and an adjoining section of southeast Texas. Created in the 1950s within the Cajun and Creole culture, it combines New Orleans style rhythm and blues, traditional blues (Whatever they are), indigenous French Louisiana musical influences, and dare we say it, for good measure, a little Zydeco.
Although a somewhat obscure genre, swamp pop maintains audiences in essentially South Louisiana and Southeast Texas. Over the years, it has acquired a small, but certainly passionate cult following in the United Kingdom, and Northern Europe. |
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Review / Download page ..... The Birth of the Blues
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Well over a hundred years ago, what is generally acknowledged as the first recording of Blues / jazz was released. 'Livery Stable Blues' performed by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and recorded in 1917 later that same year by W C Handy's Memphis band. It became a best-selling record for the Victor label, This 'first' became problematic to a point where many wished it had never been recorded, it is a recording of a white band performing an African American genre, an enormous cultural problem at the time.
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There followed an acrimonious copyright lawsuit concerning authorship / ownership of the piece. But worse, far from crediting the New Orleans African American musicians they learned from, these young musicians claimed to have 'invented' Blues / jazz. However, thank heavens it was published at an interesting moment in US music history, as emerging African American genres of blues and jazz were beginning to become part of American consciousness that would spread across the country and then across the world. |
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Myths and Legends of the blues ..... Rabbit Foot Minstrels
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Totally unacceptable today, downright offensive to many, it shouldn't be. With the utmost respect, this was the history of the blues in the making ... The Rabbit’s Foot Minstrels, also known as the Foots, A Rabbit’s Foot Comedy Company, Rabbit Foot Company, or simply the Foots, were established in 1900 by Patrick Henry Chappelle (1869–1911) in Tampa, Florida. Over the next several years, the show rapidly gained widespread recognition, the troupe even had its own specialised railcar. The company featured comedy routines, singers, brass bands, jugglers, wrestlers, and contortionists; the Rabbit’s Foot Company even had its own baseball team.
When Chappelle died in 1911, Fred Swift Wolcott (1882–1967) took over. Chappelle had prided himself on having “successfully run a Negro show without the help of a single white man.” he had deliberately avoided calling the company a minstrel show, but Fred Wolcott embraced the idea in advertising, and the troupe generally became known as F. S. Wolcott’s Rabbit’s Foot Minstrels.
The Rabbit’s Foot Minstrels performed as late as 1959, though audiences had declined rapidly over the preceding decade. Among the performers who got their start with the Rabbit’s Foot Minstrels were Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Ida Cox, Bessie Smith, Butterbeans and Susie, Sleepy John Estes, Brownie McGhee, Big Joe Williams, and Louis Jordan. |
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Featured artist of the week .... Floyd Council
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Floyd Council (September 2, 1911 – May 9, 1976) was an American blues guitarist, mandolin player, and singer of the Piedmont blues style, popular in the south-eastern United States in the 1920s and 1930s.
He was sometimes credited as Dipper Boy Council and promoted as, I can't believe it either: - ‘The Devil's Daddy-in-Law’.Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, he began his musical career on the streets of Chapel Hill in the 1920s, performing with two brothers, Leo and Thomas Strowd, as the Chapel Hillbillies. He also performed with Thomas Strowd/Stroud as The Pottersfield Playboys. In 1936 he played back up on several recordings with/for Fulton Allen, a.k.a. Blind Boy Fuller.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s he and Blind Boy Fuller busked in the Chapel Hill area. Floyd recorded twice for ARC at sessions with Blind Boy Fuller in the mid-1930s, all of these recordings are in the Piedmont style.
Floyd suffered a stroke in the late 1960s, which partially paralysed his throat muscles and slowed his motor skills, but thankfully didn't significantly damage his cognitive abilities. The folklorist Peter B. Lowry attempted to record him one afternoon in 1970, but Floyd never regained his singing or playing abilities. Although many accounts lead us to understand that he remained sharp in mind.
 Few records are available which exclusively feature Floyd 's work,, those that are, are often in the hands of collectors or difficult to find. However, in 1969, he stated that he had recorded 27 songs over his career, seven of them backing Blind Boy Fuller, his album Complete Recorded Works contains many songs with Council playing guitar.
Council died in 1976 of a heart attack, after moving to Sanford, North Carolina. He is buried at White Oak AME Zion Cemetery in Sanford. In 2014, the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for Floyd. Council.
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Copyright: PD Productions ... All rights reserved .. Registered 2021 |
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