Recent Articles
by Larry Benicewicz Well, there’s an old expression: what goes ‘round comes around. But who could imagine that string band street music from the Roaring 20s could ever be resurrected and moreover be warmly and enthusiastically welcomed by a whole new audience of listeners? After all this is the technological age, wherein tunes born of slick, sophisticated, computer enhanced engineering are downloaded (some say stolen) in a flash to personal iPods. How can, you say, instrumentation of such a primitive origin - washtub basses, earthenware jugs, kazoos, washboards, fiddles, banjos, and resonating, steel guitars ever have a chance to speak to or appeal to such a zoned out, plugged-in generation? But then who can gainsay the overnight success of the upstart Carolina Chocolate Drops, who like a breath of fresh air, gain converts each day to their Gospel of real, authentic Piedmont blues, played in their inimitable manner with nary a hint of irony.
Source: Blues Art Journal
by Chris Toenes Calvin Thomas Brandon has gracefully lifted himself above hardship his whole life, and that feeling ends up in his throat when he sings the blues. As one of 16 children on a farm near Roxboro, he looked forward to singing when his family went to church. They lived in the house Brandon’s father, a carpenter while in the military, built, eating a lot of fatback and pinto beans and surviving from what they made growing tobacco.
Source: Independent Weekly
The 18th Efs Pilsend Blues Festival, which aims to reach smaller cities in Turkey, comes to an end after a month. The jazz artists John Primer, Adolphus Bell and Bernard Allison enjoyed and admired the big audiences.
Source: Turkish Daily News
James was born on August 31, 1931, in Houston County, Georgia, to Ulysses and Bessie Davis. James was preceded in death by two sisters, Elvia Watkins and Thelma Lester. He was educated at Davis Chapel Elementary School. He was formerly employed at Tolleson Lumber Company.
He was also a renowned musician, known by many as the “Drum Beat Man” and inducted into the Music Hall of Fame and highlighted in The Living Blues (The Magazine of the African American Blues). Many of James’ albums and CDs will live in our hearts “forever.” He was accompanied most of these musical years by the following drummers: Mr. Eddie Releford, Mr. Jimmy Thomas and Mr. Pumpkin Whitfield. He also had a lead Drummer, Mr. Verlon Gilbert.
Like barbershop quartets, fiddle-and-banjo bands are usually thought of as the province of white musicians. But African Americans were heavily involved in the genesis of both traditions.
North Carolina-based bluesman John Dee Holeman gained well-deserved exposure earlier this year when he sat in with Kenny Wayne Shepherd for his on-the-road CD/DVD. One of the foremost exponents of the Piedmont style of blues, Holeman learned from the musical descendants of Blind Boy Fuller.
by Richard Marcus We live in horribly cynical times that make you second-guess everybody’s intentions. What are they getting out of it, has become the typical response to altruistic behaviour, as if nobody ever does anything any more because it makes them feel good to help others. Unfortunately it’s an attitude that’s understandable, and one I freely admit to sharing, due to the barrage of press releases we are subject too, outlining just how wonderful some star is because of their gift to some cause or other.
Source: Blogs.Epicindia.com
Some musical traditions are lucky enough to stay strong and healthy over the years, carried on by generation after generation of singers and instrumentalists while being comprehensively recorded by folklorists and fans. Others, sadly, quietly disappear as the elders pass on and no one takes their place. Then there are those that largely slip from the public consciousness but persist in the cultural background through the playing of a few dedicated musicians until the moment is right for a rebirth. African-American string-band music falls in the latter category, and something of a revival is currently being launched by a hot young trio from the Piedmont region of North Carolina called the Carolina Chocolate Drops.
On September 20, 2007, the Carolina Chocolate Drops will take the stage at the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship award ceremony with the band’s mentor and fellowship recipient Joe Thompson. The NEA Heritage Fellowship is the nation’s highest honor in folk and traditional arts.
Modern Jug-Band Music. Carolina Chocolate Drops are three young black musicians revisiting, with a joyful vengeance, black strong-band and jug-band music of the Twenties and Thirties - the dirt-floor dance electricity of Mississippi Sheiks and Cannon’s Jug Stompers.
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