Blues

If Your Nickname is “The Father of the Blues,” You Are Important

An idea of the importance of William Christopher (W.C.) Handy is apparent in his nickname: The Father of the Blues.

Handy was born in Florence, Alabama, in 1873 into a deeply religious family. As a boy, he saved for a guitar that he saw in a store window in town. When he finally bought it and brought it home, his father wouldn’t let it is the house. The instrument played the devil’s music, that was the end of Handy’s guitar.

Handy soon was taking organ lessons and learned to play the cornet. He heard music everywhere: In the “shovel brigade” at the furnace where he worked and in the natural world:

Handy was a deeply religious man, whose influences in his musical style were found in the church music he sang and played as a youth, and in the natural world. He later cited the sounds of nature, such as “whippoorwills, bats and hoot owls and their outlandish noises”, the sounds of Cypress Creek washing on the fringes of the woodland, and “the music of every songbird and all the symphonies of their unpremeditated art” as inspiration.

The blues – or any other form of music, for that matter – is not invented by one individual. The evolving blues genre was a regional music of the south, with roots deep in slavery and working the land. Mississippi Blues Trail tells the story of Handy sitting in a train station in the town of Tutwiler listening to a man playing slide with a knife. Part of the lyric, the site says, was the line “Goin’ where the Southern cross’ the Dog.” Handy adapted and published the song as “Yellow Dog Blues” and the nickname followed.

The site explains the meaning of the lyric:

The song referred to the crossing of the Southern and Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroads in Moorhead, forty-two miles to the south; the Y&MV (sometimes called the Yazoo Delta or Y.D.) was nicknamed the “Dog,” or “Yellow Dog.”

Here is a recreation of the moment. It seems that Handy was a catalyst — a man who at one time was deeply in touch with the music and his people and on the other had the intelligence, ability and desire to commercialize the music more broadly. Indeed, a more accurate — and just as complimentary — nickname would have been “Stepfather of the Blues.” Handy died in New York City in 1958.

Clearly, the most important songs to listen to are “St. Louis Blues” and “Yellow Dog Blues.” Versions of both are above and below, respectively. Unfortunately, the version of “Yellow Dog Blues” is instrumental only.

Wikipedia and Mississippi Blues Trail were used to write this post.

Our New Things: Links to Music Sites and Info on Analog Tech and Vinyl

TDMB has focused on music and musicians. We will continue to do that, of course. We're also expanding our coverage to include vinyl and analog equipment.

More specifically, we'll look at this huge and interesting world from the perspective of music lovers who want a better experience, not committed non-audiophiles.

Check out is some of what we've written so far:

-- Assessing the Value of Vinyl Records: An Overview

-- 7 Quick Tips on Optimizing Your Turntable Cartridge

-- Why Vinyl Records Continue to Thrive

-- Finding the Best Amplifier

-- Finding the Best Phono Preamp

-- What Speakers Do I Need for My Turntable?

Check out more articles on analog equipment and vinyl.

The site also is home to The Internet Music Mapping Project, an effort to list and describe as many music-related sites as possible.

Our Music

--A Tribe Called Quest to The Dick Hyman Trio (In other words, A to H)

--Indigo Girls to Queen Ida (I to Q)

--Radiohead to ZZ Top (R to Z)

Reading Music

The stories of the great bands and musicians are fascinating. Musicians as a group are brilliant, but often troubled. The combination of creativity and drama makes for great reading.

Here are some books to check out.

Duke Ellington brought class, sophistication and style to jazz which, until that point, was proudly unpolished and raucous. His story is profound. The author, Terry Teachout, also wrote "Pops," the acclaimed bio of Louis Armstrong. Click here or on the image.

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What else is there to say? Here is the story behind every song written by The Beatles. Click here or on the image.

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The Grateful Dead don't get enough credit for the profound nature of its lyrics. Many of the band's songs are driven by a deep and literate Americana ("I'm Uncle Sam/That's who I am/Been hidin' out/In a rock and roll band" and "Majordomo Billy Bojangles/Sit down and have a drink with me/What's this about Alabama/Keeps comin' back to me?").

David Dodd's exhaustive study tells the story, song by song. Click here or on the image.

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