Finding online materials on popular music figures is a pretty easy task. Google “Madonna”- and you’ll be awash in a sea of images and videos of the vacuous one, faster then you can say “pointy coned-shaped brassiere”. When you’re a Blues fan however, the search can be a little more daunting.
I came across a website a little while back that was an absolute bonanza for any Blues fan, especially those interested in the history and origins of the music. The site is called Folkstreams: The Best of American Folklore Films. As stated in Folkstreams’ Mission, it’s goals are simple, “One is to build a national preserve of hard-to-find documentary films about American folk or roots cultures. The other is to give them renewed life by streaming them on the internet.” Mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned.
One of my favourite films is called “Born For Hard Luck: Peg Leg Sam Jackson”. This film was shot in 1976 by Tom Davenport, and tells the story of the one legged harmonica player residing in South Carolina. How hard is his luck really? Well Sam states that "If it were raining soup at this very minute, everyone would have a spoon. Why I’d have a fork.”
In his younger days, like many Bluesmen of the day, he hobo-ed across the U.S. on freight trains. He did everything from street busking, travelling with medicine shows selling snake oil, to working as a deck hand when caught as a stowaway on a boat headed for Cuba.
Oh yes- and he can blow the harp and sing the blues! I searched his name to see if he ever got into the studio and was pleasantly surprised to see he had. Apparently, Sam hit the studio with Louisiana Red around the same time the film was made. The recording was released by Labor Records and titled “Early in the Morning”. I listened to some song previews and it sounds great-both in the performance and quality of the recording. I’ll have to put that on “the list”.
Another gem is a short film called “Cigarette Blues” that features a live performance of Cigarette Blues by one of my all time favourites Sonny Rhodes and the Texas Twisters. I saw him a couple years ago and swear he wore the same salmon coloured suit. Sonny is always looking sharp!
The list goes on and on! There’s “Deep Ellum Blues” about a Dallas neighbourhood long since destroyed by the construction of an expressway. It was a Blues Mecca frequented by the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Leadbelly, and even the notorious Bonnie and Clyde. It was a place where musicians black and white would get together after hours and jam all night long.
‘Give My Poor Heart Ease: Mississippi Delta Bluesmen” is a Bill Ferris film( I read a book of his called “Blues from the Delta”) that features some amazing footage of a youthful B.B King playing solo. If you’re from another planet and not yet convinced B.B. is one of the greatest blues performers ever- you will be after watching this film.
Another highlight is a Beale Street salesman who recites a poem of what the Blues is. One verse goes:
I came across a website a little while back that was an absolute bonanza for any Blues fan, especially those interested in the history and origins of the music. The site is called Folkstreams: The Best of American Folklore Films. As stated in Folkstreams’ Mission, it’s goals are simple, “One is to build a national preserve of hard-to-find documentary films about American folk or roots cultures. The other is to give them renewed life by streaming them on the internet.” Mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned.
One of my favourite films is called “Born For Hard Luck: Peg Leg Sam Jackson”. This film was shot in 1976 by Tom Davenport, and tells the story of the one legged harmonica player residing in South Carolina. How hard is his luck really? Well Sam states that "If it were raining soup at this very minute, everyone would have a spoon. Why I’d have a fork.”
In his younger days, like many Bluesmen of the day, he hobo-ed across the U.S. on freight trains. He did everything from street busking, travelling with medicine shows selling snake oil, to working as a deck hand when caught as a stowaway on a boat headed for Cuba.
Oh yes- and he can blow the harp and sing the blues! I searched his name to see if he ever got into the studio and was pleasantly surprised to see he had. Apparently, Sam hit the studio with Louisiana Red around the same time the film was made. The recording was released by Labor Records and titled “Early in the Morning”. I listened to some song previews and it sounds great-both in the performance and quality of the recording. I’ll have to put that on “the list”.
Another gem is a short film called “Cigarette Blues” that features a live performance of Cigarette Blues by one of my all time favourites Sonny Rhodes and the Texas Twisters. I saw him a couple years ago and swear he wore the same salmon coloured suit. Sonny is always looking sharp!
The list goes on and on! There’s “Deep Ellum Blues” about a Dallas neighbourhood long since destroyed by the construction of an expressway. It was a Blues Mecca frequented by the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Leadbelly, and even the notorious Bonnie and Clyde. It was a place where musicians black and white would get together after hours and jam all night long.
‘Give My Poor Heart Ease: Mississippi Delta Bluesmen” is a Bill Ferris film( I read a book of his called “Blues from the Delta”) that features some amazing footage of a youthful B.B King playing solo. If you’re from another planet and not yet convinced B.B. is one of the greatest blues performers ever- you will be after watching this film.
Another highlight is a Beale Street salesman who recites a poem of what the Blues is. One verse goes:
Last night I had a dream I died
The undertaker came to take me for a ride
I couldn’t afford a casket-embalming too high
I got up from my sick bed
Because I was too poor to die
Now ain’t that blue?
Other films on this site include “The Land Where the Blues Began” featuring the legendary folklorist Alan Lomax . He was only the first guy to record Muddy Waters for the Library of Congress- no biggie. Related to the origins of Blues are films on African-American works songs in Texas prisons, imaginatively entitled “Afro-American Work Songs in Texas Prisons”, and "Gandy Dancers" (African American Railroad workers), as well a film on the fife and drum tradition in the south. All of it riveting stuff!
Folkstreams is a goldmine for any serious Blues fan and well worth checking out. So-open a cold one, sit back and enjoy!
I’ll leave you with a short film called “Sonny Terry: Shoutin’ the Blues”.
FolkStreams » Sonny Terry
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