American blues singer
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Here's a tune that will be on the set list tomorrow night when The Flood opens the festivities at this year's Diamond Teeth Mary blues festival in downtown Huntington.It's a 1913 composition by the great Shelton Brooks. And if that name sounds familiar, you might be remembering last week's podcast when we talked about Brooks' best-known composition, the phenomenal “Darktown Strutters' Ball.” As noted, by the time Brooks wrote that, his songwriting chops already were firmly established with songs like this “I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone,” which, as we've reported earlier, was performed by everyone from Sophie Tucker and Mae West to Tampa Red, Georgia Tom and Frankie “Half Pint” Jaxon. The Companion SongThis tune also is intimately related to another song on The Flood set list. As we've report here earlier, in 1915 famed songwriter W.C. Handy was writing an “answer” to Brooks' “I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone” when he penned his “Yellow Dog Blues.”“Yellow Dog Blues” is an especially appropriate choice for Huntington's Diamond Teeth Mary festival, because in 1925 it was one of the biggest hits for Mary's half sister, Bessie Smith. Critics consider Smith's take to be the definitive recording of Handy's song.“Yellow Dog” focuses on the crossing of the Southern Railway and the local Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad. Today in Sunflower County, Mississippi, in the town of Moorhead, a bronze plate — see above — stands at the very spot memorialized in that blues classic.You have to wonder if that same song might have been on Mary's mind a dozen years later when she was at her sister's side as Bessie died in Clarksdale, MS, from injuries suffered an auto crash on Highway 61 just 50 miles north of “where the Southern crosses the Yellow Dog.”Come to the Festival!The Diamond Teeth Mary Medicine Show will be rocking downtown Huntington tomorrow night in the beautiful Heritage Station, 210 11th Street, where the band has often played over the decades. The Flood takes the stage on at the gazebo at 6 p.m.For more about the festival, you might be interviewed in a recent segment aired by Marshall University's WMUL radio. Emma Johnson and John Boggess interviewed The Flood's Charlie Bowen, festival director Karen Combs and Osage, WV, soul artist Aristotle Jones. Click the “Play” button below to give it a listen.In addition, here's the link to Derek Halsey's story about the festival in The Herald-Dispatch. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com
"This is the second to last Rock School show and I'm using it to pitch my 4th album, Widow Maker, which went live last week on Spotify and Apple Music. I hope you enjoy it and I hope to see you all next week for the final Rock School Show."
"Every list of the best bands contains the same bands in the top 20 so I made a new list. I looked at several best band lists and eliminated those top 20 bands. My list gets rid of the obvious choices and gives many lesser known bands a chance. See what you think."
"Tammy and I have decided to retire from our jobs and also from creating the Rock School Radio show. I know this is the 744th show on PRX but it's actually our 997th show overall. We will do this show and three more, ending on our 1000th show. To that end, in this show we will announce some musicians who might be retiring soon themselves. We will list the oldest people touring this summer."
durée : 00:59:23 - par : Nathalie Piolé - La playlist jazz de Nathalie Piolé. - équipe : Emmanuelle Lacaze, Fabien Fleurat Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France
"For an experiment, I denoted the last ten generations and attempted to define the song of their generation. Some were easy and some quite difficult. I offer five possibilities first and then pick. See if I made the correct choice."
"I was talking about the Paul is Dead conspiracy theory in class one day and the students began asking me if I knew about THIS theory. And then THIS theory. We went on for 30 minutes and then I did some research. There were so many theories I had never heard of. Hopefully they are new to you as well. We have a long list."
durée : 00:38:46 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Albane Penaranda - Le jazz, oui, le scat, assurément, mais n'oublions pas le blues. Ella Fitzgerald excelle aussi dans cette forme de chant empreinte de tristesse, sur les traces de la grande Bessie Smith. C'est son rapport au blues que nous découvrons dans le 3e volet de la série qui lui est consacrée en 1981. - équipe : Mathias Le Gargasson, Antoine Dhulster, Rafik Zénine, Vincent Abouchar, Emily Vallat, Hassane M'Béchour, INA Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France
Con The Juju Orchestra, Bessie Smith, The Bahama Soul Club, De-Phazz, Astrud Gilberto & Walter Wonderlay Orchestra, Silvia Pérez Cruz, Celeste Mendoza, Macha y El Bloque Depresivo, La Santa Cecilia ft. Patricio Hidalgo, las Cafeteras, Jacob Collier, Joaquín Diaz, Rodrigo Cuevas, Rocio Jurado y Rauw Alejandro.
"When you listen to Van Halen or Extreme or Steely Dan you expect a great guitar solo. The point of this show is to offer some examples of totally unexpected solos. These are solos in a song or a genre or by an artists that it seems to be coming out of nowhere. "
"Back on May 31st Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson chided an audience for chanting USA. Much of the audience then walked out. I wondered if this had happened before and it certainly did. We have multiple examples of an audience turning on the performer and vice versa. For many we have the audio from the stage."
Pacific Street BluesSpotlight on Bessie SmithJune 14, 20261. Janis Joplin / Black Mountain Blues2. Bob Dylan & The Band / Bessie Smith (Happy and Artie Traum)3. Dory Previn / (Janis Joplin bought a) Stone for Bessie Smith4. John Coltrane / Bessie's BluesInfluences 5. Ma Rainey / See See Rider Blues (Elvis Presley)6. Ida Cox / Wild Women Don't Have the Blues 7. Albert Hunter / Down Hearted Blues8. Maime Smith / Crazy Blues Duets: Charlie Green of Omaha9. Bessie Smith w/ Charlie Green / Empty Bed Blues10. Jim Croce / Charlie Green Play that Slide Trombone11. Bessie Smith w/ Louis Armstrong (trumpet) / St Louis Blues 12. Clara Smith w/ Bessie Smith / I'm Going Back to My Used to Be James P Johnson, The Invisible Pianist 13. Bessie Smith w/ James P Johnson / Back Water Blues 14. Fats Waller / Ain't Misbehavin' 15. Count Basie / April in Paris 16. Duke Ellington / Take the A Train (Billy Eckstine) Lieber & Stoller 17. Wilbert Harrison / Kansas City18. Kathy Tyree / Hound Dog 19. Elvis Presley / King Creole20. The Rolling Stones / Down Home Girl21. The Beatles / Young Blood John Hammond Sr. Legendary A&R Columbia Records22. Billie Holiday / Gimme a Beer and a Pigfoot23. Aretha Franklin / Soulville 24. Bruce Springsteen / Sandy (4th of July) 25. Lionel Hampton w/ Nat Cole Trio / House of Morgan Covers of Bessie Smith's Music26. Sue Foley / Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair 27. Ella Fitzgerald / Gulf Coast Blues 28. Della Reese / You've Been a Good Old Wagon 29. Etta James / Don't Cry Baby30. Bessie Smith / Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do 31. Rhiannon Giddens / You Put the Sugar in My Bowl 32. Rory Block / I'm Down in the Dumps 33. Kenny Wayne Shepherd / Back Water Blues
Today's show features music performed by King Oliver and Bessie Smith
"The new owners of Fender since 2020 are attempting to own the copyright on the Stratocaster body. A German court has taken them part of the way but most experts don't believe it will hold up to scrutiny. Nonetheless, Fender has sent Cease and Desist letters to multiple guitar makers telling them to stop production, call back orders and destroy stock. Fender may have just committed brand suicide because history is not on their side."
"It is no secret that music contracts can be rather brutal on artists. Often the stories focus on not getting paid but there is also the interesting idea of a lawsuit ordering a musician to fill his or her contract and record what we are calling a court ordered album. We have multiple examples plus one where the band was paid NOT to record an album."
"Sony Music Publishing confirmed an agreement to acquire Blackstone's Recognition Music Group catalog for $3.5 billion. The Red Hot Chili Peppers just sold their catalog for $300 million. Other Funds are raising billions to start buying. These buyers are called Music Rights Funds. I became interested in how these Funds actually made money. How does one invest and can I sell my own music. I have the answers for you."
"The New York Times released their 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters list a short while ago. I know online lists usually have some click bait to start conversation but this list was overtly egregious. Not for who was on it. It was who was left off. We will go over the list and play some artists that should have been on there."
My guest this week is NYC-based musician, author, and performance artist Joseph Keckler (NPR's Tiny Desk, tours with Lydia Lunch & Sleater-Kinney), who chose the 1929 two-reeler short St. Louis Blues, which is the legend Bessie Smith's first and only film appearance. We discuss Joseph's iconic performance on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert Series, how he came to unleash his powerful vocal range on a wide range of audiences, choosing to write and sing in German about the adult moments where he was relapsing into a teenage Goth, befriending and touring with Lydia Lunch, Bebe Hansen, the current No-Wave scene in NYC, the excitement of having a standoff with an audience, opening for Sleater-Kinney, confusing but life-altering concert billings, where we both were when first hearing Bessie Smith and the imprint it left on us, why this 1929 short film of Bessie Smith was almost destroyed in the 50s, tape trading with The Residents, hearing Aretha Franklin's voice coming up through the floorboards and being obsessed with Cab Calloway & Bessie Smith as a child, Bessie's acting chops and the unique direction of this performance & more.So let's sing at the top of our lungs into the bottom of our beer mug on this week's Revolutions Per Movie.Joseph will be performing on May 31st 2026 in NYC at TV EYE w/ Genre Is DeathTickets available at tveyenyc.com/calendarJOSEPH KECKLER:josephkeckler.com/BESSIE SMITH in ST. LOUIS BLUES:youtube.com/watch?v=xIGscPYfEGsREVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE:Host Chris Slusarenko (Eyelids, Guided By Voices, owner of Clinton Street Video rental store) is joined by actors, musicians, comedians, writers & directors who each week pick out their favorite music documentary, musical, music-themed fiction film, or music videos to discuss. Fun, weird, and insightful, Revolutions Per Movie is your deep dive into our life-long obsessions where music and film collide.Revolutions Per Movie releases new episodes every Thursday on any podcast app, and additional, exclusive bonus episodes every Sunday on our Patreon (over 125 bonus episodes are available and counting). If you like the show, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing it on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!PATREON:The show is also a completely independent affair, so the best way to support it is at patreon.com/revolutionspermovie. By joining, you can get weekly bonus episodes and series such as A Very Opinionated Look At Urgh! A Music War & What Makes The Midnight So Special?, A Devotees Look At New Wave Theater, Exploring The Axis: The Oral History Of Frontier Records With Lisa Fancher, Dips On Chips w/ Jeff McDonald of Redd Kross, physical goods such as a limited edition 7" Flexidisc, and other exclusive goods that I send out to you for supporting the show. It helps the show to keep going and is greatly appreciated!TIP JAR:ko-fi.com/revolutionspermovieSOCIALS:@revolutionspermovieBlueSky: @revpermovieTHEME by Eyelids 'My Caved In Mind'www.musicofeyelids.bandcamp.com ARTWORK by Jeff T. Owenshttps://linktr.ee/mymetalhand Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
"Many summer tours are having to scale back or cancel altogether. The nickname given to this practice is Blue Dot Fever. It is named after the blue dots that appear on unsold seats when a ticket buyer uses Ticketmaster. It has become indicative of a larger societal and financial concern that is leading to people not being able to attend live music. We will explain."
"This is a requested topic from a friend. He wondered if we had ever discussed steel drums. We had not so we did a show. We have some history and some discussion of tuning and prices. There are also a lot of songs that use the steel drum you may not have noticed before."
"On April 16 2026 A federal jury in Manhattan found that Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation have been acting as a monopoly. The case is wide ranging involving 33 states and the District of Columbia. Live Nation will not appeal any of the verdicts. We will discuss what is a monopoly and what these decisions could mean for the future."
"Just a bit of fun this week. Nobody is perfect so it is pretty easy to hear mistakes in recorded music. Here are some of the big ones in rock and hopefully some you did not know. Once you hear them, you cannot unhear them."
"The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has released its 2026 State of the Industry Report. There are some pretty big take aways including stances on AI and the fact that the music industry is now more profitable than ever before. We will explore the findings."
"The former head of Interscope and Geffen records Jimmie Ivine said that streaming has had its time. Spotify will see its demise soon. Whether you believe that or not, the question is what comes next. After Spotify. Many have suggest this next step in music evolution. We will tell you what Ivine said and offer up some possibilities for after Spotify."
On today's show, Tupac is sighted, Joey Ramone passes away, & happy birthday to Bessie Smith, Luis Fonzi, & Chris Stapleton.For more music history, subscribe to my Spotify Channel or subscribe to the audio version of my music history podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts fromALL MUSIC HISTORY TODAY PODCAST NETWORK LINKS - https://allmylinks.com/musichistorytodayChapters: 00:00 Intro 00:32 What happened on this date in music history04:05 Music award ceremonies that were held on this date in music history04:37 Albums released on this date in music history 06:11 Singles released on this date in music history 07:24 Birthdays of music artists on this date in music history 08:48 Passings of music artists on this date in music history 10:11 What's on tomorrow's episode
| Artist | Title | Album Name | Album Copyright | Ernie Hawkins | Hesitation Blues (feat. Joe Dallas) | Monongahela Rye | | Ishmon Bracey | Bust Up Blues | Ishman Bracey & Charley Taylor -Complete Recorded Works 1928 -1929 | Red McKenzie | Blues In F | Red McKenzie 1924-1928 Volume 1 [Mound City Blue Blowers] | Ben Waters | Lonely Avenue | Boogie 4 Stue (2026) | | Eric Clapton | Layla (Acoustic Live) | Unplugged | | Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley | Papa's 'Bout to Get Mad | Searching For Secret Heroes | Document Records | Bessie Smith | Bleeding Hearted Blues | Old Time Classics Volume 1 | Blind Blake | New Style Of Loving | All The Recorded Sides | Leon Redbone | Nobody Knows but Me (Liv | Strings and Jokes | | Blind Willie Johnson | Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground | Praise God I'm Satisfied | Blind Willie McTell | Lord, Send Me an Angel | Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (1931-1933) | Sister Rosetta Tharpe | Feed Me Jesus (Recorded Live At The Free Trade Hall, Manchester | Chris Barber Presents The Blues Legacy Lost & Found Series | Blind Lemon Jefferson | Black Snake Moan | Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order | Doug MacLeod | All I Had Was The Blues | Raw Blues 2 | | Raphael Callaghan | Black Is The Colour | Always In Arrears |
"I found a cheeky online piece where the author was using funny put downs to describe some popular bands. Tourist Rock. Ring Tone Rap. Yallternative. So I put it to the Facebook and received a much longer list. I call then Genre Insults and we have a bunch for you."
"I ran across an article that listed three songs that people listen to only to wait for just that one section. It mentioned the drum break in the Phil Collins song In the Air Tonight. I knew exactly what it was talking about and immediately had five examples from my own collection. I put it to Facebook and now I have a slew of examples."
"Major record companies are suing SUNO and Udio over song usage to create AI tunes. The one big thing the companies are looking for is a Walled Garden, the idea that what is created on SUNO will stay on SUNO. It cannot be taken and spread around. One company has already settled but it goes much deeper than that."
"I ran across an article listing musicians who are in both the Rock and the Country Halls of Fame. There aren't many. When I started looking into it further I found that the people on the list were in multiple other Halls of Fame as well. I wanted to find out what musician is in the most Halls. There is a clear winner."
TABLE READ: My Lady's SongWritten by Dan LauriaNew York. Late-night Eighth Avenue. Strip clubs, limos, politicians, porn stars, and ghosts of the old neighborhood.My Lady's Song drops you straight into the smoky, blood-soaked underbelly of a city that doesn't forgive and never forgets.Sal “The Barber” Marino is an aging ex-soldier of the streets — a limo driver who once did twelve years without talking. Now he drives high-end clients and keeps his head down. But when a powerful senator, a pair of porn stars, and a blackmail tape collide during sensitive union negotiations, Sal is pulled back into a world he thought he left behind.This is not a nostalgia piece.This is loyalty versus survival.Old code versus new money.Family versus leverage.Set against a soundtrack style of Billie Holiday, Etta James, Dinah Washington, and Bessie Smith, My Lady's Song moves like Goodfellas at midnight and feels like The Sopranos when the jokes stop being funny.What starts as a simple drive to Los Angeles turns into a reckoning — with betrayal, with memory, and with the cost of keeping your mouth shut.Nobody in podcasting is bringing this level of writing, performance, and cinematic scope.This is prestige drama.Performed. Not narrated.Hollywood caliber. Start to finish.___________________________________
"Luminate is a company that tracks the Entertainment Industry pointing out data analytics and trends. Their 2025 report has come out and it points to overall listenership being up. Listening to new music is way down. There are also some interesting data points regarding AI."
"The internet loves lists. The click bait ones often choose to list the worst of something and choose the best of it just to upset the audience for engagement. I can usually ignore these but this one really bugged me for some reason. I'll tell you the list and debunk it and offer some of mine."
Today's show features music performed by Bessie Smith
"The Rockin 1000 is a project that started in Italy as gag to create a video of 1000 musicians playing Learn to Fly in order to get the Foo Fighters to come and put on a concert. It has since grown into full scale concerts across Europe. On January 31 the Rockin 1000 played their first concert in America, in New Orleans, and I was part of the band. Let me tell you the story."
"We are coming into tax season so Tammy and will talk about paying the government. The HITS Act is now in full swing. Foreign governments are changing their tax codes for musicians and we also have a list of what you might not have known was tax deductible."
"Every year I hear people complaining that the NFL makes lousy picks for the Super Bowl halftime show. If the picks are lousy then ratings must tank. But they do not. In fact the halftime show has never been better watched. We have a long list of ratings and demographics to show that the NFL seems to know what they are doing."
"In our New Year show we related an article that suggested that 3D spatial audio was going to be popular in 2026. Tammy asked for an explanation of 3D audio so here it is. We have examples of both new songs and classic music that has been remixed into a spatial audio format."
"A report from Spikerz, an Israeli company that tracks hacking, suggests that in 2025, music hacks were a sizeable number of methods bad actors were using to extract money from unsuspecting persons and companies. We have the numbers and multiple examples."
"This is our second of two year opening shows. We will cover new Public Domain availability, anniversaries for this new year and some predictions for 2026."
Songs include Valencia by Paul Whiteman, Black Bottom Stomp by Jelly Roll Morton, White House Blues by Charlie Poole, Hebbie Jebbies by Louis Armstrong, Lost Your Head Blues by Bessie Smith and I'm Sitting On Top Of the World by Al Jolson.
Send us a textIntro: The Prisoner's Song by Vernon Dalhart (1924)10. Down Hearted Blues by Bessie Smith (1923)9. It Had to Be You by Isham Jones Orchestra (1924)8. Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas) by Jimmie Rodgers (1928)7. West End Blues by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five (1928)6. Dardenella by Ben Selvin and His Novelty Orchestra (1920)Outro: I Can't Give You Anything But Love by Cliff Edwards (1928)
Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, Ray Hosseini, John Bower and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Aging and dead celebrities, working for the man, covert and overt funding of the arts during the cold war and post-cold war period, self-censoring artists, celebrities shilling for Zionism, Seymour Hersh, Blackrock losing its bet in Ukraine, why do China and Russia do so little for Palestine? does the “ceasefire” deflate support for Palestine? the impossible energy demands of data processing centers, the nightmare that is Elon Musk's vision for the future. Music track: “Thinking Blues” by Bessie Smith (public domain).
"This is our first of two year opening shows. We will cover new Public Domain availability, anniversaries for this new year and some predictions for 2026."
"This is our second Christmas show of 2025. We are giving more trivia and history for many of your favorite songs. It is quite a list."
"NOTE. This show is being posted a week early due to our Holiday travel. Enjoy two shows this week. This is our traditional end-of-year show were we give one last tip of the hat to the musicians who passed in 2025. "
Ed Ward and host Nate Wilcox fill in a gap in our discussion of his epic History of Rock & Roll Part 1, 1920-1963 with a look at how African-American pop music transformed itself thru the swing era, the rise & fall of the blues queens, the thin line between jazz and blues, the first guitar heroes and the greatest American musical superstar you've probably barely heard of, Louis Jordan. GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE -- The final 15 minutes of this episode are exclusively for paying subscribers to the Let It Roll Substack. Also subscribe to the LET IT ROLL EXTRA feed on Apple, Spotify or your preferred podcast service to access the full episodes via your preferred podcast outlet. We've got all 350+ episodes listed, organized by mini-series, genre, era, co-host, guest and more. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to support the show. Thanks! Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"This is the first show of our annual Christmas double header. We did a show years back that looked at the history and trivia of classic Christmas Carols. For these shows we chose a whole bunch of songs we did not cover in that previous show. Get ready for a lot of information about your favorite songs of the season."
"We have broken down the meaning of American Pie and Creeque Alley and now it its time for We Didnt Start the Fire from Billy Joel. Listen closely. We go pretty quick."
"The The Office of the US Trade Representative has released their 2024 Piracy Report listing the notorious markets for counterfeiting and piracy. The practice is alive and well. This report dedicated an entire section just to music. We will tell you what it said."
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