Featuring 3 bands from Kalamazoo and performances by The Chicago Blues Network Faculty. Special guest host: Pastor Phil Jackson, The Firehouse Community Arts Center.
Plus, Trading 4s Concerts on First and Third Thursdays at 7:00 PM CDT, LIVE on Facebook and Youtube.
Next shows are Thursday September 3 (featuring Guy King and Ivy Ford), and September 17.
Special Feature
The Birth of the Blues By Marty Weil @ChiBluesHistory
The birth of the blues is often dated to 1903. Credit for its discovery goes to the W.C. Handy, the Father of the Blues. It’s Mr. Handy’s blues after all. But is it? By the time of his death in 1958, most everyone believed it to be that way. When Handy died, at the age of 84, more than 25,000 people attended his funeral at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. Over 150,000 gathered outside. A park had already been named for him in Memphis and more accolades and honors had been stacked in his office.
Funeral Of W C Handy – Father Of The Blues (1958)
It was at a train station in Tutwiler, Mississippi, that Handy first heard an unknown guitarist play the blues. Clearly, it wasn’t the first time it had been played; but, it was perhaps the first time a man of means and taste had heard it. The wise and resourceful Handy knew he was on to something good. He is in my mind the “discoverer” of the blues, and, for that alone, he deserves to be remembered and honored. Handy was also the idioms’ first full-time promoter. The first exploiter of the blues. He would not be its last.
Marty Weil is the editor of @ChiBluesHistory on Twitter. Marty is a blues researcher, educator, and social media influencer.
Listen to this fascinating interview with Host Dave Specter and Chicago bluesman Ronnie Baker Brooks about time Brooks spent on the road with his father, as well as experiences in the studio, plus basketball, getting absorbed in songs, and healing. “I have and always will have a tremendous amount of respect for our elders,” says Brooks.
The Faculty of Chicago Blues Bootcamp offers online lessons of our entire Blues Institute fakebook. For $23.95 per month, you will receive up to 25 video lessons taught by Chicago Blues Masters.
Questions? Email us at info@athomechicagoblues.com
