Blues Music History
W. C. Handy is said to be responsible for Blues as we know it today.. It has been reported that one day he heard a man playing and singing some music that was unlike anything he had ever heard before.. He was impressed by the music and copied the style and went on to write the Memphis Blues, The St. Loiuis Blues and many others.
The blues did not originate with W .C. Handy. By the time he heard the form in the early 1900′s it had already taken shape and it’s roots had been around for hundreds of years in both Africa and Europe.It finally arrived in the Southern United States.
African music merged with European music to create the first incarnation of the Blues when added to the hot sun and the cotton fields of the Southern United States.
The Blues music relies on using the flatted 3rd, th, and7th notes of the musical scale that is native to the music of West Africa and sometimes Irish and English folk music. The call and response style came from the labor of the African-American slaves in the field. This is called the “field hollar.”
The guitar and the harmonica were the primary Blues instruments originally but later the piano was added when musicians were able to perform in more established venues. The history of Blues music would be much different without the barrel house and the Blues piano.
A barrelhouse just a building where a series of barrels were set up with boards set across the barrels to serve as a bar. Later more established venues were set up and referred to as “Juke Joints.” Here the musicains were hired and people would come to drink and dance. A lot of the music was sexually oriented or contained lyrics that contained sexual undertones.
Because ot the drinking, dancing and sexual content, some people referred to Blues as the “Devil’s Music.”
More Blues Music History in later posts.
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