sweartotellthetruth

This is the blogsite for Swear to Tell the Truth: the Blues & Rhythm Show. The program airs every Tuesday between 1:00-2:30 pm on CFMU, 93.3 FM. You can also find the program at cfmu.msumcmaster.ca.

Each week, we’ll try to post information about the program and about the music we play on the show.

We play music from the beginning of the recording era to the present day but mostly from what has been called “the Segregation Era”, the period in which this music was most successful in the cultural marketplace.

On this program you will hear blues, gospel, rhythm and jive quartets, jump bands, guitar evangelists, vocal groups and gospel quartets, zydeco, swamp R&B, soul and soul blues. You’ll also hear, from time to time, mountain blues, western swing, hillbilly boogie , jazz and New Orleans funk.

We’ve played Little Al King, Albert King, B.B. King, Earl King, Freddy King, Saunders King. Ellis King Solomon, King Solomon Hill and King Curtis on the program. We haven’t yet played Pee Wee King, but we will. And we’re planning a feature on King Records.

We’ve played Ida Cox, Sippie Wallace, Memphis Minnie, Elvie Thomas, Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Etta  James, Mable John, Laura Lee, Inez Andrews, and Barbara Carr.

We’ve played the Unique Quartet (1893), The Norfolk Jazz Quartet, Mitchell’s Christian Singers, the Golden Gate Quartet, the Red Caps, the Soul Stirrers, The Spirit of Memphis, the Larks and the Midnighters.

We’ve played Marian Abernathy, Wynonie Harris, Gatemouth Moore, Johnny Otis, the Trenier Twins, Percy Mayfield, Betty Hall Jones, Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, Smiley Lewis and Big Maybelle.