sweartotellthetruth

Swear to Tell the Truth for Tuesday, July 14, 2020 (10:00 to 12:00 noon)

On our fifth show from exile in North Hamilton, a varied program, including classic R&B from Nashville (1946-1952) following up on a brief feature we did three weeks ago featuring later Nashville R&B and Soul.  Then, a couple of Hawiian steel guitar recordings from the late twenties, leading into a few recordings from Bob Wills’ great 1936  band.

Western Swing came from the rural southwest. It was based upon local  blues and string-band music but also upon the African-American jazz and blues of New Orleans, Chicago and Kansas City.  Wills’ Texas Playboys employed a horn section as well as the fiddles, steel guitar and piano that characterized most Western Swing bands. The band was never closer to the blues and jazz originals it was founded upon than in 1936. Beside the obvious debt to recent and contemporary African-American music, Western Swing was also heir, like most country music, to the complicated and conflicting tradition of minstrel song, “coon-shouting” and blackface performances. Bob Wills’ singing was influenced most by Emmett Miller the last of the minstrel men.

We also take a look at Leroy Carr, with his partner Scrapper Blackwell, probably the most influential figure in the blues of the 1930s and we play some examples of his followers in the blues. Near the end of the program, some 1960s and 1970s gospel, including tracks from a record man and producer in Savannah, Georgia.

“Gonna turn off this gas stove. I’m bound for a brand new range”–Leroy Carr

On the Show:

Helen Humes – Rudy Greene Trio – Christine Kittrell – Sam Ku West – Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Emmett Miller & His Georgia Crackers – Harrison Kennedy – Johnny Jones – Argo Singers – Golden Stars of Greenwood SC – Jubilee Nightingales – Otis Spann – and others.

Listen to the program each week at FM 93.3 in Hamilton, live on Cogeco Cable 288 or on CFMU online at cfmu.ca. The program will be available to stream or download until for eight weeks until September 24th as a podcast. Just go the website, bring up the right playlist and stream or download the show.

Contact Us:

To reach us with comments or queries, write us at sweartotellthetruth@gmail.com.

You can also follow the program at sweartotellthetruth@nosignifying on Twitter.

Next week

TBA.