sweartotellthetruth

Swear to Tell the Truth for Tuesday, March 2, 2021 (10:00 to 12:00 noon) – International Women’s Day Program

On this year’s International Women’s Day program, we feature women’s Blues, Rhythm & Blues, Gospel and a bit of Soul. Our playlists week by week are dominated by recordings by men, of songs written by men, produced by men, and issued by companies run by men. The themes of the songs we play reflect men’s point of view most of the time. We try to maintain a balance but ot is difficult given the legacy of recording we work from. Blues as a genre were pretty conservative over the years and the same verses and themes keep manifesting from one generation of songs to the next. Ironically, a lot of the songs that have become associated with male singers were passed on from the classic era of the twenties, the years dominated by women’s recordings, which lasted until 1926 or 1927. Most people recognize the male versions of the songs without recognizing the verses that come from songs by Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter or other classic singers but it’s men’s voices that have been dominant in Blues, R&B and Soul. So, we do this show to in a small way redress the balance.

On the Show:

Cleo Brown – International Sweethearts of Rhythm – Gladys Bentley – Ella Johnson – Alberta Hunter – Louise Johnson – Rita Chiarelli – Mary Lou Williams – Big Mama Thornton – Arizona Dranes – Inez Andrews – Molly Johnson – Jackie Richardson – Big Maybelle – and others.

Listen to the program each week at FM 93.3 in Hamilton or on CFMU online at cfmu.ca. The program will be available to stream or download until for eight weeks until April 27h as a podcast. Just go the website, scroll through 40 shows to Tuesday 10:00 am bring up the right playlist and stream or download the show

Next Week:

Fundraising. Please support CFMU.

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