sweartotellthetruth

Swear to Tell the Truth for Tuesday, October 7th, (1:00-2:30 pm)

Conclusion of our three week survey of rhythm & blues before 1950. The records we will be featuring today were issued in 1949. As in the previous two weeks of our survey, the records include hits and misses. For the recording industry, the return to making records meant a return to regular business. As in the case of the previous “Petrillo Ban” of 1942-1944 and the dip in recording activity in the early 1930s, there was a certain amount of turnover in company artist rosters but, in the case of the 1948 strike, which lasted 11 1/2 months, the companies relied first on established artists, whose stockpiled recordings they had been releasing throughout the recording ban. 1949 saw certain trends in the R&B charts–the honking tenor came to the fore and instrumentals were big in the charts; a few gospel recordings, by artists like Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight sold well enough to appear as regional or juke box hits; down home blues by artists like L.C. Williams and Mercy Dee also showed up as national or regional hits. The charts were dominated by records by male artists. Our show will take us part of the way through 1949’s significant artists and recordings. We’ll leave this series for a while and return to it in a few weeks.

On the Show:

Paul Williams Sextet – Andrew Tibbs – Ivory Joe Hunter – Piney Brown – Big Jay McNeely – Ray Charles – Joe Turner – The Five Scamps – Marion Abernathy – Jimmy Preston – Little Miss Cornshucks

Listen to the program at FM 93.3 in Hamilton or on CFMU online at cfmu.mcmaster.ca. The program will be available to stream or as a podcast until November 5th.

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 (October 14th)

We’ll take a break from three weeks of concentrating on R&B and mix things up on the show.

cmc