Disc 1 iTunes
Disc 2 iTunes
"I was about nine years old when I started playing guitar. My uncle, he had a large guitar and I kept messing around with it until I learned how to play. The way I learned how to play a song, I would listen to the song on the radio and write the words down, and I wouldn't worry about the music, 'cause I could get the music. All I wanted to know was the words." --Precious Bryant
The blues may have been the creation of male songsters during the last decade of the 19th century, but it was women who popularized them in the wake of the commercial success of Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" shortly after the Great War. Throughout the 1920s, the blues were almost exclusively the prerogative of the so-called classic singers (Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter...) on the stages of the theaters that featured vaudeville shows.
Or so we thought, until the relentless work of Tim Duffy and his Music Maker Relief Foundation established that there was a large number of women expressing themselves in music throughout the South: when blues men opted for the life of itinerant griots, their female counterparts had to stay at home, but they poured their hearts out on Saturday night for relatives, friends and neighbors before letting their soul overflow in church on Sunday morning.
The fourteen sisters featured on this double volume bear witness to the great wealth of talent still to be found today on the other side of the tracks in small backwoods communities. They also illustrate the rich diversity of traditions in the southeastern quarter of the US, giving us a living proof that blues ditties, gospel hymns and folk melodies form the various facets of the same cultural gumbo, one that has given southern popular music its originality and universal appeal for the past hundred years.
Track Listing:
Disc One: 1/Cora Fluker - Come On Jesus 2/Cora Mae Bryant - Born To Die 3/Algia Mae Hinton - Cook Cornbread For Your Husband 4/Precious Bryant - Wasn't I Scared 5/Essie Mae Brooks - I Wrote You A Letter 6/Beverly "Guitar" Watkins - Jesus Is Always There For You 7/Cora Fluker - Look How The World Has Made A Change 8/Etta Baker - Sunny Tennessee 9/Willa Mae Buckner - Let Me Play With Your Yoyo 10/Core Mae Bryant - Cora's Escape 11/Essie Mae Brooks with Cool John Ferguson - Got To Run On 12/Algia Mae Hinton with Taj Mahal - I Ain't The One You Love 13/Annie Griggs with Cootie Stark - You Got To Move 14/Precious Bryant - Fever 15/Algia Mae Hinton - Going Down The Road Feeling Bad 16/Pura Fe' - Motherless Children 17/Etta Baker with Taj Mahal - John Henry 18/Willa Mae Buckner - St. Louis Blues 19/Algia Mae Hinton - Lima Beans 20/Pura Fe' - Great Grammpah's Banjo 21/Lucille Lindsay with Guitar Gabriel - Old Time Religion 22/Essie Mae Brooks - I Don't Have to Worry Where I Spend Eternity
Disc Two: 1/Sweet Betty - Ain't That Good News 2/Algia Mae Hinton - Out Of Jail 3/Mother Pauline & Elder James Goins - Prayed 4/Algia Mae Hinton - I Want Jesus To Walk With Me 5/Cora Mae Bryant - Blues Was My Best Friend 6/Cora Fluker - Shotgun Boogie 7/Precious Bryant - You Don't Love Me Would You Fool Me Good 8/Etta Baker - Talks About The Banjo 9/Etta Baker - Soldier's Joy 10/Etta Baker with Wayne Martin - Old Joe Clarke 11/Core Mae Bryant - Hambone 12/Core Mae Bryant - It Was Weaver 13/Marie & Bishop Dready Manning - Glory, Glory 14/Beverly "Guitar" Watkins - I Know The Lord Will Find A Way 15/Essie Mae Brooks - I've Been Gone Too Long 16/Algia Mae Hinton with Taj Mahal - You Don't Have To Go 17/Pura Fe' with Danny Godinez - Hard Time Killing Floor 18/Etta Baker with Taj Mahal & Algia Mae Hinton - Comb Blues 19/Etta Baker - Etta's Rainbow Poem 20/Willa Mae Buckner - Peter Rumpkin 21/Cora Mae Bryant - 1999 22/Etta Baker - Going Down The Road Feeling Bad 23/Algia Mae Hinton - Watcha Gonna Do When Your Good Girl Turns You Down 24/Cora Fluker - Pray For Me
Video Program: These two enhanced CDs contain a video program that will run on most computer CD players.
Video Program CD 1: "Six Sisters of the South" with Beverly "Guitar" Watkins, Willa Mae Buckner, Marie Manning, Essie Mae Brooks, Pauline & James Goins, and Etta Baker.
Video Program CD 2: "A Visit to Etta Baker's"
Licensed from Pinnacle Productions, LLC/Music Maker Relief Foundation, ©2009 PINNACLE Productions, LLC (CD),©2009 Music Maker Relief Foundation (DVD), ©2009 DIXIEFROG Records
Disc 2 iTunes
"I was about nine years old when I started playing guitar. My uncle, he had a large guitar and I kept messing around with it until I learned how to play. The way I learned how to play a song, I would listen to the song on the radio and write the words down, and I wouldn't worry about the music, 'cause I could get the music. All I wanted to know was the words." --Precious Bryant
The blues may have been the creation of male songsters during the last decade of the 19th century, but it was women who popularized them in the wake of the commercial success of Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" shortly after the Great War. Throughout the 1920s, the blues were almost exclusively the prerogative of the so-called classic singers (Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter...) on the stages of the theaters that featured vaudeville shows.
Or so we thought, until the relentless work of Tim Duffy and his Music Maker Relief Foundation established that there was a large number of women expressing themselves in music throughout the South: when blues men opted for the life of itinerant griots, their female counterparts had to stay at home, but they poured their hearts out on Saturday night for relatives, friends and neighbors before letting their soul overflow in church on Sunday morning.
The fourteen sisters featured on this double volume bear witness to the great wealth of talent still to be found today on the other side of the tracks in small backwoods communities. They also illustrate the rich diversity of traditions in the southeastern quarter of the US, giving us a living proof that blues ditties, gospel hymns and folk melodies form the various facets of the same cultural gumbo, one that has given southern popular music its originality and universal appeal for the past hundred years.
Track Listing:
Disc One: 1/Cora Fluker - Come On Jesus 2/Cora Mae Bryant - Born To Die 3/Algia Mae Hinton - Cook Cornbread For Your Husband 4/Precious Bryant - Wasn't I Scared 5/Essie Mae Brooks - I Wrote You A Letter 6/Beverly "Guitar" Watkins - Jesus Is Always There For You 7/Cora Fluker - Look How The World Has Made A Change 8/Etta Baker - Sunny Tennessee 9/Willa Mae Buckner - Let Me Play With Your Yoyo 10/Core Mae Bryant - Cora's Escape 11/Essie Mae Brooks with Cool John Ferguson - Got To Run On 12/Algia Mae Hinton with Taj Mahal - I Ain't The One You Love 13/Annie Griggs with Cootie Stark - You Got To Move 14/Precious Bryant - Fever 15/Algia Mae Hinton - Going Down The Road Feeling Bad 16/Pura Fe' - Motherless Children 17/Etta Baker with Taj Mahal - John Henry 18/Willa Mae Buckner - St. Louis Blues 19/Algia Mae Hinton - Lima Beans 20/Pura Fe' - Great Grammpah's Banjo 21/Lucille Lindsay with Guitar Gabriel - Old Time Religion 22/Essie Mae Brooks - I Don't Have to Worry Where I Spend Eternity
Disc Two: 1/Sweet Betty - Ain't That Good News 2/Algia Mae Hinton - Out Of Jail 3/Mother Pauline & Elder James Goins - Prayed 4/Algia Mae Hinton - I Want Jesus To Walk With Me 5/Cora Mae Bryant - Blues Was My Best Friend 6/Cora Fluker - Shotgun Boogie 7/Precious Bryant - You Don't Love Me Would You Fool Me Good 8/Etta Baker - Talks About The Banjo 9/Etta Baker - Soldier's Joy 10/Etta Baker with Wayne Martin - Old Joe Clarke 11/Core Mae Bryant - Hambone 12/Core Mae Bryant - It Was Weaver 13/Marie & Bishop Dready Manning - Glory, Glory 14/Beverly "Guitar" Watkins - I Know The Lord Will Find A Way 15/Essie Mae Brooks - I've Been Gone Too Long 16/Algia Mae Hinton with Taj Mahal - You Don't Have To Go 17/Pura Fe' with Danny Godinez - Hard Time Killing Floor 18/Etta Baker with Taj Mahal & Algia Mae Hinton - Comb Blues 19/Etta Baker - Etta's Rainbow Poem 20/Willa Mae Buckner - Peter Rumpkin 21/Cora Mae Bryant - 1999 22/Etta Baker - Going Down The Road Feeling Bad 23/Algia Mae Hinton - Watcha Gonna Do When Your Good Girl Turns You Down 24/Cora Fluker - Pray For Me
Video Program: These two enhanced CDs contain a video program that will run on most computer CD players.
Video Program CD 1: "Six Sisters of the South" with Beverly "Guitar" Watkins, Willa Mae Buckner, Marie Manning, Essie Mae Brooks, Pauline & James Goins, and Etta Baker.
Video Program CD 2: "A Visit to Etta Baker's"
Licensed from Pinnacle Productions, LLC/Music Maker Relief Foundation, ©2009 PINNACLE Productions, LLC (CD),©2009 Music Maker Relief Foundation (DVD), ©2009 DIXIEFROG Records