Come home Charley Patton is a moving and an imaginative memoir documenting the Civil Rights Era and contemporary southern culture. Intricately layered and deeply arresting, Ralph Lemon's research on the African American experience intertwines personal anecdotes and family remembrances with diaristic accounts of the making of a dance, as Lemon journeys the mythic roads of migration—visiting the sites of lynchings, following the paths of Civil Rights marches, and meeting the descendants of early blues musicians. Come home Charley Patton is a rich, transcendent text, and a historically-charged meditation on memory in America. It is a formidable finale for the Geography trilogy (including Geography and Tree), three books connected thematically by racial identity and the related dance projects choreographed by Lemon. Generously illustrated with family photos, original art, and photos of the performance, the book will take its place in the canon of great African American writing.
"Geography, a tapestry of journal entries, choreographic scores, drawings, and photographs, leads us through the creation of an evening-long dance, "Geography," a collaboration about being American, African, brown, black, blue black, male, and artist. This dance piece was a major departure for Ralph Lemon. In it everything is at stake - his identity, his politics, his art, his very way of moving. In order to create it, he traveled to Africa in search of dancers and a new relationship to the stage." "The intimate, keenly observed passages in this artist's journal give us extraordinary insights on the process of dance-making - from the discovery of specific movements to the sometimes uneasy relationships between the dancers. At every juncture the collaboration posed difficult questions about representing African dance and culture within the context of modern America's post-slave heritage. The book beautifully documents Lemon's ability to negotiate different dance traditions without either erasing or cementing them."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Noted guitarist John Fahey presents a textual and musicological examination of the music of blues legend Charley Patton. This new edition is enhanced by Fahey's notes from the Grammy-winning, out-of-print box set Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton.
"Charlie Patton (1891-1934) was born in central Mississippi. By 1908, he had begun his performing career, initially at small house parties, then at barrelhouses and other settings that could accommodate a hundred people or more. Until his death in 1934, Patton was a top draw for the numerous African Americans then living and working in the Delta. In 1929 and 1930, he recorded several hits for Paramount Records, on the basis of which he was sought by the American Record Company in January 1934 for what would be his last recordings. He was immensely influential to other bluesmen, including Tommy Johnson, Kid Bailey, Robert Johnson, and Howlin' Wolf. Since 1991, his collected recordings have been available to the wider public. This book was previously published in 1988 under the authorship of Wardlow (b. 1940) and Calt (1946-2010). Its sole printing of 3,000 paperback copies sold out within seven years, and since 1988 additional recordings of Patton and his associates have been recovered and widely reissued to the public, particularly on Jack White's Third Man Records. Komara (b. 1966) has updated Wardlow and Calt's original edition and has written a new afterword discussing a resurgence of Delta-blues-style rock and the continuing influence of Patton and the music genre he helped pioneer"--
Blues Book of the Year —26th Annual Living Blues Awards Contributions by Luther Allison, John Broven, Daniel Droixhe, David Evans, William Ferris, Jim O'Neal, Mike Rowe, Robert Sacré, Arnold Shaw, and Dick Shurman Fifty years after Charley Patton's death in 1934, a team of blues experts gathered five thousand miles from Dockery Farms at the University of Liege in Belgium to honor the life and music of the most influential artist of the Mississippi Delta blues. This volume brings together essays from that international symposium on Charley Patton and Mississippi blues traditions, influences, and comparisons. Originally published by Presses Universitaires de Liège in Belgium, this collection has been revised and updated with a new foreword by William Ferris, new images added, and some essays translated into English for the first time. Patton's personal life and his recorded music bear witness to how he endured and prevailed in his struggle as a black man during the early twentieth century. Within this volume, that story offers hope and wonder. Organized in two parts—“Origins and Traditions” and “Comparison with Other Regional Styles and Mutual Influence”—the essays create an invaluable resource on the life and music of this early master. Written by a distinguished group of scholars, these pieces secure the legacy of Charley Patton as the fountainhead of Mississippi Delta blues.
Born into poverty in Mississippi at the close of the nineteenth century, Charley Patton and Jimmie Rodgers established themselves among the most influential musicians of their era. In Tune tells the story of the parallel careers of these two pioneering recording artists -- one white, one black -- who moved beyond their humble origins to change the face of American music. At a time when segregation formed impassable lines of demarcation in most areas of southern life, music transcended racial boundaries. Jimmie Rodgers and Charley Patton drew inspiration from musical traditions on both sides of the racial divide, and their songs about hard lives, raising hell, and the hope of better days ahead spoke to white and black audiences alike. Their music reflected the era in which they lived but evoked a range of timeless human emotions. As the invention of the phonograph disseminated traditional forms of music to a wider audience, Jimmie Rodgers gained fame as the "Father of Country Music," while Patton's work eventually earned him the title "King of the Delta Blues." Patton and Rodgers both died young, leaving behind a relatively small number of recordings. Though neither remains well known to mainstream audiences, the impact of their contributions echoes in the songs of today. The first book to compare the careers of these two musicians, In Tune is a vital addition to the history of American music.
The Specter and the Speculative: Afterlives and Archives in the African Diaspora engages in a critical conversation about how historical subjects and historical texts within the African Diaspora are re-fashioned, re-animated, and re-articulated, as well as parodied, nostalgized, and defamiliarized, to establish an “afterlife” for African Atlantic identities and narratives. These essays focus on transnational, transdisciplinary, and transhistorical sites of memory and haunting—textual, visual, and embodied performances—in order to examine how these “living” archives circulate and imagine anew the meanings of prior narratives liberated from their original context. Individual essays examine how historical and literary performances—in addition to film, drama, music, dance, and material culture—thus revitalized, transcend and speak across temporal and spatial boundaries not only to reinstate traditional meanings, but also to motivate fresh commentary and critique. Emergent and established scholars representing diverse disciplines and fields of interest specifically engage under explored themes related to afterlives, archives, and haunting.
Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton-we are all familiar with the story of the Delta blues. Fierce, raw voices; tormented drifters; deals with the devil at the crossroads at midnight. In this extraordinary reconstruction of the origins of the Delta blues, historian Marybeth Hamilton demonstrates that the story as we know it is largely a myth. The idea of something called Delta blues only emerged in the mid-twentieth century, the culmination of a longstanding white fascination with the exotic mysteries of black music. Hamilton shows that the Delta blues was effectively invented by white pilgrims, seekers, and propagandists who headed deep into America's south in search of an authentic black voice of rage and redemption. In their quest, and in the immense popularity of the music they championed, we confront America's ongoing love affair with racial difference.
"Travel back to the birth of the blues, from the age-old field-hollers of Mississippi cotton fields to the hidden world of Delta juke joints, to the nightclubs of Chicago." - See Reviews Below "Finding Charley Patton" is a historical novel set in 1930, in Mississippi and Chicago. An African American reporter for the Chicago Defender travels back to Mississippi to find the mysterious Delta blues musicians who began appearing on 'race records' in the late 1920s. Black history and the blues are deeply interwoven into the fabric of America. The emergence of the radical new African American artform called "the Blues," and the blues culture the music inspired, had a profound impact on American society, both artistically and culturally. Yet the story of the blues is an often-overlooked chapter in the nation's history. In this rousing and entertaining adventure book, the story follows reporter Cyrus Jordan on his challenging journey, deep into "Jim-Crow" Mississippi, to write a story about the new Delta blues music. Cyrus Jordan, had worked in the Delta as a young man, and he hopes to find one bluesman in particular that he'd known there, named Charley Patton, who's recently been making records for Paramount. During the trip, the elusive history of the blues unfolds, along with the troubling social history of African Americans in Mississippi. But the book is about much more than the hard times often sung about in blues songs. It is also a tale of triumph over adversity and a great road-trip story, with a cast of complex and colorful characters and great blues music. The novel journeys deep into the hidden world of blues music found in cotton fields, juke joints, recording studios, and on street corners. The story follows the exploits of Mississippi blues musicians Charley Patton, Son House, Willie Brown, and their young proteges Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, as they perform around the Delta during the vibrant days of the early blues. The book also explores the Chicago blues scene of the 1920s and pioneering black record producer Mayo Williams, who recorded the early blues records for Paramount. As a black man from Chicago, Cyrus Jordan's long and arduous trip back to Mississippi to search for his old friend Charley Patton, whose music had transcended the Delta, becomes a journey into finding Cyrus's own roots and American identity. "Finding Charley Patton" is an inspiring story of music and life. Cover photo (C) 2003 Blues Images - Used with permission REVIEWS (This book was originally published in December of 2019, as "The Promise of the Blues" Here are some "Top reviews from the United States" PeterG - 5.0 out of 5 stars One not to miss! - Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2020 A fascinating work, a must for the lovers of the Blues! JerryG - 5.0 out of 5 stars If you're interested in the history of the Blues, you'll enjoy this book! Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2020 - "The Promise of the Blues" is a compelling thesis on the history of the Delta Blues, and the social conditions surrounding the music, wrapped in a very entertaining novel. A great read! JoAnn R. - 5.0 out of 5 stars I recommend this book for a good read. July 20, 2020 - Great book, really enjoyed reading it. An insightful adventure tale of music and identity. Amazon Customer - 5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Feel of the blues and the characters and life and times of back then. April 16, 2020 - An excellent, entertaining, and important read! Lara D - 5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough history and social commentary placed in a delightful package July 19, 2020 -The amount of historical gems in this book is impressive.....a very pleasurable read....
Collectors of illustrator R. Crumb's work prize the music-oriented trading card sets he created in the 1980s. Now they appear together for the first time in book form, along with a CD of music selected and compiled by Crumb himself.
