"Sweet Home, Chicago!"
The Blues Moves to the City
Between 1910 and 1930, two million African Americans left the economic deprivation and Jim Crow laws of the South and migrated to the cities of the Northeast and Midwest. In this era, known as the Great Migration, Black America was transformed from a predominantly rural society to an urban culture--and the Blues reflected this transition. What had been a music relying on individual performers sharing sometimes quite idiosyncratic rhythms and songs having to do with country life more and more began to rely groups of musicians, more regular rhythms, and songs about the themes of "modern life" in the city.
This week Spinning Tales will focus on the music of those blues players that were part of this transition, folks like Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red, Lonnie Johnson and Memphis Minnie who not only emigrated to Chicago, but also began to develop the modern blues riffs, the call and response single note leads of the modern blues guitar that would form the basis of the "blues sound" once the guitar was electrified. We'll hear from LeRoy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell, whose "cool" vocal styles and combination of piano and guitar would influence countless blues players--although LeRoy Carr, like Robert Johnson, would die before his 31st birthday. We'll also hear from John Lee Curtis "Sonny Boy" Williamson who brought his country boy harmonica and vocals north and began to develop what became the blues harmonica style that influenced players like Little Walter, Junior Wells and, later, Paul Butterfield.
Female vocalists Clara Smith, Lucille Bogan and others were also part of the blues as it moved to the City. We'll hear from them and more as we move with the Blues to the City--and set the stage for introduction of the electric guitar, the amplified harmonica, and the emergence of the "jump blues" as Spinning Tales wraps up our tour through the Blues. We hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have!
