Intersting Pic - Early Blues

VegasGeorge

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This is a screen shot taken from "Blues America - Woke Up This Morning," Part 1, at about frame 21:26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hZMHLGMpzc

Uke Screen Shot.jpg

The sound track isn't very good, and you can't hear much but the washboard being played. This must have been taken in the middle to late 1920's. Who can tell us more about it?
 
I have never seen that clip, thanks for linking! I have seen a photograph of the same frame, but I cannot recall where.
 
I can't do a screen capture, but at 0:19, the same guy with the bowtie playing a ukulele is on screen for a couple of seconds.
 
Driving me crazy! I feel like I've seen a still photo of these guys before, possibly in connection with a Document Records CD, but I can't for the life of me manage to retrieve the guy's name from the aging hard drive that is my brain. Anyone??
 
Thanks for sharing. I hadn't seen this before.
 
It's from 1928 and the era of jug band music that began in the south around the time of the Depression.

Their names are Eddie Thomson and Carl Scott.

Here's the original video in full, courtesy of youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj_2LRvUqEU


Fabulous footage. There's also a brief write up on these two men on Cigar Box Nation:

Virginia, 1928. During the Depression, lack of money and technology did not stop folks from making great music. Take this duo who put on a porch concert with a ukulele, washboard & kazoo. A teapot becomes a horn, a wooden tube creates an added acoustic element while the infectious rhythm keeps it swingy.
 
Oh Wow! I just knew those two were making real music, even though I only saw that little clip. Hippie, that full video of them is fabulous. Thanks for that!

Does anyone else hear that Ukulele to be tuned way low? It actually sounds good that way in the music they're playing.
 
Oh Wow! I just knew those two were making real music, even though I only saw that little clip. Hippie, that full video of them is fabulous. Thanks for that!

Does anyone else hear that Ukulele to be tuned way low? It actually sounds good that way in the music they're playing.
I reckon he's probably in Bb tuning. That was a pretty common back in the day, especially for jazz.
 
That's a great video. The bit about Delta blues being a new rather than old form was very interesting.
 
Here's a post I started on Weenie Campbell about early country blues and the Ukulele.

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=10210.0

It includes a second video of Eddie Thomas and Carl Scott - Tomorrow/My Old Home

Weenie is a great early country blues resource, even though it is guitar based.

h
 
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That's a great video. The bit about Delta blues being a new rather than old form was very interesting.

Yeah, that caught me off guard too. It does make perfect sense. The corps of engineers building levees and draining the delta land (circa 1900), land owners bringing in lots of hired help to clear and cultivate, the farm help developing a musical style of their own, and the record companies coming in to capitalize on it. All in a period of less than 30 years. Sounds like America to me!
 
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The corps of engineers building levees and draining the delta land (circa 1900), land owners bringing in lots of hired help to clear and cultivate, the farm help developing a musical style of their own, and the record companies coming in to capitalize on it. All in a period of less than 30 years. Sounds like America to me!
And a player in the video talks of how record companies worked. Come to town, rent a hotel room with a simple recording setup, invite everybody around to come and play -- and stifle everyone but the blues players. The companies saw blues as money-makers but not other musics.
 
Another interesting fact I learned from watching youtube blues videos, the early recording companies were the furniture manufacturers that made the gramophones. They used their furniture warehouses for recording studios.
 
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