Blues in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley
Steve Bransford, Emory University
Essay Sections:
Introduction | The
Region | Topics and Terms | Blues
Artists | Bryant, Daniel and
Mitchell | Audio Interview Excerpts |Assorted
Audio Performances |Recommended Resources
Bryant, Daniel and Mitchell:
This section provides original video and audio footage
from interviews with Precious Bryant, George
Daniel, and George Mitchell, as well as several
music clips and audio interview clips from other sources.
Real Player, QuickTime, or Windows Media Player are required to view clips. Broadband and external speakers are highly recommended.
Real Player, QuickTime, or Windows Media Player are required to view clips. Broadband and external speakers are highly recommended.
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"My Chauffeur" ( 2:21 min.)
Bryant learned this in the 1980s from a Memphis
Minnie cassette tape.
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Interview Excerpt with Precious Bryant (0:57 min.)
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Bryant talks about some of her earliest musical
experiences.
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"Georgia Buck" (1:23 min.)
instrumental version
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Precious Bryant Interview Excerpt
( 0:47 min.)
Bryant explains that she learned "Georgia
Buck" from her father and her uncle, and it came "from
some of those older guitar players like Blind Boy Fuller."
She also mentions that when her father and uncle played the song
"it was just 'The Buck'...I put the Georgia to it."
(video courtesy of Jake and Cathy Fussell) |
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"Fever" (2:46 min.)
Bryant learned this Little Willie John hit after
hearing on the radio in the late fifties.
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Precious Bryant Interview Excerpt ( 2:18 min.)
Bryant talks about the Georgia Fife and Drum Band
and the musical community that she grew up in.
(video courtesy of Jake and Cathy Fussell) |
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"Sugar
Hill Blues" (1:38 min.)
instrumental version
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"Fool Me Good"
( 2:10 min.)
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"Smokestack Lightnin"
(2:12 min.) |
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Daniel Interview Excerpt
(0:52 min.) George Daniel discusses some of his early musical
experiences.
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Solo harmonica piece
(1:56 min.) |
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Audio
Interview Clip with George Daniel (2:41 min.)
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George Mitchell conducted this interview with
George Daniel in 1979. (courtesy George Mitchell) |
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"Standard Juke" (1:58 min.)
George Daniel and Jake Fussell featured. |
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Daniel Interview Excerpt
(1:12 min.) Daniel discusses playing with Albert Macon and
Robert Thomas and the blues clubs in his area.
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Two electric tunes (5:15 min.)
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Mitchell Interview Excerpt
(5:15 min.) Mitchell discusses how he began recording blues
in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley.
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Mitchell Interview Excerpt (3:01 min.)
Mitchell discusses the Lower Chattahoochee blues
sound, relating it to the Mayday tradition of "pole plattin.'"
He believes the region's poverty and isolation contributed to
the lack of Lower Chattahoochee blues recordings from the twenties
through the forties.
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Mitchell
Interview Excerpt (1:29 min.)
Mitchell lists the "three kinds" of
traditional music and tells how Lower Chattahoochee blues musicians
take popular blues tunes and adapt them to their own styles.
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Essay Sections:
Introduction | The
Region | Topics and Terms | Blues
Artists | Bryant, Daniel and
Mitchell | Audio Interview Excerpts |Assorted
Audio Performances |Recommended Resources
