0:00:52 > 0:00:55In the 1920s, record companies went out into America
0:00:55 > 0:01:00and, for the first time, recorded music of everyday working people.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04Some of those artists, like The Carter Family
0:01:04 > 0:01:07and The Memphis Jug Band, became popular stars
0:01:07 > 0:01:11and are remembered as pioneers of blues, country and R&B.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17Others are remembered only as names on old record labels.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21Here are some of THEIR stories.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34# Up above my head I hear music in the air
0:01:34 > 0:01:36# Up above my head
0:01:36 > 0:01:39# There is music in the air
0:01:39 > 0:01:41# Up above my head
0:01:41 > 0:01:44# Music in the air
0:01:44 > 0:01:49# And I really do believe really do believe joy somewhere
0:01:49 > 0:01:54# All in my room Music everywhere
0:01:54 > 0:01:58# All in my home Music in the air
0:01:58 > 0:02:03# Up above my head there is music in the air
0:02:03 > 0:02:07# And I do believe I do believe joy somewhere
0:02:07 > 0:02:09# Well, well, well above my head
0:02:09 > 0:02:12# Thank God Almighty music everywhere
0:02:12 > 0:02:14# Music everywhere up above my head
0:02:14 > 0:02:16# Don't you know Music in the air
0:02:16 > 0:02:21# Up above my head There is music in the air
0:02:21 > 0:02:26# You know, I really do believe I really do believe joy somewhere. #
0:02:29 > 0:02:33African-American Spirituals and gospel have shaped
0:02:33 > 0:02:36every style of American music.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39In the 1920s, the first wave of black recording stars included
0:02:39 > 0:02:43dozens of religious singers and fiery preachers who inspired
0:02:43 > 0:02:47listeners to uplift their spirit and find freedom in song.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54One of these pastors was an obscure figure named Elder Burch,
0:02:54 > 0:02:57who brought his church choir to Atlanta in 1927
0:02:57 > 0:03:00and, in a single session with Ralph Peer,
0:03:00 > 0:03:04recorded nine passionate sermons and one haunting hymn.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07WOMAN: # Ever since my sin... #
0:03:07 > 0:03:09- CHOIR:- # Ever since my sin
0:03:09 > 0:03:13- # Been taken away - Been taken away... #
0:03:13 > 0:03:18ALL: # My heart keeps singing, singing, singing
0:03:18 > 0:03:21# Lord, all the time
0:03:21 > 0:03:24- # Then Jesus wants - Then Jesus wants
0:03:24 > 0:03:28- # Me in his love - Me in his love... #
0:03:28 > 0:03:34ALL: # My heart keeps singing Singing, singing all the time
0:03:34 > 0:03:38- # I'm sanctified - I'm sanctified
0:03:38 > 0:03:42- # By the Holy Ghost - By the Holy Ghost
0:03:42 > 0:03:50# My heart keeps singing, singing, singing all the time
0:03:50 > 0:03:53- # Then Jesus wants - Then Jesus wants
0:03:53 > 0:03:57- # Me in his arms - Me in his arms
0:03:57 > 0:04:00My heart keeps singing
0:04:00 > 0:04:06# Singing, singing Lord, all the time. #
0:04:06 > 0:04:09VOICES PRAISING, OVERLAPPING
0:04:12 > 0:04:15The power of those voices captured our imagination...
0:04:22 > 0:04:26..and set us on a quest to solve the mystery - who was Elder Burch?
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Our first stop was the current home of Victor Records,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35the basement of the Sony Building in New York City.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40We just wanted to try and find anything about Elder Burch.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44We knew he had been recorded by Victor, so Sony, who own that label,
0:04:44 > 0:04:46allowed me to come down into this basement here and look
0:04:46 > 0:04:51through their records, which have every Victor recording from
0:04:51 > 0:04:54the turn of the last century to the present day.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57And these are the sheets that the recording engineers would
0:04:57 > 0:05:01type up, listing what songs were played, what instruments were used.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05You can see here Edith Piaf, Elvis Presley...
0:05:06 > 0:05:09I mean, every act you can think of.
0:05:09 > 0:05:10Here it is - BU.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16And in it, the folders are filled with these smaller brown folders.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19Julie Budd, whoever she was.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24The Buffalo Bills, Bumble Bee Slim...
0:05:25 > 0:05:27..The Bummers.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32Here he is. Elder JE Burch.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41Here is the original sheet from 1927 that was recorded when
0:05:41 > 0:05:46Ralph Peer went to Atlanta, Georgia to make this record.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49So this is the actual thing that was in the engineer's typewriter
0:05:49 > 0:05:51the day of that recording session.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54And these are all the songs that Burch recorded on this day -
0:05:54 > 0:05:56look at the number of them here.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59Address - Cheraw, South Carolina.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01Maybe that's where he was from.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07So we travelled to a town we had never heard of,
0:06:07 > 0:06:10known as the Prettiest Town In Dixie.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18It was springtime as we drove through Cheraw with its
0:06:18 > 0:06:22historic old houses and quiet roads dappled with blossoming trees.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27Apparently little had changed over the past century.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35We talked to many people in Cheraw,
0:06:35 > 0:06:37but none of them remembered Elder Burch.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Eventually we were told to cross the tracks and visit one of
0:06:44 > 0:06:46the town's elders, Ted Bradley.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50Very few people know anything about Elder Burch.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53He was a tall, good-looking man, I would say.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56He would stand there kind of rocking respect,
0:06:56 > 0:06:58someone whose shoes were always shined,
0:06:58 > 0:07:02he was well-dressed, vest, gold chains.
0:07:02 > 0:07:08MAN: # I'm gonna sing Lord, can you hear?
0:07:08 > 0:07:13# Right down here
0:07:13 > 0:07:17# I'm going to sing, Lord God, can you hear?
0:07:17 > 0:07:22# Right down here, Lord...#
0:07:22 > 0:07:28His voice was not... It wasn't one of those hard...
0:07:28 > 0:07:31It was more...a little soft, so to speak.
0:07:34 > 0:07:42MULTIPLE VOICES SINGING AND PRAISING
0:07:42 > 0:07:44And I just wanted to be like him!
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Elder Burch was born in 1876 just outside Cheraw.
0:07:51 > 0:07:57He became a turpentine harvester, travelling to Mississippi
0:07:57 > 0:08:01where he became a minister and a disciple of ED Smith,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04founder of the Triumph Church movement,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07whose congregations channelled the word of God
0:08:07 > 0:08:11in a rapturous frenzy known as speaking in tongues.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17Charismatic preachers like Elder Burch rose up at a time when
0:08:17 > 0:08:20popular movements for civil rights were spreading across the South.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26Triumph in the other African-American churches were
0:08:26 > 0:08:29at the heart of the struggle for equal rights,
0:08:29 > 0:08:30dignity and self-respect.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35And music became a vehicle for liberation.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41At the library of Congress, we found a panoramic photograph of
0:08:41 > 0:08:44the 1919 gathering of Triumph Churches.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50We asked Ted Bradley if he recognised Elder Burch
0:08:50 > 0:08:51in the photograph.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Bradley searched for a face he last saw as a child.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00Oh, man...
0:09:00 > 0:09:02Mm...
0:09:02 > 0:09:05Man, you know how long that's been?
0:09:05 > 0:09:0770 years ago!
0:09:11 > 0:09:1270 years ago.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19When Burch returned to his hometown, he bought land and
0:09:19 > 0:09:25opened a store, a boarding house, a barbershop and a restaurant -
0:09:25 > 0:09:26all remarkable achievements
0:09:26 > 0:09:29for an African-American in the South at that time.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37In 1924, he built a church in Cheraw with his own hands,
0:09:37 > 0:09:42gathered a fervent congregation, and formed a thunderous choir.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46CHOIR SINGS
0:09:49 > 0:09:52We find the Triumph Church still standing,
0:09:52 > 0:09:57and meet Elder Burch's modern successor, Pastor Donnie Chapman.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00In the '20s, Triumph Church -
0:10:00 > 0:10:05church in general, period - was everything.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07Because everything was segregated,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10and the blacks went to THEIR churches,
0:10:10 > 0:10:12whites went to THEIR churches,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15and black people back in that day didn't have much.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18The only thing that they had was...
0:10:18 > 0:10:22by the church, was hope for the future,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25hoping that there would be a better day coming than what they were
0:10:25 > 0:10:28experiencing at that very present time.
0:10:28 > 0:10:33But Elder Burch really did a very important thing for Cheraw.
0:10:33 > 0:10:39He started their local branch of the NAACP with Mr Levi Byrd.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44And every day they put their lives on the line for the black community,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47and Elder Burch tried to make this world
0:10:47 > 0:10:50a better place for all of us to live.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53We sang those old gospel songs to get relief from the burdens
0:10:53 > 0:10:56of the day, from the cotton fields, from cropping tobacco,
0:10:56 > 0:10:59from all of those hard tasks.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03And when you hear one singing a song across the field,
0:11:03 > 0:11:05the whole field would take it up.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09It would go across the field just like a wave, you know?
0:11:09 > 0:11:17# Amazing grace. #
0:11:17 > 0:11:19Then you hear it picked up on that side...
0:11:19 > 0:11:23# How sweet... #
0:11:24 > 0:11:27Then after they sing, they hum.
0:11:27 > 0:11:28HE HUMS
0:11:28 > 0:11:32And that just makes you just forget about that hot sun on your back.
0:11:34 > 0:11:39Down on your knees, in that 85 degree weather,
0:11:39 > 0:11:41picking that cotton.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46- VOICE ECHOES:- # Amazing grace
0:11:46 > 0:11:50# How sweet... #
0:11:50 > 0:11:54At the Triumph Church, we find another of the town's elders,
0:11:54 > 0:11:55Ernest Gillespie.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59In Cheraw at that time, the Triumph Church started their
0:11:59 > 0:12:01services on Sunday nights.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05Sunday nights was the big service time.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08You could hear it a number of blocks away.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12Elder Burch was just one of those people that attracted people
0:12:12 > 0:12:14because of the music that he played,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18and a lot of people would go by just to see people being
0:12:18 > 0:12:22really spiritually moved and dance or shout, if you will.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24And we would just listen to the singing,
0:12:24 > 0:12:28the music and everything else, and enjoy it.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31A lot of people looked down on the Sanctified church cos
0:12:31 > 0:12:36they just were getting loose. You could hear the sensuality and
0:12:36 > 0:12:39the fervour happening in what they were doing.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44They wanted those churches to be more staid and steady and,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47you know, it was like...
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Well, yeah, but boring.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54MAN LEADS CHOIR: # Yes, love is my wonderful song
0:12:54 > 0:12:58# I'm singing it all day long
0:12:58 > 0:13:02# Since the family came in
0:13:02 > 0:13:06# Yes, love is my wonderful song. #
0:13:06 > 0:13:09When night come, and during the service,
0:13:09 > 0:13:13all of those people would come so they could hear that music,
0:13:13 > 0:13:16hear that singing, hear that stomping,
0:13:16 > 0:13:20hear those people jumping and praising the Lord and
0:13:20 > 0:13:23having a wonderful time.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30# Yes, love is my wonderful song I'm singing it all day long. #
0:13:30 > 0:13:33The fervour of Elder Burch's congregation
0:13:33 > 0:13:34inspired local youngsters,
0:13:34 > 0:13:38one of whom became a giant of modern jazz -
0:13:38 > 0:13:41Ernest's cousin, Dizzy Gillespie.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11Let me read you this out of Dizzy's autobiography.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15"Like most black musicians, much of my early inspiration,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18"especially with rhythm and harmonies, came from the church.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20"Not MY church, though.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23"The Sanctified church stood down the street from us.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27"The leader of the church's name was Elder Burch,
0:14:27 > 0:14:29"and he had several sons.
0:14:29 > 0:14:30"Johnny Burch played the snare drum,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33"his brother Willie beat the cymbal.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36"Another one of the Burch brothers played bass drum.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38"They used to keep at least four rhythms going,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40"and as they congregation joined in
0:14:40 > 0:14:43"the number of rhythms would increase,
0:14:43 > 0:14:45"with foot stomping, hand clapping
0:14:45 > 0:14:46"and people catching the spirit
0:14:46 > 0:14:49"and jumping up and down on the wooden floor,
0:14:49 > 0:14:51"which also resounded like a drum.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55"Even white people would come down and sit outside in their cars
0:14:55 > 0:14:59"just to listen to people getting the spirit inside.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02"Everyone would be shouting and fainting and stomping.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05"The Sanctified church rhythm got to me
0:15:05 > 0:15:08"as it did anyone who came near the place.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12"People like Aretha Franklin and James Brown owe everything
0:15:12 > 0:15:13"to that Sanctified beat."
0:15:13 > 0:15:17HE SCREAMS
0:15:17 > 0:15:18# Please...#
0:15:22 > 0:15:26"I received my first experience with rhythm and spiritual transport
0:15:26 > 0:15:29"going down there to Elder Burch's church every Sunday,
0:15:29 > 0:15:32"and I have just followed it ever since."
0:15:32 > 0:15:36If you listen to Diz's music you hear Triumph.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40They lived right up the street from the church, and he heard every note,
0:15:40 > 0:15:44every downbeat, every drumbeat, he could hear it from his bed.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48If you walk up the street from Elder Burch's church a few houses,
0:15:48 > 0:15:49you'll arrive to where Dizzy lived.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53They made it into a park now.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59Standing in the park, you can still hear the music
0:15:59 > 0:16:01from Elder Burch's church.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12It's amazing that the music on this record,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15recorded in the '20s by Elder Burch,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18influenced so many people around Cheraw.
0:16:21 > 0:16:26It's a thrill to see the members of the Triumph Church choir,
0:16:26 > 0:16:30composed of people throughout the United States, arriving here in
0:16:30 > 0:16:34Cheraw to sing, all in tribute to Elder Burch.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43We would like to welcome you to our wonderful city of Cheraw,
0:16:43 > 0:16:49South Carolina, to a church that Elder John Burch built
0:16:49 > 0:16:53back in the 1920s.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57- Amen. Amen - ALL: Amen.
0:16:57 > 0:17:04You know, in Psalm 149, it says, "Sing a new song unto the Lord."
0:17:04 > 0:17:09Sing a new song, and that song that he sung,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11I will sing unto the Lord.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16My heart just keeps right on singing and praising
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Almighty God. Amen. All right.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22APPLAUSE
0:17:22 > 0:17:26- MAN: # Come sanctify... # CHOIR:- # Come sanctify
0:17:26 > 0:17:31- # With the Holy Ghost - With the Holy Ghost
0:17:31 > 0:17:33# My heart keeps
0:17:33 > 0:17:40# Singing, singing, singing all the time... #
0:17:40 > 0:17:42BAND STARTS
0:17:46 > 0:17:48- # I'm singing - I'm singing
0:17:48 > 0:17:51- # Because I'm free - I'm singing
0:17:51 > 0:17:54- # You help me - I'm singing
0:17:54 > 0:17:56- # I'm singing - I'm singing
0:17:56 > 0:18:03- # Oh... - Singing, singing all the time
0:18:03 > 0:18:06- # I'm singing - Cos he brought me
0:18:06 > 0:18:09- # I'm going to sing - I'm singing
0:18:09 > 0:18:13# I'm going to sing I'm going to sing, I'm going to sing
0:18:13 > 0:18:16- # Oh, yes, I'm singing - I'm singing
0:18:16 > 0:18:20- # Can you help me sing? - I'm singing
0:18:20 > 0:18:22- # I do for him - I'm singing
0:18:22 > 0:18:31# I sanctify God All the time. #
0:18:31 > 0:18:35APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:18:35 > 0:18:38BAND PLAYS
0:18:53 > 0:18:55MUSIC FADES
0:19:11 > 0:19:17MAN: # Get down, get down little Henry Lee
0:19:17 > 0:19:21# And stay all night with me
0:19:23 > 0:19:27# The very best lodging I can afford
0:19:27 > 0:19:31# Will be fare better'n thee
0:19:32 > 0:19:37# I can't get down and I won't get down
0:19:37 > 0:19:41# And stay all night with thee
0:19:41 > 0:19:46# For the girl I have in that merry green land
0:19:46 > 0:19:52# I love far better'n thee...#
0:19:52 > 0:19:55Some of the more striking music of the early recording era
0:19:55 > 0:19:59came from the coal mines of Logan County, West Virginia.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04These gritty songs capture stories of hard lives, hard deaths,
0:20:04 > 0:20:08hard luck and hard labour.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11The men of Logan County spent their days underground,
0:20:11 > 0:20:14scratching a living out of solid rock.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17Three of them were also exceptional musicians.
0:20:17 > 0:20:23Frank Hutchison, Dick Justice and Ervin Williamson.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26My father was a musician, Ervin Williamson,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29who founded the group the Williamson Brothers & Curry
0:20:29 > 0:20:30back in the '20s.
0:20:31 > 0:20:32They were very, very good
0:20:32 > 0:20:34and they had a good following,
0:20:34 > 0:20:36but he chose to come to Logan County
0:20:36 > 0:20:41and have a family and to work in the coal mines and make money that way.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45They went in the coal mines at daylight
0:20:45 > 0:20:47and they didn't get out until after dark,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50and I remember my dad telling me that they
0:20:50 > 0:20:53hand-loaded coal with a shovel,
0:20:53 > 0:20:55and they got paid 0.50 a carload.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59And the only people who prospered and got better off
0:20:59 > 0:21:00were the coal companies themselves.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03That's what my dad told me the way it was, you know.
0:21:05 > 0:21:10My name is Eugene Justice, my father was Dick Justice.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14Dad worked in the coal mines all his life,
0:21:14 > 0:21:16and what I heard, he started,
0:21:16 > 0:21:18like, when he was 13 years old.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22One time Dad took me down in one, maybe two miles,
0:21:22 > 0:21:24and I didn't want no more.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27I said, "Get me back out of here."
0:21:27 > 0:21:31It's an eerie feeling, man, all that dirt overhead.
0:21:32 > 0:21:37# Old black dog when I'm gone, Lord, Lord
0:21:37 > 0:21:41# Old black dog when I'm gone
0:21:41 > 0:21:45# When I come back with a 10 bill
0:21:45 > 0:21:49# And it's Honey, where you been so long?... #
0:21:49 > 0:21:53It was dangerous just to go in, let alone work in it, you know.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56There was a lot of mining accidents back then, my dad told me
0:21:56 > 0:21:58that every time you go down - at that time -
0:21:58 > 0:22:01you were just taking your life in your hands.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03There wasn't very much to do, really.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05Dad, he'd work all week,
0:22:05 > 0:22:10and on the weekends he'd have his beer, play his guitar.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14It was just to get together and play their instruments.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19Dad loved music, and people done a lot back then, like a hobby.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23They just had the music in them and they enjoyed it.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26They didn't plan on making a career or making big-time money
0:22:26 > 0:22:28like they do now with music.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31It was just something that neighbours and people got together
0:22:31 > 0:22:33and they done. But that's the way it was.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35That's the way life was back then.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38It was pretty rough on people working in the coal mines,
0:22:38 > 0:22:40half killing themselves,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43and the coal companies taking most of their money back.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46That's what Dad did - every penny he got went right back to them.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51Back in 1921, miners started marching,
0:22:51 > 0:22:53and they was trying to get unions formed.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56The coal companies didn't want the union to come in, because if
0:22:56 > 0:23:01they did, that meant the coal miners would get better pay and everything.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04Well, the sheriff back at the time had an army of deputies
0:23:04 > 0:23:07to meet him at the top of Blair Mountain.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09They had guns all over the place, you know.
0:23:09 > 0:23:14Of course, the coalminers, they were armed too, but they were outnumbered
0:23:14 > 0:23:18by five or ten to one, and several people were killed.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21It's believed that some people's remains might still be
0:23:21 > 0:23:22laying on the mountain up there.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26The mine wars and the hellish working conditions inspired
0:23:26 > 0:23:29the Logan musicians to find a way out through music.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34Back then Dick Justice and Frank Hutchison, they were very good,
0:23:34 > 0:23:37and they all knew each other, they played music together many times.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44Frank Hutchison was the first Logan County artist to make a record.
0:23:44 > 0:23:49He travelled to New York in 1926 to record for the Okeh company,
0:23:49 > 0:23:53and when they invited him to another session in 1927, he arranged
0:23:53 > 0:23:56for some friends to secretly audition on their lunch break.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59Now, when Dad made some recordings,
0:23:59 > 0:24:03Frank Hutchison and him, they helped him set up an audition,
0:24:03 > 0:24:05and they auditioned over the telephone.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07The Okeh scouts liked what they heard,
0:24:07 > 0:24:11and they wired the Williamson Brothers & Curry train fare
0:24:11 > 0:24:13to come record in St Louis.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17They went on down, and they went down on the train.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21It was in 1927, during the biggest floods
0:24:21 > 0:24:23on the Mississippi River ever,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26and Dad had told me stories about when he would look out the train
0:24:26 > 0:24:29all he could see was water and see housetops sticking up
0:24:29 > 0:24:31out of the water, it was that bad.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35When you made recordings back then, you recorded one time.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37You didn't get that take one, take two and take three
0:24:37 > 0:24:39and take four until you got it right.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42Whatever happened on the first recording, that is what went out.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02# I'm going down this road feeling bad
0:25:02 > 0:25:06# Oh, I'm going down this road feeling bad
0:25:06 > 0:25:10# Oh, I'm going down this road feeling bad, Lord, Lord,
0:25:10 > 0:25:14# And I ain't going to be treated this a-way... #
0:25:18 > 0:25:23They recorded six songs and they got paid 25 a song,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26and that was all, no royalties or anything,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29they just got paid 25 a song and that was it.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34That's a lot different from getting paid 0.50 a coal car, you know.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36Dick Justice was the third Logan mine worker
0:25:36 > 0:25:38to win a recording contract.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42Brunswick Records paid his fare to Chicago to record in their
0:25:42 > 0:25:45brand-new studio on the 21st floor of the American Furniture Mart.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51# Some take him by his lilywhite hand
0:25:51 > 0:25:56# Some take him by his feet
0:25:56 > 0:26:00# We'll throw him in this deep, deep well
0:26:00 > 0:26:05# More than 100 feet
0:26:05 > 0:26:09# Lie there, lie there loving Henry Lee
0:26:09 > 0:26:13# Till the flesh drops from your bones
0:26:13 > 0:26:18# I'd fly away to the merry green land
0:26:18 > 0:26:23# And tell what I have seen. #
0:26:26 > 0:26:29After his recording session, Dick Justice returned to the mines
0:26:29 > 0:26:32and waited for a phone call that never came.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37He never spoke a word about his recordings, even to his own son.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42He never talked about it.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46I never heard him mention ever recording songs.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51You would think if he recorded songs at one time or another,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54I would have heard him sing one of them. I never did.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02The Logan musicians received little recognition for their records.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06But decades later, three of their songs were revived on the
0:27:06 > 0:27:08Anthology Of American Folk Music -
0:27:08 > 0:27:11an album that became the Bible for a new generation of musicians.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17The anthology opened with Dick Justice's Henry Lee,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20and included Frank Hutchinson's Stackalee,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23and the Williamson Brothers' Gonna Die With A Hammer In My Hand.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29I'm holding in my hand here one of the original old 78 records -
0:27:29 > 0:27:31Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34That was a story about John Henry.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37Companies at that time, they brought in a steam machine
0:27:37 > 0:27:40to beat the steel and whoop it in the ground, is what they called it.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44But John Henry, according to the legend,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47he was not going to be beaten by a steam machine,
0:27:47 > 0:27:50that he could outdo it, and he just worked so hard trying to
0:27:50 > 0:27:53beat the steam machine that he just laid down his hammer and died.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14# John Henry told his captain
0:28:14 > 0:28:18# Man ain't nothing but a man
0:28:18 > 0:28:21# Before I'd be beaten by this old steam drill
0:28:21 > 0:28:24# Lord, I'll die with my hammer in my hand
0:28:24 > 0:28:27# Lord, I'll die with a hammer in my hand. #
0:28:33 > 0:28:36I can listen to his songs, and get them on the computer,
0:28:36 > 0:28:40on YouTube, and I listen to them sometimes and it chokes me up
0:28:40 > 0:28:42because I know what it would do for him.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45He wouldn't know what to think about it.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49It would just be amazing to him that his music was being
0:28:49 > 0:28:52recognised, him being gone since 1972.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55He would have really been overwhelmed with it,
0:28:55 > 0:28:57he really would have.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59One, two...
0:28:59 > 0:29:00One, two, three!
0:29:00 > 0:29:05# John Henry, well, he told his captain
0:29:05 > 0:29:08# "Captain, a man, he ain't nothin' but a man
0:29:10 > 0:29:12# "Before I let your steam drill
0:29:12 > 0:29:18# "Beat me down, I'm gonna die with a hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord
0:29:18 > 0:29:20# "I'll die with a hammer in my hand"... #
0:29:20 > 0:29:22Come on!
0:29:27 > 0:29:30CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:29:35 > 0:29:40BLUES MUSIC PLAYS, CROWD SCREAMS
0:29:49 > 0:29:51# I'm the little red rooster, baby
0:29:53 > 0:29:56# Too lazy to crow for day... #
0:30:15 > 0:30:18I was in Chicago a little while ago and I found a chap singing
0:30:18 > 0:30:21the blues and it turned out to be somebody you know about...
0:30:21 > 0:30:23In fact, he's quite famous, isn't he, in Britain?
0:30:23 > 0:30:27- Yes, well, he was the first one that recorded Little Red Rooster!- Was he?
0:30:27 > 0:30:29When did he...? Tell us something about him, Brian.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32Well, when we first started playing together, we started playing
0:30:32 > 0:30:34because we wanted to play rhythm and blues and
0:30:34 > 0:30:35Howlin' Wolf was one of our greatest idols,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38so I think it's about time you shut up and we had Howlin' Wolf on stage.
0:30:38 > 0:30:40I agree, OK!
0:30:40 > 0:30:42Howlin' Wolf!
0:30:42 > 0:30:45INDISTINCT LYRICS
0:30:45 > 0:30:48# You couldn't believe a word I'd say... #
0:30:51 > 0:30:55INDISTINCT LYRICS
0:30:55 > 0:30:58# You couldn't believe a word I'd say...
0:31:01 > 0:31:04# And you'd better pray
0:31:04 > 0:31:07# But I can't let you have your way. #
0:31:09 > 0:31:13And I'm starting to make ready, it was ploughing -
0:31:13 > 0:31:17ploughing four mule on the plantation.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22And a man come through picking a guitar called Charley Patton
0:31:22 > 0:31:24and I liked-ed his sound.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28Every night that I'd get off of work,
0:31:28 > 0:31:31I'd go over to his house and he'd learn me how to pick the guitar.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34Then I went to playing from there.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43# There's a little bo weavil keeps movin' in the evening, Lordie!
0:31:49 > 0:31:53# You can plant your cotton and you won't get a half a bale, Lordie
0:31:58 > 0:32:02# Bo weavil, bo weavil, where's your native home, Lordie
0:32:06 > 0:32:09# Bo weavil meet his wife, "We can sit down on the hill," Lordie
0:32:13 > 0:32:16# Bo weavil told his wife, "Let's trade this 40 in," Lordie
0:32:20 > 0:32:24# Bo weavil, bo weavil, "Outta treat me fair," Lordie
0:32:28 > 0:32:31# The next time I did you had your family there, Lordie. #
0:32:35 > 0:32:38Patton was a mythic figure and his first three records were
0:32:38 > 0:32:42released under three different names - Charley Patton,
0:32:42 > 0:32:45Elder JJ Hadley and the Masked Marvel.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51There is no film footage of him, and only one known photograph.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56Patton lived in a plantation culture that had hardly
0:32:56 > 0:32:58changed since the 19th century.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01But a music store owner named HC Speir
0:33:01 > 0:33:05in Jackson, Mississippi, was excited by Patton's raw sound and cut
0:33:05 > 0:33:09an audition record in his makeshift recording studio.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12Uh, this is HC Speir.
0:33:12 > 0:33:13I opened up the first recording
0:33:13 > 0:33:15station for making trial records.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18That was in 1926
0:33:18 > 0:33:21and I made a test for Charles Patton.
0:33:21 > 0:33:22Patton was good.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26As a rule, the best talent for the blues singing came from
0:33:26 > 0:33:30the Mississippi Delta and that's due to hard times and
0:33:30 > 0:33:35it gave them more incentive to put more into blues, you see.
0:33:35 > 0:33:37In other words,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40if he were sitting around at night and hear an owl sing,
0:33:40 > 0:33:42then he would kinda feel lonesome,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45and when they would sing, late in the evening,
0:33:45 > 0:33:47it was a lonesome sound, too.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50And that's what made those records sell better, too.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54I have to say Charley Patton was one of the best talents I ever had
0:33:54 > 0:33:57and he was one of the best sellers on record.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00Charley Patton's songs were often intensely personal,
0:34:00 > 0:34:02reflecting the harsh realities of his life.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05In High Water Everywhere,
0:34:05 > 0:34:10he recalls the devastation of the great Mississippi Flood in 1927.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13# That water was rising up
0:34:13 > 0:34:15# At places all around
0:34:15 > 0:34:17# Waters all around
0:34:19 > 0:34:22# It was 50 women, children
0:34:22 > 0:34:25# Tough luck, they can drown
0:34:26 > 0:34:28# Oh, Lordie
0:34:30 > 0:34:32# Women groaning down
0:34:35 > 0:34:38# Oh
0:34:38 > 0:34:41# Women and children sinking down... #
0:34:41 > 0:34:42Lord have mercy.
0:34:44 > 0:34:50# I couldn't see nobody home and was no-one to be found. #
0:34:57 > 0:35:01Well, the significance of Charley Patton...
0:35:01 > 0:35:03cannot be understated.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06Charley was just a force of nature.
0:35:06 > 0:35:07Incredible voice.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11It's kind of like a masking style, where you create
0:35:11 > 0:35:13a character with a voice
0:35:13 > 0:35:17and then you comment on what this character's doing.
0:35:17 > 0:35:18You know?
0:35:18 > 0:35:22# High water everywhere, baby drove poor Charley
0:35:22 > 0:35:25# Drove Charley down... # "What you think of that?"
0:35:26 > 0:35:29# Oh
0:35:29 > 0:35:32# Women, children sinking down... #
0:35:32 > 0:35:34Lord have mercy.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38He was like, he was playing all the parts, everything,
0:35:38 > 0:35:41it was almost like a musical play, you know?
0:35:41 > 0:35:44Where he was singing all the different parts of the characters.
0:35:44 > 0:35:46Or side comments.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50And if you listen to the music, it always has that lope, you know?
0:35:50 > 0:35:53You look at some of these guys and go, "OK,
0:35:53 > 0:35:55"so what is this guy do all day long?
0:35:55 > 0:35:58"All day long he's got two mules
0:35:58 > 0:36:02"and they just go up and down the field, ploughing."
0:36:02 > 0:36:05That was the only way they did it, they didn't have a tractor. But...
0:36:05 > 0:36:07all of that's in the music.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12# I'm goin' away
0:36:12 > 0:36:16# To a world unknown
0:36:19 > 0:36:20# I'm goin' away
0:36:22 > 0:36:26# To a world unknown
0:36:28 > 0:36:35# I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long
0:36:38 > 0:36:41# My rider got somethin'
0:36:41 > 0:36:45# She's tryin'a keep it hid... #
0:36:45 > 0:36:49Charley Patton lived on a vast plantation known as Dockery Farms.
0:36:49 > 0:36:51Like many black Delta dwellers,
0:36:51 > 0:36:54his family would later leave for the North,
0:36:54 > 0:36:57but we brought two young relatives back to explore their roots.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00It was the first time they'd visited Dockery.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03I'm Kenny Cannon.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05My grandfather, John Cannon,
0:37:05 > 0:37:08was born on this plantation and
0:37:08 > 0:37:11told me I have a very famous uncle who invented blues.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15My Aunt Bessie would say that...
0:37:15 > 0:37:17Charley Patton was the ultimate showman.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20I'll say it like she said it - he could pick the guitar.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25With his mouth, with his hands, behind his back...
0:37:25 > 0:37:28Crawling, laying on the floor,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31simulating different acts on stage.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33He was like a one-man band.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38To come here to Dockery and look around
0:37:38 > 0:37:41is a very humbling experience.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44To know that a woman that I know and love,
0:37:44 > 0:37:47as a child, picked cotton on this plantation,
0:37:47 > 0:37:52to know that there were thousands of African-Americans enslaved
0:37:52 > 0:37:56against their will, sharecropping for a meagre existence,
0:37:56 > 0:37:59I get new insight, and I'm really grateful for the struggles
0:37:59 > 0:38:03and the sacrifice that my ancestors made before me.
0:38:05 > 0:38:06My name is William Lester.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08I moved here over 40 years ago
0:38:08 > 0:38:12- and I'm the Executive Director of the Dockery Farm Foundation.- OK.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16I am just tickled pink for you to be here and for me to get to meet you,
0:38:16 > 0:38:21because I had no idea when I started my career that Charley Patton
0:38:21 > 0:38:23would be so important to me.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26Back then, the workers built a 12-mile long railroad from
0:38:26 > 0:38:29Dockery all the way to Boyle, and so that train brought all that
0:38:29 > 0:38:31food here and kept those people alive.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34But what it did was, it brought all the blues singers here.
0:38:34 > 0:38:36And back then, they had no fans,
0:38:36 > 0:38:39no electricity, no running water,
0:38:39 > 0:38:42no nothing, and so they wouldn't have heard anything all week long
0:38:42 > 0:38:45while they were working except the wind in the leaves and
0:38:45 > 0:38:47all of a sudden, these guys would show up,
0:38:47 > 0:38:50they'd come in on the train, can you imagine what that did to them?
0:38:50 > 0:38:53- Mm-hm.- They'd been working so hard all week long, and wow!
0:38:53 > 0:38:57People would show up playing metal acoustic National guitars,
0:38:57 > 0:38:58loud and brassy.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08# He got a letter this morning
0:39:08 > 0:39:11# How do you reckon it read?
0:39:11 > 0:39:13# It said, "Hurry, hurry, yeah,
0:39:13 > 0:39:16# "Your love is dead"
0:39:16 > 0:39:19# He got a letter this morning
0:39:19 > 0:39:21# How do you reckon it read?
0:39:24 > 0:39:27# It said, "Hurry, hurry
0:39:28 > 0:39:30# "Cos the gal you love is dead."
0:39:34 > 0:39:37# He grabbed up his suitcase
0:39:37 > 0:39:39# Took off down the road
0:39:40 > 0:39:44# When he got there she was laying on the cooling board
0:39:44 > 0:39:46# He grabbed up his suitcase... #
0:39:49 > 0:39:53This Dockery commissary drew a lot of people like Son House,
0:39:53 > 0:39:55all kinds of blues singers.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58Almost all of them back in the '20s and '30s came here because of
0:39:58 > 0:40:02the isolated group of people, and they could perform in front of,
0:40:02 > 0:40:04- so they had a captive audience, almost.- Mm-hmm.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07- But then they could play their form of the blues.- Yeah.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10In that era, music was a break from reality.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12The reality was you're a sharecropper,
0:40:12 > 0:40:14you're working hard every day of your life.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18And it gives you an opportunity to get a break from
0:40:18 > 0:40:20that hard day-to-day work.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23That's why it's so impactful, even to this day.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26The reason Dockery is considered to be the birthplace of the blues
0:40:26 > 0:40:29is because of all the education that went on here.
0:40:29 > 0:40:31Howlin' Wolf came here as about a ten-year-old.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34And, you know, I mean, Howlin' Wolf's a big bluesman.
0:40:34 > 0:40:36He couldn't do anything when he came here with a guitar.
0:40:36 > 0:40:38Charley taught him how to play the guitar.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40When he was about 18, he left.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44At the same time, Pop Staples came here, Willie Brown came here.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47Tommy Johnson. Robert Johnson came here to play.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49He's considered the best guitar player of the blues.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52But Charley taught all of them how to play here,
0:40:52 > 0:40:55and Honey Boy Edwards, he was probably one of the last
0:40:55 > 0:40:57original blues singers to actually play here.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01This previously unseen footage includes the earliest filmed
0:41:01 > 0:41:03performance by a Dockery musician.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08Honey Boy Edwards, playing on a street corner in 1942.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14# ..when I'm down
0:41:15 > 0:41:17# I'd be the same as when I arrive
0:41:28 > 0:41:30# Cos I see my woman, baby
0:41:32 > 0:41:34# Oh, she's standing on the side
0:41:42 > 0:41:46# Lord, I'm working in New York City... #
0:41:47 > 0:41:49HARMONICA PLAYS
0:42:02 > 0:42:06When we interviewed Honeyboy, he was 91 years old,
0:42:06 > 0:42:09one of the last musicians with direct links to Charley Patton.
0:42:10 > 0:42:12This is Honeyboy Edwards.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16I was born in Shaw, Mississippi, 1915.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20And I played the guitar. My father played guitar and violin.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24And my mother played harmonica. And my name is Honeyboy Edwards.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29And that's, right, whatever. This is me.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34Charley Patton, he was Indian.
0:42:34 > 0:42:35He dressed clean.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38Wore his hair out, curled to the side. He was Indian.
0:42:40 > 0:42:41Yeah, he had some good-looking women.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43I used to go with one of his women.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46Well, he was attractive at the time because
0:42:46 > 0:42:50he'd made calls that didn't too many people make.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53With Charley Patton you called him the Father of the Delta.
0:42:53 > 0:42:55He was a good blues player back at the time.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57And his name was ringing all through the desert,
0:42:57 > 0:42:59"Charley Patton, Charley Patton."
0:42:59 > 0:43:02He played for all the country dances.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04# I'm gonna move to Alabama
0:43:04 > 0:43:06# I'm gonna move to Alabama
0:43:08 > 0:43:12# I'm going to move to Alabama, make Georgia be your home... #
0:43:16 > 0:43:20The 96-year-old guitarist Homesick James had vivid memories of
0:43:20 > 0:43:21Patton's performances.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35He...
0:43:35 > 0:43:37HE LAUGHS
0:43:55 > 0:43:59How did you manage to be heard with just guitar and voice?
0:44:11 > 0:44:13HE LAUGHS
0:44:29 > 0:44:31Well, Charley...
0:44:32 > 0:44:36He drank a lot of whisky, a lot of white whisky.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38And he'd break up his own dances.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41Yeah, broke up his own, he'd fight. He'd get to play on the guitar
0:44:41 > 0:44:43and somebody would say, "Do you want to fight?"
0:44:43 > 0:44:44He'd break up his own dances.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46Charley died in '34.
0:44:46 > 0:44:50He had got to fighting at Holly Ridge and some guy had cut him here
0:44:50 > 0:44:52on the throat.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03Two years after Patton's death,
0:45:03 > 0:45:05Robert Johnson blended his style
0:45:05 > 0:45:07with the latest sounds from Chicago and St Louis,
0:45:07 > 0:45:11and made the most famous Delta blues recordings of all time.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15He too was discovered by HC Speir,
0:45:15 > 0:45:18and is now considered a forefather of rock and roll.
0:45:18 > 0:45:21His most direct musical descendant was his stepson,
0:45:21 > 0:45:2591-year-old Robert Lockwood Jr.
0:45:30 > 0:45:32# The train left the station
0:45:34 > 0:45:37# With two lights on behind
0:45:39 > 0:45:41# When the train pulled away from the station
0:45:43 > 0:45:44# With two lights on behind
0:45:48 > 0:45:50# The blue light was my blues
0:45:52 > 0:45:56# And the red one was my mind
0:45:56 > 0:45:59# All my love in vain. #
0:46:01 > 0:46:04Oh, that was one of Robert Johnson's tunes.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09And the name of it is Love In Vain. Yeah.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14- When did you learn that song? - Oh, Jesus Christ.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16I learned that song a long, long time ago.
0:46:17 > 0:46:21Oh, I learned that song when I was about, er...
0:46:23 > 0:46:24..about 16.
0:46:26 > 0:46:27Who taught it to you?
0:46:29 > 0:46:30Robert Johnson.
0:46:31 > 0:46:33I was on his case.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36Everything that I learnt from him at that time,
0:46:36 > 0:46:38he showed me about twice.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41I'm known as somebody who can play his material.
0:46:41 > 0:46:42Everybody else messes it up.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46The blues is supposed to be made to play slow like Charley Patton,
0:46:46 > 0:46:49but a lot of the boys are playing the blues now and some of
0:46:49 > 0:46:52them are playing their blues first, and it sounds all right.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55And you'll be going over and over and not hitting on
0:46:55 > 0:46:58nothing, you know what I mean?
0:47:04 > 0:47:06Rab-rab-rab-rab.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10There's a few can sing.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12- Then you start out... - HE WAILS
0:47:12 > 0:47:13They can't sing, but they can play.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15I'm not a doctor,
0:47:15 > 0:47:19but what I think, their voice cords is not like ours.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23Know what I mean? Their voice cord is not like ours.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25That's when they can't control it.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28They can play, but they can't...
0:47:28 > 0:47:30You catch some...can sing good,
0:47:30 > 0:47:32but just a few of them now, just a few.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52THEY LAUGH
0:47:52 > 0:47:53THEIR LAUGHS ECHO
0:47:58 > 0:48:03Charley Patton was able to share his experience in his music.
0:48:03 > 0:48:08And what it represented was one person on a platform,
0:48:08 > 0:48:11representing a whole environment
0:48:11 > 0:48:13of African-Americans being underprivileged.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15African-Americans being disenfranchised.
0:48:15 > 0:48:20African-Americans not having an opportunity,
0:48:20 > 0:48:22an equal opportunity in this country.
0:48:23 > 0:48:28So I think the translation from blues, all the way to rock,
0:48:28 > 0:48:32now to hip-hop, was just a metamorphosis and
0:48:32 > 0:48:36a culmination of the entire African-American experience
0:48:36 > 0:48:38that was rooted in slavery.
0:48:38 > 0:48:43And we've always found a way to scream through the music.
0:48:43 > 0:48:45# I told my baby
0:48:46 > 0:48:50# That you had never done me wrong
0:48:58 > 0:49:02# Oh, I could tell you, honey
0:49:02 > 0:49:06# Oh, you're going to take off from me some day
0:49:13 > 0:49:16# I said, then you going to be sorry
0:49:16 > 0:49:19# That you treated poor old me this way. #
0:49:26 > 0:49:29In the years following Charley Patton's death,
0:49:29 > 0:49:32the Mississippi Delta was transformed.
0:49:32 > 0:49:34The mechanised machinery came in.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37So instead of using mules and people, they just used tractors.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41And one man on a tractor could do what 100 men with a mule could do.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44It changed the whole labour workforce completely.
0:49:44 > 0:49:46And the people all left.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49Sharecroppers, mule drivers and cotton pickers
0:49:49 > 0:49:52streamed up Highway 61 on the great migration north,
0:49:52 > 0:49:55to industrial cities like Chicago and Detroit.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58They took only a few possessions,
0:49:58 > 0:50:01their stories and their music.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05It's really hard to know how far-reaching
0:50:05 > 0:50:08the influence of Charley Patton is.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12I mean, he influenced the first generation of Delta guys.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14You know, guys like Muddy Waters,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17BB King and John Lee Hooker.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20And the younger Delta guys, like Robert Lockwood.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24But his big thumbprint is on Howlin' Wolf.
0:50:26 > 0:50:31Wolf clearly states that he went over to Patton and sat down
0:50:31 > 0:50:34and Patton showed him his tunes and the way that he played them.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37You can't get that unless you were right next to him.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40You had to be able to watch him play it every night.
0:50:40 > 0:50:42For SEVERAL every nights.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45# If you see me running
0:50:45 > 0:50:48# I'll come streaking by
0:50:48 > 0:50:49# You'd better run
0:50:52 > 0:50:55# If you see me running
0:50:55 > 0:50:58# I'll come streaking by
0:51:02 > 0:51:05# She got a bad old man
0:51:06 > 0:51:08# I'm too young to die. #
0:51:15 > 0:51:18When you hear a lot of the early Wolf stuff,
0:51:18 > 0:51:20you hear Patton in there.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23But Wolf brought it to a new generation,
0:51:23 > 0:51:24and then carried it forward.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56# Allons a Lafayette
0:51:56 > 0:51:58# C'est pour changer ton nom
0:51:58 > 0:52:00# On va t'appeler, Madame
0:52:00 > 0:52:03# Madame Canaille Comeaux... #
0:52:04 > 0:52:08# Avalon, my hometown, always on my mind
0:52:12 > 0:52:16# Avalon, my hometown, always on my mind... #
0:52:36 > 0:52:40My name's AlyssaBeth K Archambault.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43And my great-uncle is Joseph Kekuku,
0:52:43 > 0:52:45the inventor of the Hawaiian steel guitar.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50He was only 11 years old, and that is pretty young to be
0:52:50 > 0:52:53so devoted to creating something new
0:52:53 > 0:52:56that didn't exist.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01He felt so inspired, because he had a mission.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06So he took the mainland, he took the world.
0:53:06 > 0:53:08In the '20s and '30s,
0:53:08 > 0:53:12up to the '40s, Hawaiian music was really kind of the rage.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14It's an area that's kind of cut off to itself.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17It has its own weather,
0:53:17 > 0:53:21its energy, its moisture, its pace.
0:53:21 > 0:53:25You know, its mixture, it's a totally different thing.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36Cajun music has always been passed down through the families.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38We learned it from our dad and uncles.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41Our grandpa played music, his dad played music.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45This music really resembles the landscape from which it's born.
0:53:45 > 0:53:47The bayous are very crooked
0:53:47 > 0:53:50and winding and slow,
0:53:50 > 0:53:54just like the music can be very unconventional. It's not square.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57We call it croche, it means crooked.
0:53:57 > 0:53:59And it doesn't resemble any other music.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02# Oh, but you can't move on
0:54:02 > 0:54:05# Oh... #
0:54:05 > 0:54:07There's definitely a sense of urgency in Cajun music.
0:54:07 > 0:54:11From living where you love to live, but also a lot of suffering that
0:54:11 > 0:54:14goes along with it, because it's a very intense, harsh landscape.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17HE SINGS IN A THICK CAJUN ACCENT
0:54:26 > 0:54:30# Avalon, my hometown, always on my mind
0:54:34 > 0:54:37# Avalon, my hometown, always on my mind... #
0:54:50 > 0:54:54- Dick Spottiswood. Dick? - APPLAUSE
0:54:54 > 0:54:56I've been asked to say a few words about John,
0:54:56 > 0:55:00so I'll make it as brief as possible so you can hear him play himself.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03When we found him this spring, he hadn't played guitar for years,
0:55:03 > 0:55:06but he picks it up now and plays like a champ.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10It's been quite a while since I did any of this.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14And I'm very happy to be with y'all.
0:55:16 > 0:55:17You know, I can't help but be happy.
0:55:18 > 0:55:23Last I remember playing much of this, why,
0:55:23 > 0:55:26I was with the Okeh company, records for them, '28 and '29.
0:55:28 > 0:55:33So, Spottiswood discovered me down in Avalon, Mississippi.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36There was one John Hurt title that none of the Hurt fans,
0:55:36 > 0:55:39such as we were in the late 1950s, had ever heard.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42And the first thing I heard was the lyric that says,
0:55:42 > 0:55:46"Avalon's my hometown, it's always on my mind."
0:55:46 > 0:55:48And so I extrapolated
0:55:48 > 0:55:51from that that must be a place in Mississippi called Avalon,
0:55:51 > 0:55:55and we went to the atlas to look it up, and there it was.
0:55:55 > 0:55:58It was clear, by just looking at the map that it wasn't anything
0:55:58 > 0:56:00more than a speck on the road.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05# Avalon, my hometown, always on my mind
0:56:10 > 0:56:13# Avalon, my hometown, always on my mind
0:56:18 > 0:56:21# Pretty mama's in Avalon, want me there all the time... #
0:56:22 > 0:56:26- WOMAN:- People just knew him as Mississippi John Hurt.
0:56:26 > 0:56:27But he was Daddy John.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32When another friend decided that he was going to go down to the
0:56:32 > 0:56:35Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 1963,
0:56:35 > 0:56:37I looked at the map again and said,
0:56:37 > 0:56:41"It's not too far out of your way to stop by Avalon, Mississippi,
0:56:41 > 0:56:43"and see if anybody has ever heard of John Hurt."
0:56:43 > 0:56:47And so he did, and the first person he asked gave him directions
0:56:47 > 0:56:48to John Hurt's house.
0:56:50 > 0:56:52And he goes, "Are you the person that made this sound?"
0:56:52 > 0:56:55He goes, "Yeah." And he said, "Can you play this song?"
0:56:55 > 0:56:58And Daddy John responded, "I could if I had a guitar."
0:56:58 > 0:57:03And the guy had a guitar, so he played this song for him.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06And he goes, "Do you know how famous you are?"
0:57:06 > 0:57:09And Daddy John was like, "No."
0:57:09 > 0:57:14You know, it was just, no, he had no idea.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18Why, I thought it was real funny. I said, "Why, what have I did?
0:57:18 > 0:57:20"Is the FBI looking for me?"
0:57:24 > 0:57:27So the first little number I might do is Stack O'Lee.
0:57:42 > 0:57:47# Police officer, how can it be?
0:57:47 > 0:57:51# You can 'rest everybody but cruel Stack O'Lee
0:57:51 > 0:57:55# That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O'Lee... #