Part 3: Out of the Many, the One Arena


Part 3: Out of the Many, the One

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In the 1920s, record companies sent scouts

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to the most remote areas of the United States.

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For the first time,

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they recorded the music of everyday working people.

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Some of those artists are remembered as pioneers and innovators,

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others only as names on old record labels.

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But their recordings reveal a rich tapestry of cultures.

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And Americans of all kinds could finally hear one another

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in their myriad languages,

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melodies and rhythms.

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Here are some of their stories.

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In the first decades of the 20th century,

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one of the most popular genres of American music

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came from the islands of Hawaii.

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Hawaiian ensembles toured across the country and around the world.

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All featuring a unique instrument -

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the steel guitar.

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Its soaring sound would become central

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to a dazzling range of styles.

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# Well, I'm going away now, honey

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# And I ain't never

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# Coming back no more... #

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# Why can't I free

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# Your doubtful mind

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# And melt your cold, cold heart? #

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But who invented the steel guitar...

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..and first explored its quantum tones?

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My name's AlyssaBeth K Archambault,

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and my great-uncle is Joseph Kekuku,

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the inventor of the Hawaiian steel guitar.

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When Joseph was 11 years old,

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he happened to be walking down a railroad track with his guitar

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and he picked up a metal bolt,

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and he made his way down the tracks and, at some point,

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the bolt hit the strings of the guitar

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and it made the sound that caught his ear.

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Following his accidental discovery,

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Joseph Kekuku spent hours in the metal shop at Kamehameha School

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perfecting a slide.

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Adding steel strings to his guitar

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and raising them from the fret board,

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he created an instrument that would travel the world.

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He was only 11 years old,

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and that is pretty young to be so devoted

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to creating something new that didn't exist.

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So when I hear the steel,

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it brings back memories of my uncle.

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He worked to perfect that sound.

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Then he taught it at Kamehameha Schools,

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and all the students there were taking the lessons.

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And then they went home to their separate islands,

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and they taught it to those that were on the islands,

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so it really spread fast.

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He mastered the Hawaiian steel guitar for seven years

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and he taught his cousin, Sam Nainoa,

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how to play the steel guitar.

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On a rare, self-issued recording,

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Sam Nainoa explains the origins of the steel guitar.

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'Ladies and gentlemen,

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'this is Sam K Nainoa speaking,

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'a real native.'

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Since the origination of the Hawaiian guitar by my cousin,

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Joseph Kekuku of Laie, Oahu,

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no-one has ever come forward to explain the intricate workings

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of this unique instrument.

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Here is the catch with the Hawaiian guitar.

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You have only one finger to reach out for your notes,

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which is the steel bar

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held in the palm of the left hand.

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I will now offer for your approval a medley of Hawaiian selections.

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STEEL GUITAR MUSIC

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In 1904, Joseph Kekuku travelled to the mainland,

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seeking a new audience.

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He teamed up with a hula dancer, Toots Paka,

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to form one of the most popular acts

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on the touring vaudeville circuit.

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He felt so inspired because he had a mission.

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So he took the mainland, he took the world,

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he never came back home.

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He was so dedicated to the Hawaiian guitar

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that he stayed in the mainland.

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-ARCHIVE NEWS REPORT:

-'No World's Fair in history was so beautiful

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'as this one at night.

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'Tens of thousands of jewels reflected all colours of the rainbow

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'from the famous tower

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'while the great fan-shaped rays from the Scintillator

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'thrilled every spectator.'

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In 1915, Kekuku and other island musicians

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performed in the Hawaiian Pavilion at the San Franciscan World's Fair,

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which attracted over 17 million visitors.

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By the following year,

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Americans were buying more recordings of Hawaiian music

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than of any other genre.

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Kekuku formed his own group and toured from coast to coast.

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Meanwhile, his invention had spread far beyond Hawaiian music.

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Country bands adapted it to play fiddle tunes.

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And black southerners made it

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one of the most distinctive sounds in blues.

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# Oh, my, oh, my... #

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And then it just took off and went all over the world.

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Not just in Hawaii - the mainland, and Europe and everywhere.

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In 1919, Kekuku travelled to London

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with a popular Hawaiian musical revue, The Bird Of Paradise.

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A worldwide smash, the show played to kings and queens,

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and inspired the international craze for Hawaiian music.

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They were in such demand.

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I mean, just like you think about Elvis Presley,

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they were more than that, in a sense.

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In the '20s and '30s, all the way up to the '40s,

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Hawaiian music was really kind of the rage.

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It's an area that's kind of cut off to itself,

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it has its own weather,

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its energy, its moisture, its pace,

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you know, its mixture.

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It's a totally different thing.

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They were just so in love with Hawaii

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and these men who played that steel guitar.

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It's a way to visualise beach,

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the sun, the beautiful paradise.

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And people in the mainland who have snow and cold

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and tornado and all that, you know,

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it took them away from all that type of natural disaster

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so they could live like, oh, wow, they're in Paradise,

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they're in Hawaii.

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Kekuku returned to America in 1927

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to discover a new wave of Hawaiian groups

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being recorded across the country,

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including Sol K Bright,

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Nelstone's Hawaiians,

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and Kalama's Quartet.

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SINGS SONOROUSLY IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

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Joseph Kekuku's only known recordings

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are as a virtually inaudible presence on some wax cylinders

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by the Paka group. Until now.

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At a luau celebrating the unveiling of his statue in La'ie,

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we play a newly discovered record he made in London in 1925.

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His family is hearing it for the first time.

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STRUMMED UKULELE WITH STEEL GUITAR

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LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

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I was told so taken aback to hear my great uncle recorded,

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actually recorded, his moves and his sounds.

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It was really great to hear it for the first time.

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HAWAIIAN SINGING

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I got to give Uncle Joe credit.

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If it wasn't for him, we might not have had steel guitar.

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I feel proud that I'm passing on this history of our steel guitar,

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so our kids build their own.

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They're making their own steel guitar.

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They say, "Uncle, check this one out. This is a cool steel guitar."

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"We made it! I did!" You know.

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So, we're passing on that from Uncle Joe.

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Passing the history on, of steel guitar.

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And it hit his guitar, and he made a sound.

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The bolt made a sliding sound.

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What does it sound like?

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It sounds like that.

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That is the sound of Hawaii.

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ACCORDION PLAYS

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Cajun music was born of exile.

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Made by French-speaking Acadians forced out of eastern Canada,

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who settled in the marshy Bayou country of South Louisiana.

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CAJUN FRENCH SINGING

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Through the years, they blended their old French song

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with sounds from Spain, Germany, Africa,

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the local native Americans and their Anglo neighbours.

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The result was a musical jambalaya - home-made, heartfelt,

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and infectiously danceable.

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Cajun music has always been passed down through the families.

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We learned it from our dad and uncles.

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Our grandpa played music, his dad played music.

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This music really resembles the landscape from which it's born.

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The Bayous are very crooked and winding and slow,

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just like the music can be very unconventional. It's not square.

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We call it "croche". It means crooked.

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It doesn't resemble any other music.

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There's definitely a sense of urgency and Cajun music

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from living where you love to live

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but also a lot of suffering that goes along with it

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because it's a very intense, harsh, landscape.

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The story of Cajun recording begins with one legendary family.

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The guitarist and singer Cleoma Breaux,

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her brothers - Amedee, Ophe, and Cleopha -

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and her husband Joe Falcon.

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Cleoma was really the rock of her family.

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She helped raise her brothers when their dad had left.

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She was one of the only females to play

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in a male-dominated music scene and was breaking the mould

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and making a whole new opportunity for Cajun music

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and she ended up being the first one to record.

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By 1928, record men like Columbia's Frank Walker had established

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the familiar genres of country, jazz, and blues,

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and were looking for something different.

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During a trip to New Orleans, Walker decided to explore

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the possibilities of the remote Bayou country.

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So, I went up around Lafayette and I was astounded at the interest

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that there was in their little Saturday night dances.

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Every single singer would have little concertina-type instrument

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and a one-stringed fiddle,

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and a triangle.

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Those were the instruments.

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And, of course, they sang in Cajun.

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To me, it had a funny sound,

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so I brought the group down to New Orleans

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and we recorded, just to have something different.

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Cleoma and Joe performed Allons A Lafayette,

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Let's Go To Lafayette,

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the first Cajun song to be released on record.

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The Columbia record guys weren't sure about recording

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this tiny two-piece band.

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But George Burrow, who Joe and Cleoma had brought with them,

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a local businessman, knew how popular this music would become.

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They, kind of, laughed. They say, "How many records would you order?"

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He said "500." He grabbed his cheque book and said,

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"Make you a cheque for 500 records, right now." He said, "500?"

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He say, "We never sold that many to nobody. With big orchestras."

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"How in the world could we sell 500 to just a two-piece band?"

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"Well," he said, "make it."

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And that's why we made it and it went over big.

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My grandpa and my great aunt used to tell me

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how, when they grew up in Mamou,

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they would hear that song coming out of the doors of these houses.

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Everyone was so excited to have a Cajun song on record

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because they had record players but there was no Cajun music.

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So, when Cajun music comes out on a record,

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it gives you pride about your culture and about your music.

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So, people were playing that record so often.

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They say you can't even find a record that still plays

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because everyone who had one wore it out.

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They loved it so much.

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When the Breaux family were recording this music,

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in the late '20s,

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they were really recording almost the new sound of Cajun music

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because when the German accordion became available

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in the department stores,

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the Cajuns really took to it because it was a lot louder

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and it allowed them to play to much larger audiences

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than just a house dance.

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Joe Falcon, amazing accordion player,

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learned from Cleoma's brother Amedee Breaux.

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Amedee Breaux is a legendary figure in Cajun music.

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Cleoma's three brothers, their music has so much feeling

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and so much passion

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that you just feel an incredible urgency in their music.

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And it's amazing that the Breaux family is still playing

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around Acadiana today.

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I'm Gary Breaux, I'm grandson of Amedee Breaux,

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which I refer to as Papa Medee.

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I'm Jimmy Breaux,

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the other grandson of Amedee Breaux.

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I'm Gerry Mouton,

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grandson of Amedee Breaux and I refer to him as Papa Medee.

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I'm Pat Breaux and Papa Medee is my grandfather.

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And we're the Breaux Freres up-to-date.

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Papa Medee was invited to a recording contest.

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They were in a big barn.

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He climbed up, went on the rafters,

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and walked across the rafters of the barn

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and played Allons A Lafayette,

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while he was walking across the rafters.

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So, needless to say, he won the contest.

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These were not listening rooms. These were very rowdy bar rooms.

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A lot of fighting, lots of drinking, a lot of moonshine.

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The word was, the Breaux Brothers liked to drink a lot

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and they like to fight a lot. And you feel it in their music.

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It was definitely a very vibrant music scene, to say the least.

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You know, you hear the whole stories about the dancehalls.

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They had the chicken wire around the band.

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That was supposed to keep their beer bottles

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-from flying at the band if the band was bad.

-Yeah.

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I think the chicken wire was there for the Breaux Brothers

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not to get to the audience.

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Yeah, they were something else.

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In April 1929, Amedee Breaux and his brother Ophe

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travelled to Atlanta and cut their first record

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with Cleoma on guitar.

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Cleoma brought them to record and, if she hadn't,

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we might never know what songs they had to offer

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and how much they influence Cajun music today.

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They recorded over a dozen amazing tunes in that one session.

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Which became a lot of the pillars of modern Cajun music

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and have crept their way into American mainstream music,

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such as Jolie Blonde, which was written by Amedee Breaux.

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My grandmother was not a blonde.

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I think this was an experience my Papa Medee had

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with a young blonde, and she left him.

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And it really tore him up.

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I always know it as Jolie Blonde but they called it...

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Ma Blonde Est Partie.

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Ma Blonde Est Partie.

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Yeah. That means "my blonde is gone."

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# Jolie blonde, regardes donc quoi t'as fait

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# Tu m'as quitte pour t'en aller

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# Pour t'en aller avec un autre que moi

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# Quel espoir et quel avenir, mais, moi, je vais avoir?

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# Jolie blonde, tu m'as laisse, moi tout seul

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# Pour t'en aller chez ta famille

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# Si t'aurais pas ecoute tous les conseils de les autres

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# Tu serais ici-t-avec moi aujourd'hui... #

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"Jolie blonde, jolie fille", that means "pretty blonde, pretty girl".

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Tu m'as quitte pour t'en aller. You left me for another.

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Jolie blonde, tu m'as laisse, moi tout seul.

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Jolie blonde, you left me all alone.

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It was all based on a broken heart.

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It's such a sad lament of his love life and it's such a...

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It's a song that just really touches you so deeply you could feel his

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pain and that way, you know, Cajun music really is the Blues.

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When Jolie Blonde became a hit in the late '30s,

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that was the first time that Cajun music really entered

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American mainstream.

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Over time, Jolie Blonde became known as the Cajun national anthem.

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You know, it's being performed by people as big as Bruce Springsteen,

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something that he performed nationally all the time.

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Waylon Jennings did a version of it with Buddy Holly producing it

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and playing guitar.

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# Jolie blonde... #

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Roy Acuff did it, Moon Mullican

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and they all got it from Harry Choates.

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Harry Choates made it a national hit. You know, it was on the charts.

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Harry Choates got it from Crowley's own Amede Breaux,

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that little guy right there, in 1929, recorded Ma Blonde Est Partie,

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which became known as Jolie Blonde.

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Your dad, he had Amede's accordion. Do you happen to have it?

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-I've got it right here.

-Wow.

-It's been restored.

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They had more than one accordion at these sessions and it could be

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-this accordion that actually recorded Jolie Blonde.

-Yeah.

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This is Uncle Ophe, one of the brothers,

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this is his fiddle, which Dad has kept.

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Also I have the tit fers, or the irons, that they also used.

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Cajun music is passed down through families

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and just like the Breaux family, it was the same thing for them.

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They all played it as a family.

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You're playing your traditional music, but you're also incorporating

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other elements of the music you hear around you and, you know, it's the

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natural want of any culture, especially any artist to want to be

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relevant and to want to play music that appeals to people of your day,

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but still to hold, you know, what you need to bring forward

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in your own tradition.

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# Jolie blonde, tu m'as laisse Moi tout seul

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# Pour t'en aller chez ta famille

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# Si t'aurais pas ecoute tous les conseils de les autres

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# Tu serais ici-t-avec moi aujourd'hui

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# Oh!

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# Jolie blonde, jolie fille

0:26:430:26:49

# Tu m'as quitte pour t'en aller

0:26:490:26:54

# Pour t'en aller avec un autre que moi

0:26:550:27:01

# Quel espoir et quel avenir, mais, moi, je vais avoir?

0:27:010:27:05

# Jolie blonde... #

0:27:050:27:07

# John Henry was a steel driving man

0:27:470:27:52

# Yes, he went down Well, he went down

0:27:520:27:56

# You just take this hammer and carry it to my captain

0:28:020:28:07

# Oh, tell him I'm gone Won't you tell him I'm gone? #

0:28:070:28:11

John, we've got time.

0:28:250:28:27

Tell a little bit about how you first made

0:28:270:28:30

-a record way...way back in 1927, do you remember?

-Oh, yeah.

0:28:300:28:34

'28, pardon me, and '29.

0:28:340:28:39

Learned to play guitar, I had no teacher.

0:28:410:28:45

I was just an eight-year old boy,

0:28:450:28:48

I'd go in and go to bed, but I wouldn't go to sleep.

0:28:480:28:52

I'd get the guitar.

0:28:520:28:53

I kept on at that till I learned to play one number and I said,

0:29:000:29:05

"Wow." And when I learned to play that number, why,

0:29:050:29:09

-I didn't care who heard it then.

-LAUGHTER

0:29:090:29:13

The odyssey of Mississippi John Hurt from his original discovery

0:29:270:29:30

in the 1920s to his rediscovery in the '60s

0:29:300:29:34

is the saga of American Epic in microcosm.

0:29:340:29:37

In the abandoned hamlet of Avalon, Mississippi...

0:29:420:29:45

we meet John Hurt's granddaughter Mary Frances Hurt

0:29:450:29:49

outside the humble cabin where he once lived.

0:29:490:29:52

You know, when I talk about Avalon and you say,

0:29:530:29:55

"Oh, there's nothing there, it's just a sign,"

0:29:550:29:57

but I remember where my parents used to live and I remember all of

0:29:570:30:03

the families that used to live there,

0:30:030:30:06

the store that used to be there and the cotton gin and everything.

0:30:060:30:10

This town existed and it was a real place, real families,

0:30:100:30:13

real people lived there.

0:30:130:30:15

It was a tiny little village with three grocery stores.

0:30:190:30:25

Well, I say grocery stores,

0:30:250:30:27

the stores contained everything

0:30:270:30:30

from flowers and even mules.

0:30:300:30:34

When I was a kid, he lived above the store and

0:30:350:30:37

he would be standing always by the mailbox, just like he was waiting

0:30:370:30:41

for somebody to come up the hill.

0:30:410:30:44

And he always had this radiant smile.

0:30:440:30:47

His smile was like a pebble thrown in the lake and it would just

0:30:470:30:50

spread and it was just so wonderful.

0:30:500:30:54

People just knew him as Mississippi John Hurt, but he was Daddy John.

0:30:550:31:00

The store here was a gathering place,

0:31:020:31:06

especially on Saturday night.

0:31:060:31:08

John Hurt spent many an hour

0:31:080:31:11

playing music inside the store and on the porch out here.

0:31:110:31:15

When he started recording records,

0:31:150:31:17

it just kind of made everyone here happy.

0:31:170:31:21

In 1928, Tommy Rockwell, a producer for OKeh Records, and his

0:31:230:31:27

engineer Bob Stevens travelled to Memphis in search of new artists.

0:31:270:31:31

These are remarks from Bob Stevens,

0:31:320:31:34

the engineer who was there with Tommy Rockwell

0:31:340:31:38

in Memphis in 1928.

0:31:380:31:41

"Tommy Rockwell and I went on our field trip to Memphis where

0:31:410:31:44

"we already had some acts set up to record.

0:31:440:31:47

"Tommy told me he could take care of things and

0:31:470:31:49

"he suggested that I take a trip down the Mississippi Delta

0:31:490:31:53

"and see what I could find in the way of race stuff,

0:31:530:31:56

"then come back inland for hillbilly stuff.

0:31:560:31:59

"So I stopped in all the little towns and the local record stores

0:31:590:32:03

"to see what was going on and I wound up in Jackson, Mississippi.

0:32:030:32:06

"I thought, 'To hell with it.

0:32:060:32:07

" 'This is ridiculous!' So I suggested we organise an old-time

0:32:070:32:11

"fiddling contest, the winners would get an OKeh contract.

0:32:110:32:15

"While this was going on," Mr Stevens adds,

0:32:150:32:18

"we kept hearing about some wild Blues singer named Mississippi John Hurt,

0:32:180:32:21

"so we set out to find him. The trouble we had!

0:32:210:32:24

"Finally we tracked him down late at night.

0:32:240:32:26

"We had to put the headlights on to the door of his shack before we knocked.

0:32:260:32:30

"This guy came to the door, damn near turned white when he saw us,

0:32:300:32:33

"he thought we were a lynching party.

0:32:330:32:35

"We told him who we were and he asked us in.

0:32:350:32:37

"He threw a few logs on the fire.

0:32:370:32:39

"He took out his guitar and starts to sing.

0:32:390:32:41

"He was great! So we booked him into Memphis,

0:32:410:32:44

"he made a few sides for us and then he disappeared again."

0:32:440:32:48

Well, he didn't really.

0:32:490:32:50

In Memphis, Tommy Rockwell and Bob Stevens recorded John Hurt

0:32:520:32:56

in the McCall building.

0:32:560:32:57

# Frankie went down to the corner saloon

0:33:010:33:03

# She didn't go to be gone long

0:33:030:33:05

# She peeked through the keyhole in the door

0:33:050:33:07

# Spied Albert in Alice's arms

0:33:070:33:09

# He's my man and he done me wrong... #

0:33:090:33:14

Frankie is based on the 1899 shooting of Albert Britt by his

0:33:140:33:18

lover Frankie Baker,

0:33:180:33:20

after she caught him in bed with another woman.

0:33:200:33:22

As Frankie and Johnny, it became a popular standard,

0:33:240:33:27

recorded by Jimmy Rogers, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and Elvis Presley,

0:33:270:33:31

but John Hurt sang an earlier version closer to the true story.

0:33:310:33:36

# Frankie shot Albert and she shot him three or four times

0:33:360:33:40

# Says, stroll back, I'd smoke my gun, let me see Albert dying

0:33:400:33:44

# He's my man and he done me wrong... #

0:33:440:33:48

After the recording session, John Hurt went home to Avalon.

0:33:510:33:55

A few weeks later, he received a record in the mail.

0:33:560:34:00

The only problem, he had nothing to play it on.

0:34:000:34:03

So he had to ask the woman whose land

0:34:030:34:05

he was looking after the cows on, would she kindly play the

0:34:050:34:10

record for him, so she said, "Well, all right, John.

0:34:100:34:12

"I'll leave you standing outside the screen door and I'll crank it

0:34:120:34:16

"up for you so you can hear it," you know?

0:34:160:34:18

And she took it back and said, "Oh, that's you on that record, isn't it?"

0:34:180:34:22

That woman's daughter is Annie Cook and she remembers that day.

0:34:220:34:27

We had an old-time Victrola that you'd crank

0:34:270:34:32

and it was just unbelievable,

0:34:320:34:35

just like when we got the first car,

0:34:350:34:39

how exciting something like that was then.

0:34:390:34:43

# Frankie and the judge walked down on the stand

0:34:430:34:45

# And walked out side to side

0:34:450:34:47

# The judge says to Frankie You're going to be justified

0:34:470:34:51

# For killing a man and he done you wrong. #

0:34:510:34:54

Ain't that pretty?

0:35:000:35:01

I think it is.

0:35:030:35:05

Before long, John Hurt received a letter from Tommy Rockwell,

0:35:070:35:11

asking him to come to New York City for more recordings.

0:35:110:35:14

There he recorded one of his most popular songs, Candy Man.

0:35:150:35:20

# Well, all you ladies all gather round

0:35:220:35:24

# That good sweet candy man's in town

0:35:240:35:26

# It's the candy man

0:35:260:35:28

# It's the candy man...

0:35:280:35:31

# He likes a stick of candy just nine inch long

0:35:400:35:42

# He sells as fast a hog can chew his corn, it's the candy man

0:35:420:35:46

# It's the candy man. #

0:35:460:35:49

Homesick and lost in the big city, Hurt composed Avalon Blues,

0:35:520:35:57

a heartfelt tribute to his hometown.

0:35:570:36:00

# Got to New York this morning just about 9.30

0:36:010:36:05

# Hollerin' one mornin' in Avalon Could hardly keep from crying... #

0:36:090:36:13

Hurt returned to Avalon picking up odd jobs to survive

0:36:150:36:20

and waited to hear more from OKeh,

0:36:200:36:23

but the Depression hit and the entire record business fell

0:36:230:36:27

on hard times.

0:36:270:36:29

Hurt wrote to the company in New York offering to make new recordings.

0:36:290:36:32

His letters went unanswered.

0:36:320:36:34

For 35 years, he eked out a living by sharecropping and minding cows,

0:36:370:36:41

only playing music for his family and neighbours.

0:36:410:36:46

By the 1950s, Mississippi John Hurt's records

0:36:460:36:48

were forgotten, except by a small circle of collectors

0:36:480:36:53

searching junk store record bands for his battered 78s.

0:36:530:36:57

He had recorded 20 songs for OKeh,

0:36:570:37:01

seven of those performances have never been found.

0:37:010:37:04

# It's the candy man. #

0:37:040:37:07

Archivists like Michael Brooks have devoted their lives to preserving

0:37:080:37:13

the surviving record masters which are known as metal parts.

0:37:130:37:17

These metal parts are really part of history, because music reflects what

0:37:180:37:23

goes on in a country, in the world, and this is American history here.

0:37:230:37:29

And there were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of these made.

0:37:290:37:33

And in the Depression, metal was a good source to melt down and sell.

0:37:340:37:39

A popular tune from 1926 meant nothing in 1934,

0:37:390:37:43

so toss it out, and then the next decimation of these parts

0:37:430:37:48

came in World War II, which was far greater,

0:37:480:37:50

because everyone was looking round for scrap metal.

0:37:500:37:53

Everything went to the war effort, so a Louis Armstrong,

0:37:530:37:57

a Carter Family, a Jimmy Rogers, they were melted down,

0:37:570:38:01

given to the government and remade into weapons of mass destruction.

0:38:010:38:07

And you think, you know, there might be

0:38:070:38:08

a Mississippi John Hurt being dropped over Germany or something.

0:38:080:38:12

So there isn't that much left any more.

0:38:120:38:15

I would say that metal parts pre-, say pre-mid-30s,

0:38:150:38:20

I would say 90% is gone.

0:38:200:38:23

So we are trying to reconstruct what happened in the world,

0:38:230:38:28

what the popular music was

0:38:280:38:30

and we have to scratch around to find things.

0:38:300:38:33

In the 1950s, a few small record labels began releasing vinyl

0:38:340:38:38

compilations of rare recordings by little-known figures

0:38:380:38:41

like Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Sleepy John Estes

0:38:410:38:45

and Mississippi John Hurt.

0:38:450:38:47

This is a copy of the famous Harry Smith anthology of American

0:38:470:38:51

folk music the way it appeared when Folkways Records first published it.

0:38:510:38:54

John Hurt was represented by two cuts on that record.

0:38:540:38:58

This is the original edition.

0:38:580:38:59

It had the red cover and if you took the records out too often,

0:38:590:39:03

the edges began to split up on the ends.

0:39:030:39:07

This is from 1952,

0:39:070:39:09

this is like 1,000 years ago, it's very much a product of its time.

0:39:090:39:12

Soon adventurous young record collectors were heading south

0:39:120:39:15

in search of the artists who had made those precious 78s,

0:39:150:39:19

but Mississippi John Hurt seemed impossibly obscure

0:39:190:39:23

and few even dreamt he was alive.

0:39:230:39:24

# Avalon, my hometown Always on my mind

0:39:260:39:30

# Avalon, my hometown Always on my mind

0:39:340:39:37

# Pretty mama's in Avalon Want me there all the time. #

0:39:420:39:45

Then, one day, a collector named Dick Spotswood

0:39:450:39:49

heard a rare copy of Avalon Blues.

0:39:490:39:52

There was one John Hurt title that none of the Hurt fans, such as

0:39:520:39:56

we were in the late 1950s had ever heard, and the first thing

0:39:560:39:59

I heard was the lyric that says, "Avalon is my hometown,

0:39:590:40:03

"it's always on my mind," and so I extrapolated from that

0:40:030:40:07

that there must be a place in Mississippi called Avalon

0:40:070:40:10

and went to the Atlas to look it up, and there it was.

0:40:100:40:14

It was clear by just looking at the map that it wasn't

0:40:140:40:17

anything more than a speck on the road.

0:40:170:40:19

When another friend decided that he was going to go down to the

0:40:210:40:25

Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 1963, I looked at the map again,

0:40:250:40:29

I said, "It's not too far out of your way to stop by

0:40:290:40:32

"Avalon, Mississippi,

0:40:320:40:34

"and see if anybody has ever heard of John Hurt," and so he did and

0:40:340:40:38

the first person he asked gave him directions to John Hurt's house.

0:40:380:40:41

He goes, "Are you the person that made this sound?" He goes, "Yeah."

0:40:430:40:46

And he said, "Can you play this song?"

0:40:460:40:48

And Daddy John responded, "I could if I had a guitar."

0:40:480:40:51

And the guy had a guitar, so he played this song for him and

0:40:510:40:56

he goes, "Do you know how famous you are?" And Daddy John is like, "No."

0:40:560:41:01

You know, he was... No. He had no idea.

0:41:010:41:06

Looking for the best way

0:41:070:41:08

to introduce John Hurt to a world of new listeners,

0:41:080:41:11

Dick Spottswood managed to get him booked as a last-minute attraction

0:41:110:41:15

for the 1963 Newport Folk Festival.

0:41:150:41:18

Dick Spottswood.

0:41:180:41:20

APPLAUSE

0:41:200:41:22

I've been asked to say a few words about John,

0:41:230:41:25

so I'll make it brief as possible so you can hear him play himself.

0:41:250:41:29

When we found him this spring, he hadn't played guitar for years,

0:41:290:41:32

but he picks it up now, and plays like a champ.

0:41:320:41:35

-STRUMS GUITAR

-It's been quite a while since I...

0:41:350:41:38

did any of this, and I'm...

0:41:380:41:41

I'm real happy to be with y'all.

0:41:410:41:44

You know, I can't help but be happy.

0:41:440:41:46

Last...

0:41:470:41:49

I remember doing much of this, why, I was with the Okeh company,

0:41:490:41:53

recording for them '28 and '29.

0:41:530:41:57

So...

0:41:570:41:58

Spottswood discovered me down and out of this scene.

0:41:580:42:02

Why, I thought it was real funny, I said, "Why? What have I did?

0:42:020:42:06

"Is the FBI looking for me?"

0:42:060:42:08

LAUGHTER

0:42:080:42:10

So, the question I'm going to do you...

0:42:120:42:15

is Stack O'Lee.

0:42:150:42:16

PLAYS STACK O'LEE BLUES

0:42:160:42:19

# Police officer, how can it be

0:42:300:42:35

# You can 'rest everybody but cruel Stack O' Lee?

0:42:350:42:39

# That bad man Oh, cruel Stack O' Lee... #

0:42:390:42:44

John Hurt was the surprise hit of the festival,

0:42:470:42:50

and inspired a new generation, including the young Taj Mahal.

0:42:500:42:54

When I first heard John Hurt's music,

0:42:560:42:58

it was like he was somebody I was looking for, he was like the...

0:42:580:43:02

The musical grandfather you were looking for.

0:43:020:43:04

He had another key to the musical universe.

0:43:040:43:09

I tried real hard to learn how to play like him, you know...

0:43:090:43:13

PLAYS STACK O'LEE BLUES

0:43:130:43:17

..but then, there's tunes like Louis Collins.

0:43:440:43:46

Louis Collins is about something that happened real close to him,

0:43:460:43:49

when Louis Collins got into a fight with somebody and got shot.

0:43:490:43:53

And instead of taking it from the bar fight scene,

0:43:530:43:57

which is in the song, he talks from Louis Collins' mother.

0:43:570:44:02

And, you know, "Mrs Collins weeped, Mrs Collins moaned,

0:44:040:44:06

"Moaning for Louis Collins that's dead and gone.

0:44:060:44:09

"The angels laid him away."

0:44:090:44:11

You know, the gentleness really came through in him.

0:44:110:44:14

A record collector shot footage of John Hurt playing Louis Collins

0:44:170:44:21

in a small club in Los Angeles.

0:44:210:44:23

It's the only known colour footage of Hurt performing.

0:44:230:44:26

PLAYS LOUIS COLLINS

0:44:260:44:29

# Mrs Collins weeped

0:44:330:44:35

# Mrs Collins moaned

0:44:350:44:37

# To see her son Louis leavin' home

0:44:370:44:42

# The angels laid him away

0:44:420:44:46

# Oh, the angels laid him away

0:44:460:44:50

# They laid him six feet under the clay

0:44:510:44:56

# The angels laid him away... #

0:44:560:45:00

BIRDSONG

0:45:180:45:20

This place...

0:45:230:45:24

the sounds, the beauty of all of this, he loved that.

0:45:240:45:28

And he came early one morning just to make sure that he just caught

0:45:300:45:34

the right rays and the sun, and everything, and he...

0:45:340:45:38

He had a stroke.

0:45:380:45:39

He never recovered from this stroke.

0:45:390:45:42

And...

0:45:440:45:45

I would say it was a tragedy, but he died the way he loved,

0:45:450:45:48

and he's buried in this place.

0:45:480:45:51

He's home.

0:45:530:45:54

Daddy John is home.

0:45:550:45:56

Well, you always heard that black was beautiful,

0:46:020:46:05

and John was one beautiful man.

0:46:050:46:10

He was kind, and he was...

0:46:110:46:15

Loved people, and people loved him.

0:46:150:46:19

I just wish we had more like him.

0:46:190:46:21

PLAYS SPIKE DRIVER BLUES

0:46:280:46:31

# John Henry was a steel drivin' man

0:46:350:46:39

# Oh, he went down

0:46:400:46:42

# Well, he went down

0:46:420:46:44

# This is the hammer that killed John Henry

0:46:460:46:51

# But it won't kill me

0:46:510:46:54

# It won't kill me

0:46:540:46:56

# It won't kill me

0:46:560:46:58

# John Henry was a steel drivin' man

0:47:110:47:16

# Oh, he went down

0:47:160:47:18

# Well, he went down

0:47:180:47:21

# Well, he went down. #

0:47:210:47:23

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

0:47:250:47:28

Well, I was. I was, because I had never...

0:47:410:47:45

You know, I made records and that was the end of it.

0:47:450:47:48

I made some records then would go back home.

0:47:480:47:51

I had never did anything more.

0:47:510:47:54

No more than just played the music round the country once in a while.

0:47:550:47:59

This music, that's right.

0:48:070:48:09

Well, I didn't know what this folk music was, and...

0:48:090:48:12

I began to...

0:48:120:48:14

kind of learn what they mean now by folk music.

0:48:140:48:17

Er...

0:48:190:48:20

I think they mean...

0:48:200:48:22

..songs that, er...

0:48:230:48:26

What I call maybe died out, you know?

0:48:260:48:30

They went back and they renewed 'em, that right?

0:48:300:48:34

Am I right?

0:48:340:48:35

Well, you know...

0:48:380:48:40

I read in the Bible, it says,

0:48:400:48:42

"The older men teach the younger ones."

0:48:420:48:45

And I'm glad I've got something that they want.

0:48:450:48:48

That's right.

0:48:480:48:50

HE LAUGHS

0:48:500:48:51

HARMONICA PLAYS

0:48:510:48:53

CHEERING

0:48:530:48:55

'Five...four...three...

0:49:020:49:04

'two... one...'

0:49:040:49:07

It's an inspiring thing, to see a launch.

0:49:180:49:20

The light flares from the rocket, but the sound travel time

0:49:200:49:23

takes a while, so the rocket starts climbing in silence.

0:49:230:49:26

Great flocks of sea birds sprang up from the mangroves

0:49:260:49:29

as the sound reached them, and so you see this craft

0:49:290:49:32

ascending from the flights of sea birds.

0:49:320:49:36

Voyager was a mission to study the outer planets of the solar system,

0:49:410:49:45

and when you fly past the giant planet Jupiter,

0:49:450:49:48

your spacecraft is accelerated to a speed such

0:49:480:49:50

that it will never return to the solar system.

0:49:500:49:53

It simply leaves,

0:49:530:49:55

and then drifts among the stars of the Milky Way galaxy forever.

0:49:550:49:59

The astronomers Carl Sagan and Frank Drake had the idea

0:49:590:50:03

that if you made a phonograph record,

0:50:030:50:06

you could put music and also encoded photos and sounds and things

0:50:060:50:10

about the Earth, and attach it to these two interstellar spacecraft.

0:50:100:50:14

I produced the Voyager record, and was involved in selecting the music.

0:50:150:50:20

The world contains many sorts of people,

0:50:270:50:30

and there is no such thing as a "best" kind of music.

0:50:300:50:35

You know, it's not the Olympics - some composer doesn't win.

0:50:350:50:39

Some of the most advanced music we have is Western classical music,

0:50:410:50:44

and there's some of that on Voyager, Bach and Beethoven -

0:50:440:50:47

those are wonderful accomplishments -

0:50:470:50:50

but as those composers themselves would have told you,

0:50:500:50:53

Bach for instance, at age 16, was a fiddler at hoedowns.

0:50:530:50:57

Beethoven was a student of folk music.

0:50:570:50:59

Music comes up from the great mass of people.

0:50:590:51:03

It comes up from everyone, the most common folks, and has forever.

0:51:030:51:08

There aren't any humans who don't participate in music in some way.

0:51:080:51:13

I came across this remarkable Blind Willie Johnson field recording

0:51:210:51:24

made in Texas in 1927, called Dark Was The Night Cold Was The Ground.

0:51:240:51:28

The melody is adopted from an old Scots hymn,

0:51:290:51:32

goes back many centuries, and was transformed by Willie Johnson.

0:51:320:51:37

In this recording, he didn't include any lyrics -

0:51:370:51:39

he just sang it as a moan over his guitar instrumental,

0:51:390:51:44

and it had a timeless quality to it.

0:51:440:51:47

It's certainly a piece about the hardship and tragedy of life,

0:51:480:51:52

and the feeling of being alone and desperate and homeless.

0:51:520:51:57

Night has yet to fall anywhere on the planet without touching

0:51:570:52:00

men and women in exactly that situation.

0:52:000:52:03

So, one of my first priorities was,

0:52:050:52:07

let's put this recording on this record

0:52:070:52:11

intended to last for billions of years.

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MUSIC: Dark Was The Night Cold Was The Ground by Blind Willie Johnson

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FOOTSTEPS

0:53:570:54:00

MACHINERY CHUGS

0:54:140:54:16

BUZZER

0:54:480:54:49

BLUES ARRANGEMENT OF MENDELSSOHN'S WEDDING MARCH PLAYS

0:54:550:54:58

SLOW BLUES MELODY PLAYS

0:55:080:55:11

TEMPO SPEEDS TO UPBEAT BLUES MELODY

0:55:130:55:16

# You people can talk about your kosher-rolling mamas

0:55:240:55:28

# While you're cheatin' with your high-speedin' brown

0:55:280:55:33

# Well, I got a woman way down in Mobile, Alabama

0:55:330:55:37

# She's the warmest thing in that town doggone her skin

0:55:370:55:42

# She ain't got no papa leave me alone

0:55:420:55:47

# She ain't got no big boy please take me home

0:55:470:55:51

# This mama just got

0:55:510:55:53

# One object in view

0:55:530:55:55

# And what she said to me I know she's bound to say to you

0:55:550:55:59

# She'll say

0:55:590:56:00

# Papa, if you ain't got no matrimonial inclinations

0:56:000:56:05

# Then keep your hands to yourself

0:56:050:56:09

# Daddy, if you ain't got no bungalow-made reservations

0:56:090:56:13

# Son, don't let your hands be filled

0:56:130:56:17

# Girl, I'm this red-hot papa you heard so much talk about

0:56:170:56:22

# But this is an ice bestest woman

0:56:220:56:24

# Who'll mortally put your fire out, hmmm

0:56:240:56:27

# Papa, if you ain't got no matrimonial inclinations

0:56:270:56:31

# Just keep your hands to yourself Doh-doh-doh

0:56:310:56:35

# When I first met you I had no shoes

0:56:350:56:39

# But look at me now I got these bare-footed blues

0:56:390:56:44

# Papa, if you ain't got no matrimonial intentions

0:56:440:56:49

# Please keep your hands to yourself Doh-doh-doh

0:56:490:56:53

# Papa, if you ain't got no matrimonial inclinations

0:57:180:57:22

# Please keep your hands to yourself

0:57:220:57:26

# Daddy, if you ain't got no bungalow-made reservations

0:57:260:57:31

# Son, don't let your hands be filled

0:57:310:57:35

# Well, I'm this red-hot papa you heard so much talk about

0:57:350:57:39

# But you're an ice bestest woman

0:57:390:57:42

# Who'll mortally put my fire out, hmmm

0:57:420:57:44

# Papa, if you ain't got no matrimonial intentions

0:57:440:57:49

# Oh, death, where is that sting? #

0:57:490:57:52

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