Magic is easy if you put your heart into it.

Michael Jackson.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music The

The Episode 417

Over the Rainbow

I want to begin today by talking about the blues.

We last discussed the blues in episode 226, so it's time to pick up that thread again,

maybe pastime.

In that episode, I described the origins of the blues and the history of blues music as far as W.C. Handy,

the band leader who embraced the blues. Handy also composed blues songs, notably Memphis Blues and

St. Louis Blues. This was back in the Bell-a-Poc days, when musicians made most of their money touring, and songwriters made

most of their money from sheet music. You may recall that Handy founded his own sheet music business

and made enough money from royalties for his own songs to live comfortably the rest of his life.

And that's how it should be, right? Handy died in 1958 at the age of 84.

I also told you in that episode that Handy was known as the Father of the Blues. This was the title of

his autobiography, published in 1941. Of course, Handy did not invent the Blues,

but he played a big part in popularizing them.

So having previously discussed the father of the Blues,

it seems appropriate to begin today

by discussing the woman they called the Mother of the Blues.

She was born Gertrude Pridgett in 1886 in Columbus, Georgia.

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