THE BIRTH OF THE BLUES (PART 1) MA RAINEY & THE ONES WHO CAME FIRST

1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries Podcast

Jon Hagadorn

Society & Culture, History

4.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

First there was field holler, then came the slow rolling responses,- the "the breeze through the trees". Echoes of hardship, music of the soul.

Then came the guitar, and the strings, and the slides, and the bottleneck- until that guitar became a second voice.

That second voice, with its groans, its tears, its joy of overcoming, became the Blues. -JH 2025

Recently I saw that Ma Rainey's early songs had just become public domain, along with a number of other talents who really combined to give us one of America's truest music art forms- the Blues.

I wanted to know how the blues came to be-who really "brought it", and how to tell the different between different types of blues- like Chicago, or St. Louis Blues.

So I asked one ofm our investigative journalists, Gizelle Erickson, to do some digging, find some music and story we could use- and she handed me most of this story. She would have voiced it but a bad cold got her first- so I got part one. She gets part 2.

Here is the story of the birth of the blues.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I worry all day, I worry all night.
0:16.6	Every time my man comes home, he wants to fuss and find.
0:21.7	When I picked up the paper to read the news,
0:27.9	just when I'm satisfied the younger on the moon.
0:41.4	That strong, deep contralto is the voice of Ma Rainey.
0:47.4	What we can't show you on this podcast is her powerful stage presence, described as thunderous and commanding, that also contributed to her signature sound.
0:51.8	She was known for singing with a moaning style and for her emotive, authentic
0:55.8	delivery of blues music. She didn't need elaborate music playing with her. The weight of the
1:01.0	lyrics and her voice was all that was needed to enrapture audiences wherever she went.
1:06.0	Hi everyone, this is John Haggardorne, host of 1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories, and Mysteries
1:12.7	podcast.
1:13.9	I became very interested in this story a few months ago, and I handed it off to Giselle
1:19.5	Erickson and said, Giselle, a lot of early blues songs just went into the public domain,
1:24.7	and I'd really love to have you help tell the story of how the blues began,
1:28.7	the birth of the blues. Will you do it? And she said, I'd love to do it. So I hand her to the
1:34.2	whole project, Voice 2, but wouldn't you know, the deadline came close. She had gotten one of those
1:40.0	colds that go straight to your voice box and she wasn't able to do it. But I want to give
1:44.2	her intro, because we owe this one to her. And this will go down as a 1001 Heroes Confidential
1:49.7	by Giselle Erickson. Hi there, I'm Giselle Erickson, a huge fan of the 1001 Stories podcast network.
1:57.1	You may have heard my voice on a few projects, as I've been assisting John with a bit of research,
2:01.8	writing, editing, and voiceover work.
2:04.6	You can check out my latest episodes at 1001 Heroes Confidential, where I pulled together the facts
	...

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