The Year Of The Blues

WITR & Bad Dog Blues will be airing the 13-part "The Blues—The Radio Series" starting October 5th and running every Sunday through the end of the year. The show will air at 1:00 PM and can be heard live on the web. Bad Dog Blues airs every Sunday 10AM-3PM (EST). Make sure to tune in early as we play related music, interviews and open the phone lines for numerous CD giveaways. More details on the radio series can be found below.

 In 1903, on a lonely train platform in Tutwiler, Mississippi, African American composer W.C. Handy encountered a man playing "the weirdest music I had ever heard," an unexpected sound that would soon expand to become the most influential form of American roots music. And although it reverberates to this day across the globe, both on its own and through the many genres of which it is the foundation — including jazz, rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, soul, and hip-hop — it is still known, quite simply, as the blues.

 In celebration of the 100th anniversary of this encounter, and in recognition of the blues' ongoing impact on music and cultural history, both in America and around the world, on September 5, 2002, the United States Congress proclaimed the year 2003 as the "Year of the Blues" (YOTB). The year will be celebrated by bringing together blues events, multimedia projects (radio and film series), concerts, festivals, and education initiatives. Spearheaded by Robert Santelli, CEO and Director of Seattle-based Experience Music Project (EMP), and the Memphis-based Blues Foundation, the Year of the Blues aims to raise awareness of the blues, its unique American stories, and its influence in America and around the world.

The Radio Series

 "The Blues" radio series chronicles blues music from its roots in West Africa; its spread through the rural south to the high-energy blues scenes of Chicago, London, and Memphis; its survival through the lean '70s; resurgence in the '80s; and growth into today's thriving blues communities. Each episode of the 13-part series features new and archival interviews with blues legends, prominent contemporary artists, record producers, and historians combined with historic and modern-day blues recordings to create the most extensive blues-based radio series ever produced.

 In addition, the series includes performances of seminal blues songs by contemporary artists and visits to blues venues such as the Delta Blues Museum, Chess Studios in Chicago, and Beale Street in Memphis, emphasizing the music's contemporary connections and demonstrating that blues music is alive and well in the 21st century. The 13 episodes include:

Episode One: Birth of the Blues (Oct. 5)
Episode Two: Goin' Up the Country (Oct. 12)
Episode Three: T'aint Nobody's Business If I Do (Oct. 19)
Episode Four: Standin' at the Crossroads (Oct. 26)
Episode Five: Mystery Train (Nov. 2)
Episode Six: Sweet Home Chicago (Nov. 9)
Episode Seven: Key to the Highway (Nov. 16)
Episode Eight: Blues Power (Nov. 23)
Episode Nine: Bring it on Home (Nov. 30)
Episode Ten: Gimme Back My Wig (Dec. 7)
Episode Eleven: Texas Flood (Dec. 14)
Episode Twelve: When Love Comes to Town (Dec. 21)
Episode Thirteen: Future Blues (Dec. 28)
[Air times are for WITR & Bad Dog Blues]

Television: Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues

 Under the guiding hand of Executive Producer Martin Scorsese, The Blues is a seven-part television series of personal and impressionistic films viewed through the lens of seven world famous directors who share a passion for the music. The films, by Charles Burnett, Clint Eastwood, Mike Figgis, Marc Levin, Richard Pearce, Martin Scorsese, and Wim Wenders, capture the essence of blues music and delve into its global influence-from its roots in Africa to its inspirational role in today's music. Four of the seven films are written by Charles Burnett, Robert Gordon, Peter Guralnick, and Wim Wenders. The Blues is a series of impressionistic and iconoclastic films—each director exploring the music through his own personal connections. Simply put, it is the journey from Robert Johnson's Delta blues "Love in Vain," to John Coltrane's transcendental anthem, "A Love Supreme." Driven by the beat of performances by famous players from every kind of music the blues has inspired—hip-hop, rhythm and blues, soul, country and rock and roll—this seven-part series takes us on a journey as soulful and ebullient as the music itself. Martin Scorsese personally introduces each of the seven episodes. Along with Scorsese, Paul G. Allen and Jody Patton of Vulcan Productions and Ulrich Felsberg of Road Movies are executive producing the series; Alex Gibney is the series producer; Margaret Bodde is the producer and Richard Hutton is the co-producer. The seven-part film series airs from 9/28/03 - 10/4/03 and includes:

Feel Like Going Home by Martin Scorsese
The Soul of a Man by Wim Wenders
The Road to Memphis by Richard Pearce
Warming by the Devil's Fire by Charles Burnett
Godfathers and Sons by Marc Levin
Red, White & Blues by Mike Figgis
Piano Blues by Clint Eastwood

Television: Blues Story

 This August, PBS stations across the country will air "Blues Story" a documentary that features numerous living icons of the blues for the first time telling their own story, in words and song. Blues Story is expected to be a keystone component of PBS pledge drives this year. Featuring a who’s who of blues performers giving their own first person accounts of the origin and power of this music, the film includes newly-shot, exclusive footage of Bobby “Blue” Bland, R.L. Burnside, Ruth Brown, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Koko Taylor, Little Milton, Pinetop Perkins, Rufus Thomas, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and many more. Blues Story is the result of five years of filming throughout the Mississippi Delta, in Memphis, Chicago and other regions. It features in-depth interviews, performances and archival film clips and stills to tell the story of one of America’s most lasting art forms.

 Six of those who were interviewed in Blues Story have died since participating in the filming. That toll underscores just how important it was for the filmmakers’ to get Blues Story completed before an entire generation of blues legends would be lost. According to Levey, “The fact that we were able to film first hand testimony from such giants that are no longer with us, including Charles Brown, Willie Foster, Lowell Fulson, John Jackson, Rufus Thomas and Othar Turner, makes this work, in some sense, sacred. The preservation of their collective legacy and that of all of those who came before and since, including so many seen in Blues Story, is the very purpose of the film.”

CD's, DVD's & Books

 More than 20 new album packages will be released collaboratively in September 2003 by Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) and Sony Music's Columbia/Legacy, with repertoire included from the vaults of many other labels. The following CD's and DVD's will be released:

-Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues- A Musical Journey
(5-CD box set)

-A companion book titled Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey published by HarperCollins

- Under the banner Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues will be "best of" collections by: Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, J.B. Lenoir, Jimi Hendrix, The Allman Brothers Band, Bessie Smith, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Son House, Keb' Mo', Taj Mahal and Robert Johnson.

-Seven soundtrack CD's from the film series: Feel Like Going Home, The Soul Of A Man, The Road To Memphis, Warming By The Devil's Fire, Godfathers & Sons, Red White & Blues, Piano Blues

-Collector's edition DVD box set of the entire series from Sony and UMe (individual DVDs will be released in 2004)

 In addition Shout! Factory will be releasing their "Heroes Of The Blues" series featuring:

-The Very Best of Reverend Ma Rainey
-The Very Best of Reverend Gary Davis
-The Very Best of Furry Lewis
-The Very Best of Skip James
-The Very Best of Mississippi Fred McDowell
-The Very Best of Son House

 Shout! Factory will release a companion Blues Story 2 CD set and the Blues Story DVD. Both the film and the two discs comprise, in essence, a concise primer in the fundament of the blues. The CD set contains original studio recordings by many of the artists who appear in the film, as well as a multitude of blues greats who have long since passed, including T-Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Skip James, Reverend Gary Davis, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Son House and Robert Johnson.

Related Links

-PBS The Blues
-Year of The Blues
-Universal Music
-Shout! Factory
-Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey