It’s great to have THE WASHBOARD RESONATORS with us on the 23/24 of November and I’m really looking forward to seeing them live but when I saw them referred to as ‘Purveyors of Blues, Jazz, Folk and Hokum’, I thought to myself ‘What the hell is Hokum?’. That notion sent me down one of those internet rabbit holes and what I came up with was some fascinating music history.
Hokum (or as it is sometimes called, Dirty Blues) became popular in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s – it’s an upbeat style of music that is lyrically funny and often on the raunchy side. Guitarist Tampa Red (real name Hudson Whittaker) started the Hokum craze with his 1928 hit It’s Tight Like That – a song he recorded with Georgia Tom (real name Thomas Dorsey). Dorsey, it turns out is not only a Dirty Blues pioneer, he is also credited with being the father of Gospel music and was the writer of Martin Luther King’s favourite song – Precious Lord Take My Hand. King often invited gospel singer Mahalia Jackson to sing it at civil rights rallies to inspire crowds and at his bequest she sang Precious Lord at his funeral in April 1968. When Dorsey collaborated with Tampa Red he was already on the gospel train. However, he was sidetracked by the devil’s music because Hokum paid way better than Gospel. So it seems the decision to get down and dirty with Red was all about the money honey and had nothing to do with his Christian beliefs (allegedly).
Tampa Red’s success gave other Delta Blues artists, notably Big Bill Broonzy, the motivation to make the journey to Chicago. Red and his wife, Francis, always had a hot meal and a bed available in their apartment to help ease the transition from country to city life for a Blues musician who’d managed to make it up North. Broonzy joined The Hokum Boys in 1930 and they recorded party Blues tunes such as ‘Pig Meat Strut’ and ‘Saturday Night Rub’ before launching his acclaimed solo career.
See THE WASHBOARD RESONATORS at Claypath Deli in Durham City on Saturday 23rd of November at 7pm or at 3pm at [Dirty] Blues in the Bar, The Georgian Theatre, Stockton on Sunday 24th November.
Click here for tickets > DIRTY BLUES
DownByTheRiver 