Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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Songs:
- Jimmy Reed
- Blind Blake (Arthur Blake)
- Washboard Sam (Robert Brown)
R A M B L IN G
R
To ramble is to move from place to place, never settling down. Rambling is also used to
describe sexual voraciousness; this usage may stem from the late-night live-sex shows at
buffet flats
-hours clubs to describe the
United
Most popular were the forty-plus films written and directed by African American novelist
and South Dakota homesteader Oscar Micheaux. His movies starred all-black casts and
were mostly produced by black filmmakers. Some directly addressed racial issues, while
others were simply mysteries, musicals, or Westerns, yet counteracted the predominant
image of African Americans in the movies as fit for little else beyond scrubbing floors,
polishing shoes, or tap dancing.
Although rambling is associated with fecklessness and avoidance of work and family
responsibility, for many African Americans- including blues musicians- traveling to look
for work became a way of life after the Civil War. Determined to get back on their feet
after the Civil War, southern white farmers began clearing the Delta, and a levee was
built to hold back the river and protect the new fields of rich river soil from spring floods.
ds of black freedmen migrated to the Delta to clear and farm its
Blues from the Delta. 305
A sharecropper in the hill country beyond the Delta region could earn about a quarter a
day, whereas in the Delta he could make a dollar or more a day. Sharecropping took hold
in the Delta during that time, but it soon became clear to the croppers that some planters
in debt to the planters, or were sick of being treated cruelly or unfairly, simply left, taking
highways 51 and 61 north to St. Louis and Chicago to look for work.
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