Fife and drum blues

Fife and drum blues is a rural derivation of traditional country blues. It is performed typically with one lead fife player, often also the band leader and vocalist, and a troop of drummers. Unlike a drum corps, the drum troop is loosely structured. As such, a fife and drum band may have any number of snare, tom, and bass drum players. Fife and drum performances were family affairs often held at reunions and big picnics.

Fifes were carved from cane that grew locally. Drums were often hand-made, and equally often just percussive objects. The vocals seem to derive from two main styles:

1. Traditional call and response of Black Spirituals
2. Short, repetitive lyrics

The genre originates in very rural areas of the farming South and today persists in a stretch of sparsely populated Southern states stretching from northwest Georgia to an area south of Memphis. Notable performers are Napoleon Strickland, Dan Emmett, Othar Turner, Shardé Thomas and Jessie Mae Hemphill. Performers play blues songs as well as religious songs such as "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "When I Lay My Burden Down."

See also

• Ancient Fife and Drum Corps
• Blues
• Delta Blues
• Excelsior Brigade Fife and Drum Corps
• Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps

Further viewing

• American Patchwork: Songs and Stories of America, part 3: "The Land Where the Blues Began" (1990). Written, directed, and produced by Alan Lomax; developed by the Association for Cultural Equity at Columbia University and Hunter College. North Carolina Public TV; A Dibb Direction production for Channel Four. (Watch film: The Land Where the Blues Began)
• Deep Blues (1991). Directed by Robert Mugge.
• Gravel Springs Fife and Drum (1971). Filmed by Bill Ferris, recorded by David Evans, and edited by Judy Peiser. (Watch film: Gravel Springs Fife and Drum

Bibliography

• Cobb, Charles E., Jr., "Traveling the Blues Highway", National Geographic Magazine, April 1999, v.195, n.4
• Dixon, RMW & Godrich, J (1981) Blues and Gospel Records: 1902–1943, Storyville, London.
• Hamilton, Marybeth: In Search of the Blues.
• Leadbitter, M & Slaven, N (1968) Blues Records 1943–1966, Oak Publications, London.
• William Ferris; - Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues - The University of North Carolina Press; (2009) ISBN 0807833258 ISBN 978-0807833254 (with CD and DVD on fife and drum blues)
• William Ferris; Glenn Hinson The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 14: Folklife The University of North Carolina Press (2009) ISBN 0807833460 ISBN 978-0807833469 (Cover :phfoto of James Son Thomas)
• William Ferris; Blues From The Delta Da Capo Press; Revised edition (1988) ISBN 0306803275 ISBN 978-0306803277
• Ted Gioia; Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music - W. W. Norton & Company (2009) ISBN 0393337502 ISBN 978-0393337501
• Sheldon Harris; Blues Who's Who Da Capo Press 1979
• Robert Nicholson; Mississippi Blues Today ! Da Capo Press (1999) ISBN 0306808838 ISBN 978-0306808838
• Robert Palmer; Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta - Penguin Reprint edition (1982) ISBN 0140062238; ISBN 978-0140062236
• Frederic Ramsey Jr.; Been Here And Gone - 1st edition (1960) Rutgers University Press - London Cassell (UK) andNew Brunswick, NJ
• idem - 2nd printing (1969) Rutgers University Press New Brunswick, NJ
• idem - (2000) University Of Georgia Press
• Charles Reagan Wilson - William Ferris - Ann J. Adadie; Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (1656 pagine) The University of North Carolina Press; 2nd Edition (1989) - ISBN 0807818232 - ISBN 978-0807818237

Further reading

1. David Evans, "Black Fife and Drum Music in Mississippi"
2. Howard W. Odum, "Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negro"
3. Eileen Southern "The Music of Black Americans: A History"
4. http://www.folkstreams.net/context,86