Sam Myers in Mississippi - the 1940's
from Sam Myers: The Blues is My Story, page 17:
To help pass the time, they [cotton pickers] would be singing in the fields. They'd sing these different songs, strung out all over the field. Sometimes they'd be singing the same song; other times it would be different songs. I never will forget, they would be just making up stuff to sing, like about the rain. Like, "I'm not gonna work another day without pay, and it seems like it's not gonna rain no more," because you knew when it rained, regardless of how much cotton was in the field, you couldn't pick it because you had water in the rows. That is how a lot of blues songs was written.
Jeff Horton and Sam Myers, Sam Myers: The Blues is My Story (City of Jackson, 2006), p. 17. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1430825112573 accessed: 4 December, 2024
Listeners
Listening to
hide composersnot known |
Experience Information
Date/Time | the 1940's |
Medium | live |
Listening Environment | outdoors, solitary |
Notes
Bluesman Sam Myers recalling his early teenage years working as a water boy in cotton fields near his birthplace, Laurel, Mississippi.