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.

cite as

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

location of experience: Mississippi

Listeners

Sam Myers
memoirist, vocalist, Musician
1936-2006

Listening to

hide composers
not 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.


Originally submitted by 5011Henning on Tue, 05 May 2015 12:25:12 +0100
Approved on Mon, 03 Oct 2016 11:01:04 +0100