We all celebrate the legendary and contemporary great artists of roots music. However the Dark Blue Records endeavor , is not to give another venue to the already who’s who of roots music, but to provide a means to present, distribute and showcase undiscovered talent.
We don't wish to define the music for the artist but encourage and enable the artist to define art through their music. So climb on board the Dark Blue Express as it takes you to the Folk, Gospel, Soul, and Sweet and of course dark sounds that are the blues. Punch your ticket and enjoy the ride!
The origins of blues is not unlike the origins of life. For many years it was recorded only by memory, and relayed only live, and in person. The Blues were born in the North Mississippi Delta following the Civil War. Influenced by African roots, field hollers, ballads, church music and rhythmic dance tunes called jump-ups evolved into a music for a singer who would engage in call-and-response with his guitar. He would sing a line, and the guitar would answer.
The blues form was first popularized about 1911-14 by a composer named W.C. Handy. However, the poetic and musical form of the blues first crystallized around 1910 and gained popularity through the publication of Handy's "Memphis Blues" (1912) and "St. Louis Blues" (1914). Instrumental blues had been recorded as early as 1913. During the twenties, the blues became a national craze. Mamie Smith recorded the first vocal blues song, 'Crazy Blues' in 1920. The Blues influence on jazz brought it into the mainstream and made possible the records of blues singers like Bessie Smith and later, in the thirties, Billie Holiday.
The blues is neither an era in the chronological development of jazz, nor is it actually a particular style of playing or singing jazz. Some feel that the blues is a way to approach music, a philosophy, in a manner of speaking. And still others hold a much wider sociological view that the blues are an entire musical tradition rooted in the experience of the Civil War. Whatever one may think of the social implications of the blues, whether expressing the American experience in microcosm, it was their strong autobiographical nature, their intense personal passion, chaos and loneliness, executed so vibrantly that it captured the imagination of modern musicians and the general public as well. Here at Dark Blue Records, we remember the true foundation of blues music and embrace the future of the art of singing the blues.
