I am impressed by the unadorned integrity of this document. Excellent. Thankyou.

I can feel what their pain and struggle trough their music and voice.

amazing, amazing. life-changing to watch this.

That man played 12 bar blues with one string. Then he nailed a wire to side of his house, tuned the damn thing played the house blues. He took a straw, tuned into a jazz whistle and blew doors down in his home town. That man got fire inside his heart and soul, born to play any damn thing he get his hands on

When you think you know your blues history, along comes Lomax to show you how much you don't know.

Alan Lomax deserves a statue - there is so much this good man has done for the preservation of blues and folk music. This was the guy who asked Muddy Waters in 1941 ""From who have you learned this song", after which Muddy answered "Robert Johnson", not telling that Robert had passed away 3 years earlier. Alan then asked "Who do you reckon is a better blues player: Robert Johnson or Son House?" after which Muddy replied "They're about equal". I have immense respect for Alan.

Love this doc!❤🎉 so enlightening, eduational and inspiring. Thank you

Give Mr John and Alan Lomax family they're Emmy and Grammy award for their hard work and dedication that they gave for education of music in folk and traditional music category that was through the African-American experience this documentary is a very experienced tool for the next generations 🏆

his video is a national treasure. They should show this in schools.

With all we went through our spirit never were broken,we are an Amazing people of high standard

The blues make this southern white boy move! 😎👍🏻. God bless all them folks who gave us this fantastic music

This belongs in the national archives! God bless Lomax and all these gentlemen for doing this!❤

125k views after nearly ten years is just criminal. Thank you, Lomax Clan. Thank you to the pickers and bluesman. Most of all, thank you to the Delta.

Documentary was made for the PBS series "American Patchwork," containing music by and interviews with several Delta blues musicians, and is a deeply felt and sympathetic document of the conditions under which many of these blues players lived and which inspired their music.

Ridiculous that this is less than 2000 views at this time - Lomax was CRITICAL to blues and what we know today. Thank god for his work. Brilliant vision and sounds captured whilst quite a few of these boys were still around. In the 80's and 90's, most of them had died by then. This is absolute cultural gold.

I love these guys I was raised in Mississippi now live in NY...when I find myself complaining this remind me how far i came...does anyone has any updates on this????

My Gosh! Joe Savage is the BEST singer I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. And I grew up in the South. Generation X. My elders were these people. And everyone sang like this. Whether in the Church, or Juke Joint Blues. These people had soul! I am now taking it upon myself to learn to write and play these traditional styles so I can teach my six year old, half Swedish son what the Blues is. Where it came from, and his personal connection to these amazingly rich people.

I doubt I'll ever find the answer, but about thirty years ago...well, just over, but I was in the navy, stationed at Great Lakes, and was listening to a Chicago radio station. They played a piece by R. L. Burnside, something about "me and the wolf" or a very similar phrase. Trouble is, I can't find even the slightest reference to anything by him that could possibly be it. I suppose, if I had copies of everything he recorded over thirty years ago, and listened to them all, maybe, just maybe I'll find it. Knowing my luck, it'll turn out I'd confused what the DJ said, and it was some other musician....but it was what introduced me to R. L. Burnside, and that's not nothing.

thanks for this documentary!! hard to hear some of the cruel things they did to the blacks smh but somehow in that ugly dark time something so beautiful was created by expressing there pain hurt and love that motivated them to keep going!! amazing

I wouldn't have known about this documentary if it weren't for finding the booklet (which is a transcript and study guide to the film) that goes along with it in a free library, here in my hometown of Crystal Springs, MS. :)

Alan and John lomax are real heroes.

Thank you for the blues

It is people like these who have given the world the blues, loved by so many. It is all the cultures of all the peoples, Black, Red, White and Yellow that make this Nation unique and great! Thank You from Heart! DaveyJO in Pennsylvania

I'love blues .

Thank you for sharing - an amazing insight... the real deal...

powerfull evocative such real music of soul thanks

Great documentary Lomax gave us a gift

An amazing music, cultural anthropology and a Historian, of of a man who traveled far and near for the origins of the genre's of music he discovered or recorded Thank you, Mr. Bishop I have some of his PBS specials, but this is a TREASURE.

I’m watching this for class

Thanks for sharing this amazing documentary! Hope they preserve this gold mine!

Thank you for posting!

Thanks for sharing ♥️⚜️

How did music go from this...to what is heard mainstream today? In my opinion it speaks volumes about the state of society today...

24:35 Sam Chatmon whoaaaa that’s some heavy stuff! Listening in 2023 for the fist time and I love it

Thank you for uploading Blues Compartido is real the truth here.Is good to know this,

Great piece of work.

This is great

The best secret to playing a good harp is whiskey on the lips and tongue.

(54:40) Rudy Ray Moore's character "Dolemite" immediately came to mind with that storytelling.

Amazing! I have met folks from rural and I mean rural New Jersey who play an instrument called a 'gut bucket' it was an inverted galvanized pale with a long stick/thin branch and a single string. Our country has a rich history and music has always brought people from different backgrounds together. It is like the arts combine us while other things like politics bifurcate us.

The lady plowing.. I would love to meet her family

I am amazed that there is no recognition of the Mali blues that existed hundreds of years before this music arrived in the states. "Musicologists and music-lovers alike revere Mali as “the birthplace of the blues.” Mali's traditional music draws on the tales of ancient griots, who effectively kept the country's historical record by singing songs of praise about its nobility". Or any mention of the call and response songs that were work songs from Africa that the plantation slaves sang and are the true origin of the blues. It's more about ownership than the accurate history of this music from Africa. Even though in The Robert Johnson biography they recorded that Robert as a child was greatly influenced by the rhythms and singing of these original language songs. No one owns this music today as it is played in every corner of the world. And is constantly evolving.

This is treasure

Excellent

Amazing! Can't believe I only just found this...some things i never thought about before. Like the irony that its both a music to attract women and to get over women....but of course! Also that expression/culture comes from rootless people but that in turn becomes a rooted culture....

Wow, the flute music is so West African!

Amazing art

Thank the Gods for the Goddamn Blues💘💘

Excellent excellent

What a great surprise to find back Jack Owens in this mesmerising video! I met him in the 1990's when he performed at the Blues Estafette in Utrecht (The Netherlands) and I had the honour to shake hands with him 👏👏!! Years later I visited Bentonia Mississipi with my family to remember him and Skip James who lived there!

Thanks lomax

GOLD

Who Knew? - I Grew Up In This Way.

Alan Lomax has founded many historic figures and legends in his documentary. I plan on trying to keep his legacy going as far as trying to find talent in delta blues and delta trap music

Guy in the white shirt is my cuzn Harold buuka T Bell...Greenville Mississippi..nelson st ..

Yes!!! Thank you!!! 1Nation4Life

en el ano 1962 con trece anos fabriique mí primer ' guitarra 1ro con.cuerdas hilo de algodón luego cambio las cambie por cuerdas de alambre-algo sonaba!

❤❤❤

Gangs of New York ( opening scene) brought me here.

Africa is the root of all

Rock'n' Roll Punk Rock!

Great video .Not enough adverts though. Could have crammed another twenty in at least, to really get the message across.

I bought the BOOK!

Dude rapping before at the end

32:02 is where I took my screen name from...🙂

REEL?LIFE!

53:10, rap began

Would absolutely love information on the song around 00:26

The music during the end credits sounds very similar, if not exactly the same as the flute/drum samples used in Gangs of New York.. Did they perhaps borrow music from this documentary? If anyone knows, please comment !

Guys loved it! Piece of history! Btw, what's the song /artist @ 16:07

Gee, thanks for stealing my film and putting it on your channel without permission or attribution. What a swell guy you are. You might mention that it was made by Alan Lomax, John Bishop and Worth Long.

19:16 For reference that barrel weight 300 pounds (136 kg for us accross the Atlantic) when it's full. It's hard, today, to comprend how hard those jobs where. It takes a man (or a woman) who got the blues to play th blues indeed.

American Indian music!!

Took it off my page after seeing your post, sorry John, great job. Thumbs down for stealing this mans effort.

And 44:53 love it

how about it mr/ mme compartido ? CREDIT WHERE IT IS DUE.

Blues Compartido ripped this off from an icky pre-release dupe, the ads are his fucking karma

17 kids? Holy moly

OP give credits to the filmmakers vvvvv

SERÍA MAS QUE IMPORTANTE SUBTITULAR POR LO MENOS AL''ESPAÑOL''TODAS ÉSTAS OBRAS TAN INTERESANTES DESCONOCIDAS,PERO ESCUCHADAS.-SALUDOS DESDE''BUENOS AIRES C.A.B.A.REP.ARGENTINA''.-

Mashpotatoe johnson brought me here

At 39:00 yessuhh 😆

Who is that at 21.06??

John Bishop you might mention that you were only doing a public service. All acknowledgement should go to the artists you documented first. Not feeling the woe is me vibe.

10:30 this is what ravers called speaker freakin

I thought this Lomax guy was Dr John

Trying to out sing each other to take the edge off of "pure hell". Underpaid,heatstroke and destitution..... 🤔

anybode knows who this is? performing around 3:00

👩‍💻💭... MY My My

Does anyone what that first guy was playing? On the electric guitar? That riff is SO awesome but I can't figure it out. I think it's a little out of tune for one thing. If you know what he's doing please let me know.

This make me think about what my dad told me about the redriver bottoms northeast Texas bowie county texas up around dekalb tx hooks tx redbank tx wamba tx north of texarkana texas Mandeville ar over the state line in miller County arkansas redriver bottoms first old river texarkana Arkansas second old river lost parie the beck bottoms hack and bend bottoms glass hill bottoms on the redriver was northeast of dekalb tx on farm road 992 on 3side farm it was a prison on there also my dad grandfather which is his dad Father that's how he got to dekalb tx around 1901 to 1910 he was lock up in that prison when he was released in 1910 he didn't have no where to go so he stayed on that plantation and the where alot of families who lives on them farms the pops johnson the hooks the Neal's Traylor family Jones galbert family McGowans so he married a McGowan his name was elis pops whe was born in texarkana bowie county texas miller county arkansas area he move to hooks tx 12 miles west of texarkana on highway us 82 he killed somebody around 1901 that's how he got to that prison in dekalb tx 18 miles west on 82 my dad dad didn't meet his father until some time around 1910 my dad dad was from hooks his name was John pops he was born 1900 in hooks tx he was a couple of months old when he dad elis pops went to prison my dad name George pops my name is George Lee pops Jr my Dad married a Ganaway my mother name is Debra ganaway pops her mother name was Helen hooks ganaway my blood line come from the farm my mother's mother mother name was Sally Johnson hooks her husband's name was forrest hooks which is my mother mother's father he was A big time boss his grandfather name was forrest hooks a mixed man who father was Warren hooks the founder of hooks tx so bowie county texas run deep I'm my roots redriver bottoms baby

Come on camera guy. Get the hands.

18:00 is this woman the mother of Denzel Washington?!

Fkn ads ruin this

You can see he don't know nothing about chopping a tree down be 2 years trying to get that tree down

2019: KZfaq rip off world.

Europe and Africa? Get the hell out of here with that lie.

Wow, talk abt less is more!!! I wonder what the 1 string players could have done with 6!!!

"Europe"????😂😂😂😂

Do hear slavery stories SMH