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Ive Got the Blues
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• What are the Blues?
• Musical style developed post-slavery
• Depicted work, love, poverty, and the hardships
  that freedmen faced
• Lyrics used an AAB form
• Used the Blues scale
• Special thanks to the Library of Congress
  American Memory Collection for the use of the
  following photographs.

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• Economic conditions made life hard for
  African-Americans after the Reconstruction period
  ended.
• Conditions became even harder after the stock
  market crash of 1929.

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• Travel was difficult
• Ferries carried people over rivers
• Wagons were the main source of transportation.

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• Everyday life had many difficulties.
• For example, cooking was done on a wood stove.

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• Having food to eat meant spending long hours in
  the fields.

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• Once grown, the food had to be preserved for the
  winter.

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Milk didnt come from the grocery store!
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• Most homes did not have indoor plumbing and
  water had to be carried inside.

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• School was an important way young people could
  rise above poverty.

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• (Blues) come from slavery time, holler songs in
  the field and things like that. They dont know
  nothing to do but sing, and they called it the
  blues.
• - Honeyboy Edwards

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• Got the blues, cant be satisfied.
• Got the blues, cant be satisfied.
• If I keep the blues, Ill catch the train and
  ride.
• -Mississippi John Hurt (1928)

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• Visit this site to listen to more blues music

American Memory Collection "Now What a Time"
Blues, Gospel

• Milk Cow Blues courtesy of the American Memory
  Collection at the Library of Congress website.
• Quotes taken from American Roots Music based on
  the PBS television series edited by Santelli,
  George-Warren, and Brown