Sex, Violence, and Death: A Short History of Early Race Recordings

In 1920, Perry Bradford persuaded Okeh Records to record Mamie Smith singing his composition Crazy Blues, spawning the era of race records. Reverend Kingfish dives into the raw underbelly of early 20th-century music made by Black artists for black audiences. From bawdy blues and murder ballads to double-entendre-laced hokum, you will be guided through the voices that captured the pain, pleasure, and peril of life in a segregated America. This is history with grit, groove, and guts.