From the earliest oral traditions Delta storytellers possessed a strong sense of place, of which the landscape, water, and heat formed the backdrop. Tragedy and melodrama are popular southern genres, and kinship and family are important themes in Delta literature. Southern class differences and racial conflict have also long given rise to written expression, and the themes of delta writers, especially the elementalism and focus on "blood, sweat and tears" reality, often parallel those of Delta blues songs.
Music and the lower Mississippi River delta are synonymous and, indeed, the Delta is the cradle of American music. Musical styles within the Delta region are diverse and it was here that the blues, Cajun music, jazz, and zydeco evolved. Yet best known around the world is the blues music of the lower Mississippi River Delta. Developed by people engaged in struggle, infused with spirit and speaking in dialect, the blues are rooted in African music and evolved from field hollars, the work songs of slaves that often carried deeply layered, coded messages. It is said that misery produces creativity and resiliency, and the blues is deeply rooted in the African-American experience and the rural settings of the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas. The blues tell stories of frustrated love, broken homes, and other miscues of an oppressed and displaced people. The blues is a music of hardworking, exploited people and this distinct, indigenous music was largely developed by musicians with no formal training, but with an ear for the rhythms of their daily lives.
The success of blues music, however, is a relatively recent phenomenon. Originally a rural sound and strongly connected to place, blues went unrecognized as commercially viable for years, due to racial prejudice and the subsuming of the blues under other types of music, such as jazz and rock & roll. As the Mississippi River facilitated the movement of people and their music all over America, major metropolitan areas along the river, such as New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago soon shared similar musical forms. Later, the blues began to circulate the nation on the radio, first recorded in Memphis before the Depression and later in Chicago. Today rap music is a form of contemporary blues that draws upon past blues’ themes and musicians, but old time Delta blues barely exists and is now mostly for new types of audiences.
Source: History and Culture of the Mississippi Delta Region
Marvin Sapp - Never Would Have Made It
Music and the lower Mississippi River delta are synonymous and, indeed, the Delta is the cradle of American music. Musical styles within the Delta region are diverse and it was here that the blues, Cajun music, jazz, and zydeco evolved. Yet best known around the world is the blues music of the lower Mississippi River Delta. Developed by people engaged in struggle, infused with spirit and speaking in dialect, the blues are rooted in African music and evolved from field hollars, the work songs of slaves that often carried deeply layered, coded messages. It is said that misery produces creativity and resiliency, and the blues is deeply rooted in the African-American experience and the rural settings of the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas. The blues tell stories of frustrated love, broken homes, and other miscues of an oppressed and displaced people. The blues is a music of hardworking, exploited people and this distinct, indigenous music was largely developed by musicians with no formal training, but with an ear for the rhythms of their daily lives.
The success of blues music, however, is a relatively recent phenomenon. Originally a rural sound and strongly connected to place, blues went unrecognized as commercially viable for years, due to racial prejudice and the subsuming of the blues under other types of music, such as jazz and rock & roll. As the Mississippi River facilitated the movement of people and their music all over America, major metropolitan areas along the river, such as New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago soon shared similar musical forms. Later, the blues began to circulate the nation on the radio, first recorded in Memphis before the Depression and later in Chicago. Today rap music is a form of contemporary blues that draws upon past blues’ themes and musicians, but old time Delta blues barely exists and is now mostly for new types of audiences.
Source: History and Culture of the Mississippi Delta Region
Marvin Sapp - Never Would Have Made It
- From his seventh studio album Thirsty
- Released 2007
"Marvin Sapp wrote this song as a tribute after the death of his father, Henry Lewis Sapp, Jr. He testifies that it was created by divine inspiration the Sunday after his father’s burial."
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