WLAC NASHVILLE II
(A Mini Series)
A new Screen Play by Chera Federle and Don Boner
Part two of a mini-series
Where The Blues Was Born
To find where the blues was born and the roots it came from means a
journey into the Mississippi Delta. You can began your journey in Natchez, Ms,
by traveling north on route 61. Route 61 will take you into the heart of the
Mississippi Delta. As you begin your trip north you begin to hear the blues
whispering to you. It's a strange feeling going back into time to discover a
music that changed America to walk on the same dusty roads that so long ago told
true stories of a people who lived in a country that wanted to forget they
existed. Highway 61 sings the blues, tells the blues, remembers the blues, and
the people who created the blues, in a time when all those poor black folks had
to hold on to and believe in was the blues.
When you reach Greenville your ears should by have now told you your
in the heart of the Mississippi delta and your eyes should being seeing things
you have never seen before. You are where the blues was born, the birth of the
blues, if you can't hear and see the sounds of history all around you pull into
one of the small juke joints on the highway, go in sit down for a minute let
history come to you because it's there at every turn you make and every breath
you take you are in the middle of some very important American history and don't
leave until you understand just how important this American history lesson is to
you and every American.
When the blues story was told by the songs that were played on WLAC
in Nashville America would never be the same again it took a long time to get
the story out, those who helped to tell the story were told to stop telling it,
they were fired then rehired as the story of the blues slowly but surely came to
a young black and white America.
The black people who lived in Greenville, Indianola, Greenwood,
Clarksville, and the area known as the Mississippi Delta were dirt poor with
nothing to look forward to. The 40's and 50's weren't kind to these folks these
humble fine Americans were forgotten as forgotten can be no wonder they sang
when they worked what other pleasure did they have. They sang the blues Lord
knows they had ten million reasons to sing the blues and just as many to get
them. It's true nothin from nothin leaves nothin, so anything no matter how
small is better than nothin. These forgotten Mississippi Blacks had nothing and
nothing in their future could make them believe or possibly show them they would
ever have anything.
Everywhere they went, every step they took, was owned by white
people, the only thing they owned was the clothes on their back. They had no
money, they owned no property, they had no automobile, they had no say in what
went on around them, they lived under the white man's laws and under the strong
rule of his thumb. At any time they could be accused of stealing, telling a lie,
murder and rape and sent off the prison for the rest of their forgotten life.
Life was rough and work was not easy to find and when work was found it paid
almost nothing and was under the most miserable of conditions. Working in a
field all day picking cotton corn or peas was no fun in the boiling sun and
hoeing potatoes was no better. The work day would end and when it did it was
time to break out the moonshine and home made blackberry wine. Get that old
busted beat up guitar pass that bottle of wine around lets to do some dancin. lets
play anything just get something going. The music was something they owned no
one could take away the music. They made music to what they liked and didn't
like, they sang about people who thought they were smart and the things they did
proved those people were stupid that's the fun of a song it's tells a story of
life the way it is. They sang about how poor they were and of the white's who
wanted to keep them that way.
The songs had a slow grinding tail dragging belly to the floor foot
stomping beat to them that made you want to dance to the beat then sit down and
get drunk listening to it. That's the blues, that's what it is, thats what it's
all about. If your a white millionaire you've got no business listening to the
blues, what for, your not going to understand it, and you never will. The blues
is for those of us who got trouble by the mile and no one understands our
trouble but a good blues song and a cheap bottle of wine. There is much more of
this story to be told. WLAC NASHVILLE tells this story about the life and times
of a special people the music they created the four dics jockey's at WLAC who
brought the blues to a very young black and white America who embraced it, loved
it, and begin to live by the words in the songs.
Some day WLAC NASHVILLE will become a full length movie, it will be
the best movie about the south and it's real heritage since ( Roots). Find out
more about WLAC NASHVILLE by typing in WLAC NASHVILLE on your P/C and read more
about this great screen play by "Chera Federle" and "Don Boner".
-Widmarc Clark
For More Information Contact:
THE SOUTHERN LEGENDS ENTERTAINMENT and PERFORMING ARTS HALL of FAME
P.O. Box 428 Portland, Tennessee. 37148-0428
Email: sjmorris850@aol.com