Fruteland Jackson

I was able to make workshop at Hamilton Elementary in Moline Tuesday morning where Joe and Kathleen Griffen introduced Fruteland, St. Paul and the Apostle in Davenport Tuesday afternoon where Karen McFarland introduced Fruteland and Horace Mann Elementary in Rock Island Friday afternoon where Michael Cotton provided the sound system.

Just as he did in his 2004 residency, Fruteland began his workshops explaining that because of the lack of time he would not be able to play songs all the way through. Fruteland then explained that blues music, real music and roots music was incorporated in all of the popular music of today including rap, hip-hop, rock and roll, alternative, R and B and jazz. He said that blues music originated in the plantations of the south naming all of the southern states. Continuing, Fruteland performed examples of each, including an excellent version of a field holler. He performed “Give me that Old Time Religion” to represent spirituals.

Next, Fruteland talked about W.C. Handy, who he said was the father of the blues because he was the first musician to compose blues music in writing. Fruteland told about W.C Handy composing his most famous song “The St. Louis Blues” in 1914, which became popular all over the world.

Fruteland talked about and demonstrated two types of blues, country and city. He said that country blues was performed on southern plantations, was acoustic and normally played by one musician. He then discussed that the deep poverty of African Americans on southern plantations brought about the migration to the better paying jobs of northern big cities Chicago and Detroit. African Americans brought their country blues with them, but with the availability of electricity for increasing the loudness of sound and the need for the musicians to be joined by bass players, drummers and lead guitar players, city blues was developed.

Fruteland said the subject of blues music could be about anything that came to one’s mind. He then asked for volunteers to compose lyrics, join him on stage and sing the lyrics as he backed them up on his guitar. Fruteland managed to get two volunteers at all three of the workshops I attended.

Fruteland closed his workshops with a five minute question and answer period.

Fruteland Jackson’s residency was mad possible by major support from the Riverboat Development Authority. Additional support was provided by Kraft Foods, Alcoa, Sears Manufacturing, Lingui Systems, The Lodge, KALA-FM, WQPT and WVIK.

-Jimmie Jones