Back Water Rising - Napoleon Strickland

Back Water Rising for those with Spotify

(Well it was there a week ago, guess it's gone now so...)

Back Water Rising for those without Spotify everybody

Fife and Drum Blues is one of the less well known variations of the Blues genre. The music does what it says on the tin: Fifes (usually one, sometimes more) blow melody over a massive drum line, with spare vocals shouted out over the top.

The origins of the genre are disputed. Some point to the military march music of the American Revolutionary War, built as it was upon carried snare drums and fife pipes, while others argue that the sound can be traced back to African folk music. Either way it's agreed upon that the use of the instrumentation to play blues music began in the southern United States, with examples to be found all the way from Georgia to Tennessee.

Today we're looking at one of the most well known practitioners of the genre, Napoleon Strickland and his song Back Water Rising.

Born near Como, Mississippi in 1919 Strickland was a multi-instrumentalist, showing skill at percussion, guitars, harmonica and more. He was taught to play the fife by musician Otha Turner during his younger years, and it was this instrument which he consistently stuck to through most of his career.