Hylda was one of the Skiffle/Blues pioneers in London in the 1950s. She was part of the City Ramblers and is still playing this style of music in clubs in 2015. This poem or free song, Blues Medicine, is Hylda’s homage to the Blues.
It is about the need for some blues medicine which can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Maybe it is the first Skiffle Rap!
Here is the live performance of Blues Medicine from the radio show with Hylda speaking, Doc Stenson on harmonica and Simon Prager on guitar.
It was recorded live on Jonathan Ballie Strong’s Live Lockdown#3 show on London’s K2K radio in November 2013, in a program I did about the life of the UK pioneer harp player, Cyril Davies.
The story of Cyril Davies, the first British blues harmonica player. From Traditional Jazz to Country Blues and Jug Bands in the 1950s. The meetings with blues greats like Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Muddy Waters. Amplification and the Explosion of Blues Incorporated into the Ealing Club and The Marquee in 1962. A year of fame with his own band, The All Stars, and his early death in January 1964.
This comes from a podcast radio show I did in 2013 on Jonathan Baillie Strong’s “Live Lockdown” on K2K Community Radio in Kilburn. I covered the life of Cyril Davies on from his beginnings in Denham, West London, until his death in 1964, aged 33. With live music from Simon Prager, Doc Stenson, Hylda Sims, John O’Leary and Laurie Garman.
Live Lockdown – Cyril Davies – from Trad Jazz to the Rolling Stones
1 – Intro – 00:00 2 – Cyril Davies – Country Line Special – 01:36 3 – Mick Jagger – Warm up – 03:00 4 – Talk – 03:37 5 – Barbeque Jazz Band – Trad jazz – 05:30 6 – Talk – 06:30 7 – Steve Lane – Tennessee Twilight – 07:25 8 – Talk – 09:10 9 – City Ramblers – On a Monday – 12:40 10 – Talk – 16:05 11 – Big Bill Broonzy – Glory of Love – 21:02 12 – Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – San Franciso Bay Blues – 21:38 13 – Speckled Red – Dirty Mistreater – 22:22 14 – Sonny Terry – Harmonica Blues – 23:06 15 – Muddy Waters – Catfish – 23:38 16 – Talk – 24:20 17 – City Ramblers – All by Myself – 30:30 18 – Talk- 33:00 19 – City Ramblers – How Long Blues – 35:10 20 – Talk – 37:20 21 – Blues Inc – Hoochie Coochie Man – 40:54 22 – Alexis Korner Blues Inc – Spooky but Nice – 42:45 23 – Blues Inc – Down Town – 44:30 24 – Alexis Korner Blues Inc -How Long Blues – 46:45 25 – Talk – 49:20 26 – Cyril Davies – Preachin’ the Blues – 55:00
