Backwater Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Well, it rained five days and the sky was dark (x2), There's trouble in the lowlands tonight. "I got up one morning, I couldn't even get out of my door." The storms and floods drive many poor people from their homes
AUTHOR: Bessie Smith?
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Bessie Smith)
KEYWORDS: storm flood home disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1927 - Mississippi River floods, devastating the Delta region and leaving thousands homeless
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
MidwestFolklore, Bruce R. Buckley, "'Uncle' Ira Cephas -- A Negro Folk Singer in Ohio," Volume 3, Number 1 (Spring 1953), p. 13, "Backwater Blues" (1 text, quite distinct from the Bessie Smith text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 73, "Back Water Blues" (1 text)
DT, BACKWATR*
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 22, "Backwater Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Susan Scott Parrish, _The Flood Year 1927: A Cultural History_, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 129-130, "(no title)" (1 text, said to be Bessie Smith's first written version)
Roud #11667
RECORDINGS:
Big Bill Broonzy, "Backwater Blues" (on Broonzy01)
Lonnie Johnson, "Backwater Blues" (King 4251, 1948)
Bessie Smith, "Back Water Blues" (Columbia 14195-D, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Great American Flood Disaster" (subject)
cf. "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" (subject)
cf. "Mighty Mississippi" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Back Water Blues
NOTES [320 words]: For background on the Mississippi Floods of 1927, see the notes to "Mighty Mississippi."
I've indicated some doubt about Bessie Smith's authorship, because her name is not always listed on the song, but Susan Scott Parrish, The Flood Year 1927: A Cultural History, Princeton University Press, 2017, expresses no doubt. On p. 125, she describes Smith sitting down at home in the second week of February 1927 to write out the song.
I can't help but note that, based on the description of what she did, she could have heard a fragment from someone else and made it very much her own (which makes it noteworthy that the MidwestFolklore version, although also about a storm and flooding, seems very different). It is interesting to note, in that connection, that she had had some experience of the flooding while touring in Nashville in the last week of 1926 (Parrish, p. 128). And, while there, the locals had begged her to "please sing the Back Water Blues." So she at least had a suggestion from others.... She saw several other flooded communities before reaching home and writing out her text.
"On February 27, Smith recorded the song for Columbia Records in New York City. Her accompanist on piano was a remarkable innovator and talent, James P. Johnson. This was their first collaboration. 'Back-Water Blues' was released by Columbia on March 20, with a song called 'Preachin' the Blues' on its flip side (Columbia 14195-D)" (Parrish, p. 130). Thus the song came out *before* the worst of the flooding -- a remarkably fortunate bit of timing that helped it become a substantial hit.
According to Parrish, p. 134, it is not known whether Smith or Columbia Records recruited Johnson for the recording, but his ability to give an emotional tone to his piano accompaniment made the recording especially moving.
Parrish, p. 127, says that the song influenced "the flood fiction of William Faulkner and Richard Wright." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: FSWB073A

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