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handeaux · 11 months

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Did Lafcadio Hearn Really Hear The Blues In Cincinnati Way Back In 1876?

Many cities claim to be the cradle of the Blues. Saint Louis has a very nice Blues museum, and so does Clarksdale, Mississippi. The Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown, said New Orleans was “the home of the Blues.” Cincinnati has never exerted a serious claim along those lines, but we must ask: Did Lafcadio Hearn discover something like the Blues in Cincinnati as early as 1876?

It is impossible to research Cincinnati history without running into the man who was born on a Grecian island in 1850 as Patricio Lafcadio Tessima Carlos Hearn, and who was buried in 1904 as Koizumi Yakumo in Japan. During the decade he wrote for Cincinnati newspapers he was known as Lafcadio Hearn. Abandoned by his parents, shuttled among a collection of uncaring Irish relatives, Hearn was shipped off to America by a cousin plotting to steal his inheritance. He made his way to Cincinnati and while here wrote hundreds of articles, many of them for the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Commercial.

Over a period of months, Hearn wandered through what he called the Levee and what we call the Public Landing to listen to some music. He wrote a lengthy article headlined “Levee Life/Haunts and Pastimes of the Roustabouts/Their Original Songs and Peculiar Dances” published by the Cincinnati Commercial on March 17, 1876. Hearn sets the scene in typical fashion, employing long, languorous sentences emphasizing the strange and unfamiliar aspects of this environment so alien to his white middle-class readers.

“But, on a cool spring evening, when the levee is bathed in moonlight, and the torch-basket lights dance redly upon the water, and the clear air vibrates to the sonorous music of the deep-toned steam-whistle, and the sound of wild banjo thrumming floats out through the open doors of the levee dance-houses, then it is perhaps that one can best observe the peculiarities of this grotesquely-picturesque roustabout life.”

When Hearn says he was on the Levee, he actually meant the neighborhood just east of the Public Landing, known then as Sausage Row, which is now the greenspace along the Serpentine Wall. He also collected songs from the city’s largest African American neighborhood, known as Bucktown. Bucktown was located between Broadway and Culvert streets and between Sixth and Seventh. It is now nothing but parking lots.

Hearn transcribed a selection of lyrics collected from the African American residents of the Cincinnati riverfront. Hearn’s ear immediately recognized that the music he heard down in Bucktown and on the Levee was different from anything his white readers were familiar with. As he said:

“You may hear old Kentucky slave songs chanted nightly on the steamboats, in that wild, half-melancholy key peculiar to the natural music of the African race; and you may see the old slave dances nightly performed to the air of some ancient Virginia-reel in the dance-houses of Sausage Row, or the ‘ball-rooms’ of Bucktown.”

Doesn’t that sound like the Blues? Some of the lyrics Hearn transcribed could be picked up by modern Blues artists and recorded today. For example, Hearn presents a song titled “Ninety-Nine”:

Whar do you get yer whisky? Whar do you get yer rum? I got it down in Bucktown, At Number Ninety-nine.

And another:

I come down the mountain, An' she come down the lane, An' all that I could say to her Was, “Good-by, ‘Liza Jane.”

Hearn would have had no way of knowing at the time, but he recorded songs that are just a step or two from evolving into the classic Blues format. It is regrettable that he did not capture the tunes supporting these lyrics. Yet another near-Blues, a song Hearn said was sung exclusively by women, would have fit perfectly into the repertoire of Bessie Smith or Ma Rainey:

I have a roustabout for my man— Livin ' with a white man for a sham, Oh, leave me alone, Leave me alone, I'd like you much better if you'd leave me alone.

While Hearn does not provide musical notation for the songs, he does describe the instrumentation that accompanied them:

“A well-dressed, neatly-built mulatto picked the banjo, and a somewhat lighter colored musician led the music with a fiddle, which he played remarkably well and with great spirit. A short, stout Negress, illy dressed, with a rather good-natured face and a bed shawl tied about her head, played the bass viol, and that with no inexperienced hand.”

Hearn’s description of an evening in one of the Bucktown saloons sounds like just the sort of environment in which the Blues were born somewhere along the waterways of America. Whatever Hearn found, whether it was the embryonic Blues or a related offshoot that died on the vine we may never know, because Lafcadio Hearn didn’t stick around much longer.

One day, Hearn wrote to his local mentor, an anarchist printer named Henry Watkin, "It is time for a fellow to get out of Cincinnati when they begin to call it the Paris of America." Hearn went off to New Orleans on the way to the West Indies and on to Japan, where he spent the rest of his life.

#lafcadio hearn #cincinnati music #cincinnati blues #african amercan history #riverboat life #bucktown #sausage row

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joseph-lee-burrow · 2 days

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Your best on field pics of Joe and best off field pics of Joe??

On field:

Off field:

I'm in love with his eyes

#joe burrow #joseph lee burrow #joey burrow #joey b #cincinnati bengals #nfl #anon ask #ocean eyes #blue eyes

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bloodycowboyclub · 2 years

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#hangman adam page #adam page #aewedit #all elite wrestling #hangman page #road to cincinnati #wrestlingedit #wrestling #*#gifs #the girl with the blue gifs is no one trick pony <3

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sportstemplates · 3 days

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MLB Father's Day hat logos (2024)

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joeyvottofacts · 21 days

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big things coming soon... watch this space for joey votto facts

#joey votto #joey votto facts #baseball #toronto blue jays #cincinnati reds

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kissandships · 23 days

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Hi, Emma! What are your top Ten all-time favorite TV shows? 😀

Hi! And it’s Anya, not Emma :). And these are in no particular order, as always

Blue Bloods

Hill Street Blues

Magnum PI

The Brokenwood Mysteries

Lewis

Midsomer Murders

That 70s Show

Full House

WKRP in Cincinnati

Dick Van Dyke Show

#favorite tv shows #Blue Bloods #hill street blues #magnum pi #the brokenwood mysteries #Lewis #midsomer murders #that 70s show #Full House #wkrp in cincinnati #the dick van dyke show #thank you for asking #thanks for the ask!

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stephstars08 · 1 year

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Joe Burrow as the colors of the rainbow ~ Blue💙

(5/9)🌈

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kdsburneraccount · 11 months

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mfs (me) will see a blond white guy (guy in red white and royal blue trailer) and go "is that joe burrow"

#sorry nicholas galitzine or w/e #been marinating in that thought for a while #all white guys look the same to me i fear (except when they don't)#nfl #cincinnati bengals #joe burrow #red white and royal blue

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vintagewildlife · 1 year

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Blue heron By: Unknown photographer From: Cincinnati Zoo Guide 1924

#blue heron #heron #pelecaniform #bird #1924 #1920s #Cincinnati Zoo Guide (1924)

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petsincollections · 11 days

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J. Howard and dog, Blue River, Dec. 1903

Inland Rivers Photograph Collection

Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library

#dogs #cincinnati public library #inland rivers photograph collection #men and dogs #hunting dogs #blue river

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chipfunk-art · 9 months

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love using fandom terms for my non-fandom interests. just called joe burrow a "sad wet golden retriever puppy" /affectionate and the whole bar went crazy

#cincinnati bengals #joe burrow #american football #football #2 blue Hawaiians in i become a freak

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sportstemplates · 26 days

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MLB Armed Forces Weekend hat logos (2024)

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geezerwench · 2 years

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Suspect in Cincinnati FBI breach may have posted on Trump's Truth Social during incident

"If you don't hear from me, it is true I tried attacking the F.B.I.," one post reads.

"I'm having trouble getting information, but Viva Frei said patriots are heading to Palm Beach (where Mar A Lago is). I recommend going, and being Florida, I think the feds won't break it up. IF they do, kill them." (Viva Frei is a right-wing YouTube personality.)

--

trump's beloveds. Trying to kill FBI and other law enforcement officials. This is how MAGA backs the blue?

What happened to Back the Blue? Aren't the Republicans the party of LAW AND ORDER?

#Ricky Shiffer #cinncinati #Cincinnati FBI #maga #back the blue #LAW & ORDER #Republicans #party of law and order #Viva Frei #Truth Social #donald trump #donald trump is guilty #lock him up #jan6 #jan 6 #capitol insurrection

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lovelyballetandmore · 2 years

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Rafael Quenedit | Cincinnati Ballet | Photo by Rachel Neville Photography

#rafael quenedit #rafael quenedit castro #cincinnati ballet #blue tights #ballet slippers #balletphotography #balletmodel

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mensuited · 2 years

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#sam hubbard #athlete #sports #nfl #football #🏈#cincinnati bengals #three piece suit #suit #tie #vest #blue suit #pocket square #style #sharp #handsome #sexy #suave #fashion #hunk #stud

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eastsidemags · 9 months

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Artist Spotlight: Ava Schrager

We here at East Side Mags have always wanted to see BIG NAMES come through our doors and we’ve had a BUNCH of those - some you’ve NEVER seen anywhere else except conventions. Names like Greg Hildebrandt, actor Patrick Wilson, Vita Ayala, Amy Reeder, Scott Koblish, Tee Franklin and many more to name. But our heart is always in the up-and-coming; the ones who we’re SURE will aspire to be those big names one day. We love the underground. The place where big names are still growing and thriving and learning to one day shatter records and draw the gaze of the wider public!

One such up-and-comer is coming here on October 14 from 2pm-6pm and we’re SUPER EXCITED to introduce you to her!

Meet commercial artist, 2D animator, colorist/illustrator, and multi-talented artist Ava Schrager! Originally from Cincinnati Ohio, Ava is a 20 year old 2nd year Joe Kubert School student as well as the winner of the Wave Blue World Scholarship! Her art has no limitations, she draws anything from realism to anime.

Ava’s art is spectacular and that’s an understatement! This woman is crazy talented and your chance to meet her one on one and grab an awesome sketch is here!

Join us!

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