travsd

Blind Blake

Another post in celebration of Black History Month.

A few words in tribute to Blind Blake (Arthur Blake, 1896-1934). The best sources give Newport News, Virginia as Blake’s birthplace, and he seems to have spent formative years in Jacksonville, Florida, Georgia, and possibly the Sea Islands. His ragtime style guitar picking influenced the Piedmont country blues style. From 1926 through 1932 he recorded for Milwaukee-based Paramount Records, recording sometimes in Chicago. Reverend Gary Davis and Bob Dylan are among the many artists influenced by him. TB took his life at the young age of 38.

Published by travsd

Writer and performer Trav S.D. (www.travsd.com) is best known for his books "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" (2005) and "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube" (2013). He has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications. Trav has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, presenting hundreds of acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Tammy Faye Starlite to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces at such venues as Joe’s Pub, La Mama, HERE, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, the Ohio Theatre, the Brick, and 6 separate shows in the NY International Fringe Festival. In 2014 he produced and directed the smash-hit "I’ll Say She Is", the first ever revival of the Marx Brothers hit 1924 Broadway show in the NY International Fringe Festival.