Over 2,000 kids join Mr. Blue Shoes for the “Hokey Pokey” in Russellville, Arkansas
Labor Day celebrates the contributions of American workers — but did you know that work has also played an important role in the history of American music?
Long before recorded music, people sang while they worked. Work songs helped groups keep rhythm, communicate, tell stories, and sometimes simply make a difficult day a little easier.
Those traditions became an important part of America's musical story.
Work songs and field hollers helped shape the development of the blues — and the blues would eventually have an enormous influence on jazz, country, rhythm & blues, rock & roll and much of the popular music we hear today. 🎶
Even the guitar tells part of that story.
As the blues developed during the late 1800s and early 1900s, the guitar became one of its defining instruments. Musicians could carry it from place to place and use it to accompany their voices as they turned stories about work, hardship, travel, love and everyday life into music.
So when you hear someone playing the blues on a guitar, you're hearing more than a style of music. You're hearing echoes of generations of American history. 🎸
That's one of my favorite things to teach students through Mr. Blue Shoes: American music isn't just something we listen to.
It tells the story of the people who made America.
Happy Labor Day! 🇺🇸