Josh White: The Music The Man (Part B)

Piece Description

Josh White was a singer, song writer, guitarist, actor and a civil rights activist. As a child he accompanied blind street singers who paid him to guide them to their gigs. Very quickly he would master the guitar. He began recording under the name "Pinewood Tom" so that his mother who was a devout Christian would not know that he was performing the "Devil's music". His music has been categorized as Blues, Folk, Gospel and social protest songs. One of his most memorable recordings is “Strange Fruit”.

Howard Burchette is joined by singer, teacher Judy White-Goard, musician, singer, actor, song writer Josh White, Jr. and gospel artist Kelli Goard-Ellis. Together they discuss and explore this American Tale, the story of Josh White.

SEGMENT 1 – Only music

SEGMENT 2 -  Howard Burchette, Judy White-Goard and Josh White Jr. discuss  Rock music and  Paul Robeson, many Rock & Roll artists got their start from Josh White songs; this included Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, and Janice Joplin. The Chambers Brothers sang at Josh White’s funeral, and Josh White appeared in the stage play “John Henry” along with Paul Roberson. Judy mentions that her father sang about black suffering, we talked about Judy White’s career at Epic and Buddha Records, we talked about the story behind the act “Bongi & Judy” (Bongi Makeba was the daughter of Miriam Makeba). We had further discussions on the “It’s Your Thing” concert at Yankee Stadium and movie produced by the Isley Brothers. Judy White (T-Neck Records) was a performer at this 1969 concert and 1970 movie. She is also on the original motion picture soundtrack.

SEGMENT 3 – Further discussion on Josh White, Jr. education as a youngster, his days as an actor, Professional Children School, & both Judy White-Goard and Josh White, Jr.  talked about working with children.