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Sedcairn Archives

Trouble Slug

-86.169937, 39.78884

An unmarked alley in Indianapolis is the site of the unsolved murder of Indianapolis resident and blues trailblazer, Scrapper Blackwell. Ironically, today this site is home to a State Police forensics lab. Trouble Slug is an emotional and evocative reaction to multiple traumatic circumstances that surround the life and death of Scrapper Blackwell. Trouble Slug contains samples of guitar notes and vocal runs performed by Blackwell in 1928. Sencairn Archives helps to make a necessary historical connection between the visionary aspects of Blackwell’s music and the advanced futurism of a more modern African-American musical form known as Chicago Footwork. In this piece, the real trauma of Blackwell’s unsolved murder is felt in the ominous opening dissonance, and there is a real loss remembered in this piece as Blackwell continues to be unrecognized for advancing a blues style that did not fit neatly into the timeline of blues progression accepted by most blues historians.

• Duration: 07:24

• Year: 2015

• Commissioned by: Sound Expeditions