Motherless Child Blues is a mysterious song by Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley that was recorded in 1930 for Paramount Records. It is about lamenting not taking some motherly advice about jumping between too many men. Weather this advice was targeted to Elvie herself or just a fictitious persona is not clear. Thomas and Wiley recorded a few other records together, such as Last Kind Words Blues, which was recorded around the same time, However, this one is the only one that definitively features Elvie\u2019s voice, with Geeshie on second guitar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not much is\u00a0known about this recording\u00a0due to its extreme rarity and\u00a0a\u00a0general lack of interest when it was released.\u00a0What is certain, however, is that it was released as a \u201crace record\u201d just around the time that such\u00a0recordings were gaining popularity with both white and African American communities. Unfortunately, the same success did not bleed over to Motherless Child Blues, and it was relegated to being sold alongside phonograph cabinets as a commercial tactic. These records, while they did have some appeal to both white and black people (though for differing reasons), they were not regarded in the same way as music that was accepted as being “white”. This disrespect carried down to the artists as well, and many African American musicians were given bad deals by their labels, which were typically owned by larger, whiter labels. It is far from unlikely that Elvie and Geeshie fell victim to this kind of malpractice, which would explain why, despite their obvious talent, they weren’t given as much effort by their label to make hem successful. The legacy of the talents behind the songs\u00a0were preserved by good fortune alone, with some old,\u00a0beat-up\u00a0discs being found in peoples\u2019 attics, forgotten and\u00a0gathering dust.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The content of the song itself is only skin deep, with the lyrics spelling out the precise meaning of the song, leaving little room for hidden meanings or subtle references.\u00a0It describes a person who failed to follow the advice that her mother gave on her deathbed. This is plainly described in the lines \u201cOh, Daughter, Daughter, please don’t be like me\u201d and\u00a0\u201cBut I did not listen what my mother said\u201d.\u00a0The richer content of the song comes from the tone\u00a0Elvie\u00a0Thomas manages to convey through such simple words. The minute\u00a0details in her singing voice\u00a0push through even the heavy wear and tear on the record and expertly reinforce the themes of the track.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n