CWA Blues

Joe Pullum was a Houston-based blues singer with a distinctive, high-pitched vocal style that rarely rose above a conversational volume. Backed by the rolling, sophisticated piano of Andy Boy, this track is a primary historical document of the Great Depression. The title refers to the Civil Works Administration, a short-lived New Deal program. Pullum sings about the relief of getting a CWA job, tying the structural 12-bar blues directly to the socio-economic realities of Black Texans trying to survive the 1930s.