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No one knows where the first song came from. Did Neolithic men sing around the first campfire? Did Adam croon a tune to Eve in the Garden of Eden? We may never know. Many believe that rhythmic chanting with percussive accompaniment from weapons may have been the first form of song. Prehistoric Rap? Well, sort of….
At some point, ancient people discovered that blowing across a hollow tube, like an animal bone or reed, produced a pleasing tone and that a string under tension (like a hunting bow) sounded pretty cool. An archeological dig in the Ukraine has uncovered 20,000-year-old flutes made of wooly mammoth bones — you won't find those at your local music store!
The First Song, the First Songwriter
Most songs and songwriters of the pre-Renaissance world have been forever obscured by time. Even after the development of musical notation, songs were mostly passed down through the generations by rote and modified to suit the changing times without reference or regard to the original songwriter.
We have no idea where the first song originated, who wrote it, what instrument was used, if there were lyrics, or what culture fostered its conception. What we can be sure of is that whoever wrote the first song probably had no idea of the importance of what was occurring, only that something wonderful was happening. That feeling is common to all songwriters, whether they are professionals or amateurs, rock stars, classical composers, Music Row hit-makers, or any other lucky soul who writes songs for fun or profit.
Tribal Music
Some of the first music happened in a tribal setting. Early tribes used drums and horns to communicate across long distances. Setting music in the context of a language and encouraging the development of a musical vocabulary probably hastened music development. Ancient people also used music for religious rites, festivals, and as a form of oral history.
Work Songs, Chanties, Marching Songs
One of the earliest song forms, worksongs, were sung to relieve the boredom of repetitive labor and provided a rhythm to keep a work crew in synch. One of the basic forms of the work song is the field holler, sung by farmers, serfs, and slaves while tending crops.
Work songs were usually written by the ordinary working people who used them. From these humble beginnings have sprung a wealth of past and present musical forms; work songs influenced most later musical forms. Today, historians find work songs a rich resource of information about the people and times from which they originate.
Another work song variant, the “chanty” was a favorite of sailors. To prepare a large vessel to sail, steer, drop anchor for the night, or make the ship safe from an oncoming storm requires large crews of people to work together in precise coordination. The sea chanty provided a rhythm to keep things running smoothly at times when a mistake could mean disaster for the whole crew.
You could say that marching songs are a subset of work songs. By establishing a beat, marching songs helped people walk as an organized group, thus moving more quickly and at a uniform speed. By setting a pace, marching songs allowed for precise timing in processions and parades. One of the most famous marching songs is undoubtedly "Yankee Doodle" , sung by American soldiers during the Revolutionary War. In many cultures, work songs are still a part of everyday life.
A song off my Orchid faded Sky CD. It's a bluesy rocker from the good old jammin' garage days...remember those days?
http://www.mixposure.com/farrell-jackson/audio/16680/bad-luck
Farrell
As many of you know, Mike Foster from Avalanche passed away in June of 2013. Mike was a dear friend to many of the Mixposure family and he will always be missed.
David Pendragon spent a lot of time with Mike and was putting together a documentary of the band Avalanche. David sent me the below and I was quite pleased when I read it. Below is what he sent me.
.....The link is not at this stage released to Youtube however the URL supplied here will allow Mixposure members to see the show [for free!] I know Michael would have wanted his friends here to have the opportunity to see what he had been working on in the last few months of his life so here it is. Its a very high quality production and would look good on the home page I think. Could you PLEASE remind folks to hit the HD button at Youtube to play it back in 720p. AVALANCHE HARD ROCK DOCUMENTARY
So with that, I am very pleased to share this with everyone on Mixposure.
Black Stone is a 5 member Rock genre group from Ontario Canada. They have that old school sound with a modern twist to the music, some say the sound resembles that of ACDC and some say Bon Jovi and others say Black Sabbath. This is a unique feature when the audience cant place a label on a group. In the spring of 2013 they went into the studio and put together a 10 song album which was released in June of 2013. Some of the tracks on the album were mastered by The legendary George Graves a top engineer who has a history working with bands like U2, Rush, Peter Gabriel and many more. Black Stone then released their first single to radio and quickly developed a following like no other. DJs across North America were taking notice to the single called "Push Me" and were putting it into rotation. Several music gurus were adding it to their top releases such as that of Alan Cross, a Radio broadcaster and writer of music. The single has been added by many main stream radio stations and continues to Rock its listeners. Another to mention is the Galaxie Rock Station which threw Black Stone into rotation and Push Me went #1 on their charts. The Air Canada Center also added Push Me to their list for music played during Toronto Maple Leaf games. There was also many other NHL teams adding it to their platylist as well. Soon there were many requests on getting Black Stone to perform at festivals and venues around Ontario. The first show they were asked to open for was The Sam Roberts Band and they accepted only to have an awesome response from the crowd and other artists on the bill. Not long after they ventured into the Toronto music scene and played many shows like The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern where many artists took the stage in the past such as The Rolling Stones, The Police, The Tragically Hip, Bryan Adams and many more. To play in such a historic place was an honour for the group. Their most recent peformance in Toronto had attracted a good crowd and they were suprised to see none other than Rob Baker the guitarist for The Tragically Hip sitting amongst the listeners, this was also a huge honour for Black Stone seeing that The Tragically Hip was a huge influence for them.
Its the Mix Country Music Award & The Mixposure Rock Music Award of 2013!
The best country & rock song & artist of 2013. All you have to do is enter a song from Mixposure.com ( no cover tunes! ) from 2013 and back. Were going to let the people be the judges! I started out with just a country song of 2013 , but Dazed said lets have one for Rock so here it is.
Its easy to enter just update the song you have on Mixposure.com and change the Genre to MCA2013 for The Country Tune and MRA2013 for Rock. We will play the songs and tell all our listeners what the song is and who the artist for the contest. Enter as many songs as you like because you never know what song will win.
The winner will win a trophy (Mix.C.M.A=2013 ) name & title on country also ( Mix. R.M.A =2013 ) name and title on it . Dazed will post winner on Mix front page picture of winner and trophy on front page . Good Luck All. Oh yea better check the Bubba Reaves Show on Sunday night to hear the songs that have enter in the contest . Starts Jan16=to Feb19
We will have more information on voting very soon!
Title - Foreign Ground
Writers - Joe Kent + carmella Inchierchiera
Performed by 
I re-recorded "Bump And Grind". Please give it a listen if you get a chance.
See here http://www.mixposure.com/sam-houston/audio/10347/bump-and-grind
Watch, Listen, Like And Comment On My New Song Music Video 'Things Of Life' From My New CD 'B-Force' (2014) Things Of Life-BAMIL
Congratulations to Visual Cliff for having the Mixposure.com Song of the Week. This is a new rekease from the band and another one that truly shines. Please take a moment and have a listen to Between Two Kingdoms and judge for yourself.
http://www.mixposure.com/visual-cliff/audio/16636/between-two-kingdoms