Welcome, everybody, to the Monday Morning Blues! & also welcome to the final installment in our 10 Essential Delta Blues Tunes series. If you’ve been following along, I’m sure it’s no surprise that the series (which only featured one song per artist) is wrapping up with a Robert Johnson tune.
Even folks with a very casual knowledge of blues music are familiar with Robert Johnson; he is without question the most recognized & most culturally lauded of all the pre-World War II blues musicians, & this has been true for some time. This being the case, it’s interesting to note that Johnson was not especially successful in his own time; “Terraplane Blues” (with “Kind-Hearted Woman” as the B side) was the closest he came to a hit, & that record only sold 5,000 copies. Of course, Johnson died at age 27, apparently poisoned by a jealous husband, & as such it’s impossible to speculate on what kind of career he might have had. He appears to have been a respected musician among his peers, tho Muddy Waters at one time went on record as saying there were other Delta musicians who were as good at playing slide guitar as Johnson. The two musicians who probably played with Johnson the most, Johnny Shines & Robert Lockwood, Jr, used mostly superlatives to describe his musicianship. Lockwood, however, whose relationship to Johnson was somewhere between that of a stepson & a younger brother, did note that Johnson's tempos weren't always steady; but the same could be said of several other well-known country blues players.
But since his recording were first “discovered” by John Hammond in the late 30s, Johnson has particularly proved fascinating to white blues fans. Hammond wanted him for the Carnegie Hall “From Swing to Spirituals concert,” but had to ask Big Bill Broonzy when he couldn’t locate Johnson (who, in fact, was already dead.) Then the release of the lp King of the Delta Blues Singers by Columbia in 1961, along with subsequent covers of his material by high-profile rockers like the Rolling Stones & Cream, further cemented his reputation. Johnson has been named to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & was named the “5th Greatest Guitarist of All Time” by Rolling Stone (editorial note: I put zero credence in these types of lists, but that’s another story—I do think the rating is significant in illustrating his reputation among the rock & roll folks.)
There is no question that Johnson was a magnificent musician—his singing range is formidable & polls aside, a fantastic guitar player. His lyrics are some of the most memorable of all the early blues tunes, & while a lot less of his music was actually original than many realize, he was talented at synthesizing quite disparate elements into an immediately recognizable style. He certainly was important in popularizing the “boogie bass” that’s now so much a part of blues guitar style.
But for all that, there’s controversy surrounding Johnson & his reputation. Although many talk about Johnson in superlatives, there are others, & folks with a lot of musical credentials who take a different view. Elijah Wald, in his great book Escaping the Delta, analyzes Johnson’s playing & composing & comes to the conclusion that Johnson’s biggest strength came in his ability to synthesize styles—this seems to me a balanced view; Dave Van Ronk, on the other hand, dismissed Johnson as an imitator who didn’t come up to his models; Van Ronk particularly was thinking of Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell, as well as Lonnie Johnson.
For myself, I love Robert Johnson’s music, & I have a high respect for his musicianship. I don’t like the idea of “rating” guitarists, but I do know that Johnson’s guitar work is masterful; on the other hand, comparing him with a guitarist like Lonnie Johnson who played in top-notch jazz bands (for instance, with Louis Armstrong's Hot Five)—well, you’re simply comparing apples & oranges there, & perhaps it’s best left at that.
“Terraplane Blues” is a great tune—a masterpiece of blues slide guitar. Interestingly, Johnson’s slide work is spare—there’s the usual move up to the 12th fret, & then there’s a very characteristic one note slide toward the end of each verse, the latter made all the more dramatic by the fact that so little slide playing precedes it. The song as recorded is in Bb, with the guitar tuned possibly to open Ab (same as open G, but up a half a step); at least the Ab tuning is the one proposed in David Rubin’s Robert Johnson: The New Transcriptions.
Although “Terraplane Blues” isn’t really a song about a car, it’s worth knowing that the Terraplane, a model made by the Hudson Car Company in the 1930s, is the auto referred to in the lyrics. The Terraplane was a luxury car in its day.
This is the blues, folks! Hope you enjoy it!
The photo of the 1937 Hudson Terraplane Super 4-door sedan is by Lars-Göran Lindgren & is published on Wiki Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
We’re here today with the penultimate installment in our “10 Essential Delta Blues” series. To reiterate: this list is not intended as the 10 essential Delta blues tunes, but rather a list that might be used as a starting point to appreciate this music. I’ve also tried to show that there was more diversity in the music played in this region than simply the “deep” or “heavy” sound associated with the Charlie Patton & Son House circle.
But we’re only talking 10 songs, so there are bound to be omissions. In fact, I debated a good deal between “Roll & Tumble Blues” & some song coming out of the “Sitting on Top of the World” family of tunes—in addition to “Sitting on Top of the World” itself (as recorded by the Mississippi Sheiks & later by Howlin’ Wolf), the latter also includes Tampa Red’s “You’ve Got to Reap What You Sow,” Robert Johnson’s “Come On in My Kitchen” & Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “You’ve Got to Move.”
But I finally decided on “Roll & Tumble Blues” as recorded in 1929 by Hambone Willie Newbern. The fact is, you could easily do a whole series on songs that have been based on this tune. Here’s a partial list:
- Minglewood Blues: Cannon’s Jug Stompers
- Roll & Tumble Blues: Hambone Willie Newbern
- Rolling & Tumbling: Muddy Waters
- Louisiana Blues: Muddy Waters
- Rollin’ & Tumblin’: Elmore James
- If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day: Robert Johnson
- Traveling Riverside Blues: Robert Johnson
- Brownsville Blues: Sleepy John Estes
- The Girl I Love, She Got Long Curly Hair: Sleepy John Estes
- Goin’ Back to Memphis: Sunnyland Slim
- Down in the Bottom: Howlin’ Wolf
- Gravel Road Blues: Mississippi Fred McDowell
- Red Sun: Johnny Shines
- Fireman Ring the Bell: RL Burnside
Interestingly, these artists & others claim copyright not only on the words (which differ from song to song) but also on the music!
What makes “Roll & Tumble Blues” so musically distinctive? Here’s a pithy quote from Wikipedia:
The chordal structure…departs significantly from that of twelve-bar blues. The defining feature of the song is that each verse begins on the IV chord, which after two measures resolves to the I chord.
Now if the song is played in G (& open G is a common tuning for “Roll & Tumble,” which is typically played slide style), this means the song starts on a C chord rather than on a G chord. What Wikipedia says is essentially true, tho as is often the case with blues songs from this region, the “chords” are fragmentary. The way many players articulate that “C” chord is only partially recognizable as a C major triad, simply because the note C often isn’t played, just G & E!
In any case, Hambone Willie Newbern recorded the first version of the song in 1929 for OKeh records. Newbern, who was from Brownsville, Tennessee (hence, not from the Delta region as it’s usually defined) & played with Sleepy John Estes & Yank Rachell, only recorded six songs, all waxed at one session for OKeh in Atlanta in March 1929.
Hope you enjoy the song, & stay tuned for the final installment in this series, which is scheduled to post on September 5th. If you’ve been following along & are familiar with Delta blues, I suspect you can guess who the artist will be for that song!
Of course, when you’re making any kind of list about Delta blues, or classic country blues in general, there’s simply no question: Charlie Patton is going to be represented. Conventional blues history places Patton in a privileged spot as the sort of original embodiment of the style of music now usually called “Delta blues.” Patton’s complex & insistent rhythms; his declamatory singing style; his use of the bottleneck (tho it does figure much less prominently in his music than in that of Son House); his vigorous instrumental attack; & even his larger than life persona as a rounder & an itinerant minstrel/bard who played everywhere from juke joints to country dances all delineated prototypical aspects of the Delta bluesman.
Of course, more recent writers have called some of these assumptions into question & asked how much of this is the product of historical revisionism by white blues enthusiasts from the 1940s on. Still, however much revisionism may have played a role in the creation of the Patton myth, it is true that his records sold well in the late 1920s & early 1930s, & that Paramount Records thought highly enough of him as a commercial property to arrange for four recording sessions, during which Patton recorded almost 60 sides.
So the question with Charlie Patton becomes which song to include in a list of 10 that limits itself to one song per artist. According to Son House, Patton’s favorites among his own songs were “Stone Pony” & “High Water Everywhere” (& House stated somewhat ambiguously that the latter was “the onliest one I like for myself.”) I had to rule “Stone Pony” out because I’d already included Tommy Johnson’s “Bye Bye Blues” which, like Willie Brown’s “M & O Blues,” is considered a version of the “pony blues” (you can read my discussion on that here). I gave “High Water Everywhere” serious consideration—it is indeed a masterpiece of its kind—but I ended up deciding on what is probably my favorite Charlie Patton song, “Pea Vine Blues.”
Patton recorded “Pea Vine Blues” at a 1929 Paramount session in Richmond, Indiana. If you don’t know the song, I should point out that the Pea Vine was a local railroad line that connected the Dockery Plantation to the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, more popularly known as the “Yellow Dog” (as in, “I’m going where the Southern cross the Dog.”) The Pea Vine was given its singular name because it traveled a circuitous route.
“Pea Vine Blues” has some characteristic Patton riffs that appear in some of his other songs, perhaps most notably “Banty Rooster Blues” & “Bird’s Nest Bound.” In fact, when Rory Block recorded “Pea Vine Blues” on her 1995 When a Woman Gets the Blues, she conflated the lyrics with those of “Banty Rooster Blues” to good effect. “Pea Vine Blues” is essentially a two-chord song, with a movement between the tonic chord (G in this case) & the five chord (D). However, as is typical of the blues, both of these chords hover between major & minor, without ever being clearly defined in terms of that modality. There’s a characteristic “hammer-on” on the 6th string from a D note to an F natural note. For those non guitarists out there, a “hammer-on” is a note produced by a guitarist’s left hand when she/he strikes down with one of the left hand fingers so forcefully higher up the fretboard (often, as in this case, going from an unfretted to a fretted string) that a new note is produced without any action from the right hand. Patton recorded "Pea Vine Blues" in open G tuning—in other words, the unfretted guitar strings form a G chord.
Lyrically, “Pea Vine Blues” is a great example of how “floating lyrics” can be combined to produce what seems like an intensely personal statement. By song’s end, when we learn that the Pea Vine’s whistle is blowing “just like she wasn't gonna blow no more,” we are in a landscape of emotional desolation. If critic Robert Palmer’s term “deep blues” has any meaning, it most certainly describes “Pea Vine Blues.”
Enjoy!
As I’ve mentioned before, the way we conceptualize “Delta blues” is problematic—music historians who’ve written about this such as Elijah Wald & Mary Beth have each made a strong case that earlier musicologists & blues enthusiasts tended to romanticize the music from the Delta & the musicians who made it. Still, given that, we still find images in our mind conjured up by the term “Delta blues.” For me, one of the first images is a National guitar—a visual & aural image, because I hear that guitar being played with a slide. In fact, I hear that guitar being played by Son House.
If we are speaking of “the Delta blues” in terms of the concept formalized by the early record collector enthusiats or by Robert Palmer’s seminal (if now contested) book, Deep Blues, Son House is certainly one of a small handful of musicians most closely associated with the music, along with Charlie Patton & Robert Johnson. So there was no question about a Son House song being on the list.
& since these are “essential” songs, I decided on “My Black Mama,” recorded in two parts at a session for Paramount in Grafton, Wisconsin in 1930. The song was recorded in two parts simply because recording technology at the time limited the time on a single performance to under four minutes—thus, a number of old blues songs took both sides of a 78 & were recorded as separate takes. Of the five songs House recorded during that session, three were two-part recordings.
Why is “Black Mama” essential? I’d consider it so because at least three other great blues songs are closely based on its musical setting & lyrics. These are: Robert Johnson’s “Walking Blues,” Muddy Water’s “Country Blues,” & Son House’s own later re-working of the song, “Death Letter Blues.” Clicking on each song title will bring you to a YouTube version. You can also hear a wonderful version of “Walking Blues” by R.L. Burnside here.
As is the case with many of Son House’s songs, “My Black Mama” is simple. It follows a basic Delta blues pattern in that it only hints at the changes to the IV & V chords. For non-musicians, blues songs often follow a specific chord change pattern in which there are regular changes from the root or “Do” chord (for instance, if a song is in G, as is the case with “My Black Mama,” the G chord) to the corresponding chords four & five tones away—the “Fa” & “Sol” chords—in this case C & D. It’s worth noting—if not stressing—that this pattern in fact was variable, especially in earlier blues songs, & particularly in blues songs played slide style.
There are particular licks associated with the “My Black Mama/Walking Blues” set of songs—among other things, these involve a particular “bent note” on the guitar’s fifth string (a bent note occurs when the guitarist stretches a string with sideways finger pressure to raise the pitch; the pitch may be raised a full step or more or—especially in the blues—raised a partial interval); there’s also a characteristic slide up to the tonic note on the first string on an “offbeat” (in other words not on “1, 2, 3 or 4” but on an “and” in between the main beats.)
From a lyrical standpoint, “My Black Mama” is a jumble of images & narrative fragments that never seem to really cohere. The derivative songs are all more focused in terms of their lyrics—because of this, I’d originally thought of using “Death Letter Blues” as the Son House song. But I decided that the “original” was the way to go. Of course, calling any old blues song “an original” is reckless. There were other contemporary songs dealing with similar themes: for instance, Ishman Bracey’s "Trouble Hearted Blues," Ida Cox’ "Death Letter Blues", Robert Wilkins’ "Nashville Stonewall," & Blind Willie McTell’s "On The Cooling Board." & it’s also worth noting that House recorded a song titled “Walking Blues” at the same Grafton session, but the song was never released. Was this song itself closely related to “My Black Mama” (perhaps so close in sound that Paramount decided not to release both?)
Great music! Hope you enjoy it.
We’re back to the 10 Essential Delta Blues series today with another great song, Skip James’ “Hard Times Killing Floor.” & having said that, I have to immediately mention some issues with including the song in the series!
First, if we went strictly by geography, there would be no Skip James’ tune in a “Delta Blues” series, since Bentonia, Mississippi lies a bit to the east of the Delta proper. Of course, James is often considered a “Delta bluesman;” & I’ll also note that the musician for song #10 on our list (this is #6) also is from a region a bit outside the Delta.
& for that matter, it’s interesting to consider what is meant by “Delta Blues.” Is it strictly geographical or does it refer to a style of music that grew up around Charlie Patton & his circle? (In that case, neither James nor Mississippi John Hurt would qualify for the list at all.) Or does it refer to “country blues” (to use another vague term) played generally in northwest to west-central Mississippi? In her book In Search of the Blues, Marybeth Hamilton makes a persuasive case that the entire category “Delta blues,” so important a part of received blues history, is an imposed construction that dates back to an obscure but influential circle of record collectors (the most famous of these being Harry Smith of the Anthology of American Folk Music), & particularly to an obscure but influential figure named James McKune. Elijah Wald, in his excellent Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson & the Invention of the Blues makes a similar argument about the concept of Delta blues (& “country blues” ) being, if not constructed, at least valorized by Euro-Americans during the folk revival period.
& then one further disclaimer. If this were the 10 Essential Blues Songs (not that I’d ever make such a list, but speaking hypothetically), I’d probably lean toward including James’ “Devil Got My Woman,” if for no other reason than the fact that Robert Johnson essentially used that song whole cloth for his famous “Hellhound on My Trail”—different, & very powerful lyrics by Johnson, but the music was virtually unchanged.
With that, on to an incredibly powerful song. As is the case with many of James’ composition, “Hard Times Killing Floor Blues” is played with the guitar in open E minor tuning—EBEGBE—in other words, if you strum the guitar’s six strings unfretted, you play an E minor chord. This is also called “crossnote” or “Bentonia” tuning (in honor of James’ hometown, tho apparently there’s little basis to the idea of a “Bentonia school” that played crossnote, unless you consider James a school of one.) These days many guitarists who use this tuning take all the strings down a whole step so that the open strings produce a D minor chord rather than an E minor one—the E minor tuning is thought to put undue strain on not only the strings but also the guitar neck, as two strings (the 4th & 5th) are tuned higher than concert pitch, & there’s already quite a bit of tension created by the 4th string at concert pitch.
Although the guitar is tuned to a minor chord, the song isn’t strictly speaking in the standard minor mode. As is typical of blues, there’s tension between minor & major, with instances of both the major third (“Mi”) & the flatted one. In fact, I believe Rory Block plays James’ tunes in open D major, not D minor. It certainly could be done. Jo Ann Kelly does a wonderful slide cover of "Hard Times Killing Floor Blues," & I strongly suspect that's in an open major tuning.
James was known for intricate fingerstyle guitar work, & that is most certainly in evidence here. James also was a powerful (if at times, disturbing) lyricist, & I’ve reproduced the lyrics after the video because they are definitely worth a look. James originally recorded “Hard Times Killing Floor Blues” in 1931 at Paramount’s Grafton, Wisconsin studio, as the B side to A side “Cherry Ball Blues.” The original 78 would be worth a small fortune—there are only two known copies! The story of economic depression is vivid & haunting—the term “killing floor” refers to a slaughterhouse—& James paints a word-picture of a region & an era when economic uncertainty existed at a very bare bones level for African-American workers.
Great song! Hope you enjoy it.
Hard time here and everywhere you go
Times is harder than ever been before
And the people are driftin' from door to door
Can't find no heaven, I don't care where they go
Hear me tell you people, just before I go
These hard times will kill you just dry long so*
Well, you hear me singin' my lonesome song
These hard times can last us so very long
If I ever get off this killin' floor
I'll never get down this low no more
No-no, no-no, I'll never get down this low no more
And you say you had money, you better be sure
'Cause these hard times will drive you from door to door
Sing this song and I ain't gonna sing no more
Sing this song and I ain't gonna sing no more
These hard times will drive you from door to door
“dry long so” is a dialect term for poverty; it also occurs in Robert Johnson’s “Come On in My Kitchen”
Photo at the top of the post is of a young Skip James. It is considered to be in the public domain.
If you’re a casual blues fan, chances are the name “Willie Brown” may not mean a lot to you. Perhaps you’ve heard the name in the lyrics to Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues” (famously covered by Cream, tho the Cream version is essentially a different song). In Johnson’s first recorded take of “Cross Road Blues,” he sang, “You can run, you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown.”
Although Willie Brown is a common name (& there was another Willie Brown from Mississippi who recorded blues), the odds are high that the “Willie Brown” in Johnson’s song is also the Willie Brown of “Future Blues.” The odds are in favor of this because this Willie Brown traveled in the same circles as Robert Johnson—he was a duet partner with both Charlie Patton & Son House. In fact, Brown accompanied Patton on what are arguably some of his best sides.
When Stefan Grossman asked Son House in a 1960s interview who was the better guitar player, Patton or Brown, House was unequivocal, describing Brown as “twice better than Charley,” & noting that while Patton was a better singer, even Patton recognized Brown as the more skilled guitarist, saying “on those beats & things, Willie could beat him & he knowed it.”
“Those beats & things.” Yes, those beats—that is what makes “Future Blues” such a spectacular piece of music. The syncopated bass line, complete with Brown “snapping” the strings with a force, volume & crispness that would do the funkiest electric bass player proud, make this a great guitar showpiece. For non-string players out there, “snapping” or “slapping” is done by plucking a string up with sufficient force that it will “slap” back down on the fretboard. It’s a staple technique amongst funk bassists, & was also a common technique amongst early acoustic blues players—but no one did it better than Brown.
But in addition to the great tone Brown got with the snaps, the bass line itself is played on “offbeats.” In other words, rather than being played on “1-2-3-4,” as a bass line commonly occurs,” the bass line is played on the “&s” between the notes!
Stefan Grossman claimed (in his Oak Anthology of Blues Guitar: Delta Blues) that “Future Blues” is the Delta blues. Quite a claim, but there’s some justification for it. “Future Blues” was imitated in a number of songs, some of them also classics from the Delta region. Son House recorded “Jinx Blues,” which is very close to “Future Blues,” & Patton seemed to have been particularly fascinated with the song, as his songs “Moon Going Down,” “Bird’s Nest Bound,” “High Water Everywhere,” “Screamin’ & Hollerin’ the Blues” & others all rely on elements derived from “Future Blues” (of course, it’s also worth noting that Brown was accompanying Patton on the existing recordings of some of these songs.)
“Future Blues” is not an easy song to play; I’ve never been able to come up with a version of it I find satisfactory (but I’m still trying!) There’s a great tension, I think, between the underlying relaxed tempo & the “attack” on the bass line—as a result, even putting aside the complicated syncopation, there’s a tendency to try to play it too fast. For those who are interested, “Future Blues” is played in open G tuning (as are the related Patton & House songs)—this is important because of the fact that the notes on the 6th & 4th strings are both D, but an octave apart—& that facilitates the characteristic bass line. Otherwise, it’s more regular than some of Patton’s songs, which have an odd number of measures—it is easily recognized as a 12-bar blues (with a slight variation.)
Hope you enjoy this, one of the greatest of the country blues songs!
A couple of “notes” before we move on to a great song: first, a reminder: the list is not intended as “the 10 essential Delta Blues songs,” but simply one of many such lists that could be created. Second: the list was advertised as being in alphabetical order—but if you’ve been following along, you can see today’s song kind of bollixes that up. I could plead the fact that Big Joe Williams released the song both as “Baby Please Don’t Go” & “Please Don’t Go,” & that I’m simply splitting the difference; but the fact is that for awhile I was thinking of doing a different Big Joe Williams song.
Because I couldn’t conceive of doing this sort of list without including Big Joe Williams, who is an absolutely fascinating figure & a great, if highly idiosyncratic musician. Williams played a modified Harmony guitar (for those who don’t know, Harmony—“the people’s guitar”—is not high end; they were sold by Sears & Roebuck!); the guitar was modified from six strings to nine, with the added three strings being unison strings on the 1st, 2nd & 4th strings; his guitar was usually tuned to an open G chord. Although this description of his playing by his biographer Barry Lee Pearson dates from a time after either of today’s recordings, I think it gives some insight into Big Joe Williams’ approach to music:
When I saw him playing at Mike Bloomfield's "blues night" at the Fickle Pickle, Williams was playing an electric nine-string guitar through a small ramshackle amp with a pie plate nailed to it and a beer can dangling against that. When he played, everything rattled but Big Joe himself. The total effect of this incredible apparatus produced the most buzzing, sizzling, African-sounding music I have ever heard.
from the Allmusic site (see link above)
“Baby Please Don’t Go” is a great song, one that’s been covered from everybody from Lightnin’ Hopkins to AC/DC. But for my money, nobody has done it much better than Big Joe himself. Interestingly, Williams recorded two very different versions within the course of six years. The first, from 1935, shows a side of Delta music that may seem unfamiliar—Big Joe Williams backed by a one-string fiddle & a washboard! What a sound! The second, from 1941, has a more recognizable “deep blues” sound, as it contains masterful call & response between Big Joe Williams & Sonny Boy Williamson on harp (that’s harmonica, folks!) What would a list of blues songs be without at least one appearance by Sonny Boy Williamson!
Of course I should mention this is Sonny Boy Williamson I, AKA John Lee Williamson—yes, you may not know it, but there were two great blues harp players who performed under the name of Sonny Boy Williamson—Sonny Boy Williamson II was a man named Rice Miller. Sonny Boy Williamson II is the man who—after touring in Great Britain in the 60s—reportedly said to Robbie Robertson about the Yardbirds: “They want to play the blues so bad, & they play it so bad.” Sonny Boy Williamson I—a brilliant musician who played not only with Big Joe Williams, but also with Sleepy John Estes & Yank Rachell, was killed during a mugging in Chicago in 1947.
Harsh realities—but a great song.
Now, some may think it odd to see Mississippi John Hurt featured in this series—after all, when people think of the Delta “sound,” they usually think of what music critic Robert Palmer called “the deep blues” (from his book of the same title)—music by players like Charlie Patton, Son House & Robert Johnson. But after all, the Mississippi Delta is a place, & not all the people who lived in that place played music that can be traced back to Patton & his circle.
Mississippi John Hurt, who lived in Avalon, Mississippi, in Carroll County, which lies in the southeastern section of the Delta region, was certainly one who followed a much different musical path. Avalon, which no longer exists as a town (tho it does serve as a location for the Mississippi John Hurt Musem, housed in Hurt’s old sharecropper’s shack), was small & isolated even at the turn of the 20th century when Hurt was a boy. This isolation may have been the reason Hurt developed a repertoire that may have been somewhat “old-fashioned” in his day, & may also have contributed to his unique guitar-playing style. We do know that Hurt taught himself his highly syncopated style of guitar picking. This style does have a lot of similarities with the so-called “Piedmont style” of picking, tho that style is generally associated with players from Georgia, the Carolinas & Virginia.
After determining that I wanted a Hurt song on the list, I had to pick one—the tough part, as he had so many classics in his repertoire. Although I gave serious consideration to his “Stackolee,” I finally decided on “Candy Man Blues,” certainly one of his signature tunes, & one that showcases his playing very nicely, with its up-the-neck break. Lyrically, the song is ribald & suggestive to say the least—more so than the Reverend Gary Davis tune of the same name, tho the ultimate subject matter is the same. But the ribaldry of“Candy Man Blues” is humorous & without any sort of macho posturing—there’s a genial humor that suits John Hurt’s voice perfectly.
This version of “Candy Man Blues” comes from an Okeh recording made in New York in 1928; Hurt recorded a dozen songs for Okeh but—surprisingly from our persepctive—the songs weren’t commercially successful & Hurt returned to Avalon, Mississippi to work as a sharecropper, while keeping his musical hand in by playing locally at parties & dances. He was “re-discovered” in 1963 & had a brief but very successful career from then until his death in November 1966—Hurt made five albums, including a couple from live performances, & also appeared at the Newport Folk Festival & at many other venues.
Hope you enjoy “Candy Man Blues!”
Photo at the top of the post shows the Mississippi John Hurt Museum in Avalon, MS. The photo is by Flickr user Matt Lancashire & has been posted to Wiki Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Now in case you missed the first installment, I do want to stress that this list is NOT presented as THE 10 essential songs—I don’t believe in those kinds of lists. But these songs will all illustrate something important about blues played in the Mississippi Delta region, especially pre-World War II.
One thing that’s true about Delta blues—there were a handful of prototype songs that were re-worked by various artists, & I do want this list to illustrate that fact. One of the most common prototype songs was “Pony Blues,” the most famous example of which is Charlie Patton’s “Stone Pony Blues” (tho Son House claimed the title really should be “Storm Pony Blues”). I didn’t include “Stone Pony Blues” because one of my ground rules for the list is no more than one song per artist, & I have Mr Patton covered.
But there were other songs based on the riffs & general structure of “Pony Blues,” & two in particular are real standards: Willie Brown’s “M&O Blues” & Tommy Johnson’s “Bye Bye Blues.” I’m going with Tommy Johnson because, again, Willie Brown will make an appearance as the artist for yet another prototype song—& Tommy Johnson is a must for any list of this type!
At first listen, it may be difficult to catch the similarity between Patton’s “Stone Pony Blues” & Johnson’s “Bye Bye Blues” (& by the way, this is not the same song as the “Bye Bye Blues” of Les Paul & Mary Ford!) But there is a characteristic riff involving the flatted third (or blue note) of the E scale played on the guitar’s 7th & 8th frets. This also occurs in “M&O Blues” (discounting the fact that Brown played with a capo, making the actual key different, but Brown, like Patton & Johnson, was playing E “shaped” chords.) The overall chord structures in Brown’s & Johnson’s songs are a bit more complex than Patton, but then both of them relied more on melody & harmony, while Patton was all about rhythm. For those who want more blues this morning, you can listen to “Stone Pony Blues” here & “M&O Blues” at this link.
Tommy Johnson is a key figure in the pre-War Delta blues, & unlike his now more famous namesake, Robert Johnson, he was a popular performer in his day. Johnson wrote a number of true country blues standards—in addition to “Bye Bye Blues,” he wrote & recorded “Big Road Blues,” “Maggie Campbell Blues,” “Cool Drink of Water,” & “Canned Heat Blues,” just to name the most well-known. His guitar playing showed off intricate fingerpicking chops, & he possessed a truly amazing vocal range that could rise all the way from a husky baritone to an eerie falsetto.
Hope you enjoy it! Next Monday: Any Woman’s Blues takes a look back at a country blues guitarist you should know!
Cryin' bye an' bye, baby bye an' bye
It's bye an' bye, baby won't you bye an' bye
Cryin' bye an' bye, baby won't you bye an' bye
Says the good book tell you, reap just what you sow
The good book tell you, baby, reap just what you sow
Gonna reap it now or, baby, reap it bye an' bye
Well I'm going away, Lord, won't be back till fall
I'm going away, Lord, won't be back till fall
If I meet my good gal, then baby, won't be back at all
Says the good book tell you, reap just what you sow
The good book tell you, baby, reap just what you sow
Gonna reap it now or, baby, reap it bye an' bye
Well it's two trains running, running side by side
It's two trains running, and baby, running side by side
You've got my woman, babe I know you're satisfied
Pic at the top of the post is a photograph of Tommy Johnson - I believe it's the only one in existence.
Before moving on to the first song, I want to make sure the ground rules I’m using are clear. This series is not presented as THE Essential Songs—I don’t really believe in those types of lists. I’m well aware that one could create any number of 10 song lists that would have as much right to be called essential as this one. For my list, I wanted to include certain songs that were crucial to the “Delta” sound: there were a handful of prototype songs that were essentially re-worked by a number of performers, & I wanted to make sure these were well represented. I wanted to make sure that the list not only included the musicians most associated with the “Delta sound,” such as Charlie Patton, Son House & Robert Johnson, but also performers from the Delta region who played in different styles. To facilitate this, I made the arbitrary but useful rule of only one song per performer. The songs will post in alphabetical order.
The first song is "Aberdeen Mississippi Blues," composed & performed by Booker White (backed by Washboard Sam). Booker White was born in Houston, Mississippi (which is near Aberdeen) in 1906, & got his musical start playing fiddle at dances. He may or may not have known Charlie Patton—accounts differ on this—but he did live for a time in Clarksdale, Mississippi as a teenager when Patton was performing there.
White’s first recordings were from a 1930s session for Victor in Memphis (recorded under the name of Washington White—his full name was Booker T Washington White), but the masters of some of these have been lost. He recorded again in 1937 both for Vocalion under the name of Bukka White (this is a common variant, tho some sources claim he disliked the spelling) & as Barrelhouse White for Alan Lomax. In 1940 he made a series of recordings in Chicago both for Vocalion & Okeh, & “Aberdeen Mississippi Blues” dates from that time. In addition to being a professional musician, White at various times was a pitcher in the Negro Leagues & a professional boxer. He also served time in Mississippi’s notorious Parchman Prison Farm on a charge of assault.
Booker White’s slide style is vigorous, his voice—especially on the early recordings—relaxed & rich in tone, & his National Duolian guitar produces what could be considered the prototypical Delta blues sound (Son House also played a Duolian—amazingly enough, a relatively economical instrument in the 1930s, tho you’d never know it to see the prices on vintage Duolians these days.) The lyrics (which appear below the video) tell a tale of sexual bravado mixed with longing in the sparse elliptical style common to many of the “country blues” songs. There’s also a melodic similarity to White’s equally powerful song, “Parchman Farm Blues.” The 1940 recording of “Aberdeen Mississippi Blues” has a nice relaxed tempo, tho Washboard Sam’s percussive background lends excitement. The stereotypical concept of the Delta blues musician is of a lone man with his guitar, but in fact playing in duos & larger combos was not at all unusual: Charlie Patton & Son House often played with Willie Brown on second guitar, & Robert Johnson performed as a duo with Johnny Shines; Big Joe Williams recorded with his first version of “Baby Please Don’t Go” with a fiddle back-up.
Booker White was one of a number of southern African-American musicians who had a second career as a result of the 1960s folk revival. In fact, it was this song that led to his “re-discovery.” Guitarist John Fahey wrote a postcard addressed to “Bukka White, Old Blues Singer, c/o General Delivery, Aberdeen, Miss,” & the card was forwarded to Memphis, where White had re-located.
As you can see from the leadoff photo (background info on the photo at the bottom of the post), the song has merited its own marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail. Hope you enjoy it!
Aberdeen Mississippi Blues
I was over in Aberdeen
On my way to New Orlean
I was over in Aberdeen
On my way to New Orlean
Them Aberdeen women told me
Will buy my gasoline
Hey, two little women
That I ain't ever seen
They has two little women
That I ain't never seen
These two little women
Just from New Orlean
Ooh, sittin' down in Aberdeen
With New Orlean on my mind
I'm sittin' down in Aberdeen
With New Orlean on my mind
Well, I believe them Aberdeen women
Gonna make me lose my mind, yeah
Aberdeen is my home
But the mens don't want me around
Aberdeen is my home
But the men don't want me around
They know I will take these women
An take them outta town
Listen, you Aberdeen women
You know I ain't got no dime
Oh-oh listen you women
You know'd I ain't got no dime
They been had the po' boy
All up and down.
Photo Info: photo by Bill Parker (Flickr user slider5) from Wiki Commons but ultimately from his slider5's photostream on Flickr at this link. The photo is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License (CC BY 2.0)
