Blind John Davis' "Alley Woman Blues" is a very nice 8-bar tune which negotiates between the relative keys of C-minor and Eb-Major. Iit seems that the musicians vary the chord changes quite a bit as they go along.
Cheers
Pan
Edited to add: apparently the electric guitar is played be George Barnes, who was one of the first musicians who played the instrument.
« Last Edit: October 12, 2012, 02:07:24 PM by Pan »
Hi all, This one really is a poser. The timing of the phrasing sounds more like Broonzy than Tampa Red to me, and I've never heard Tampa Red play anything near this complex in standard tuning. That having been said, I've never heard Broonzy play anything with this kind of expanded chordal vocabulary either. Whoever is playing guitar is capoed to the fifth fret, playing out of D position to sound in G, doing those big bends at the eleventh fret of the B string, and is really playing to the chord changes, not fudging them as was often the case. I think your assessment of the progression relative to the key placement is dead on, Pan. I love that E minor changing to G7--every time I hear that change it's like I'm hearing it for the first time. Thanks for finding this tune, Pan--it's a great one. All best, Johnm
Hi all, This one really is a poser. The timing of the phrasing sounds more like Broonzy than Tampa Red to me, and I've never heard Tampa Red play anything near this complex in standard tuning. That having been said, I've never heard Broonzy play anything with this kind of expanded chordal vocabulary either. Whoever is playing guitar is capoed to the fifth fret, playing out of D position to sound in G, doing those big bends at the eleventh fret of the B string, and is really playing to the chord changes, not fudging them as was often the case. I think your assessment of the progression relative to the key placement is dead on, Pan. I love that E minor changing to G7--every time I hear that change it's like I'm hearing it for the first time. Thanks for finding this tune, Pan--it's a great one. All best, Johnm
Thanks for your analysis on the guitar player's position and playing, Johnm. I really don't know what to think of the guitarist's identity anymore. One think that comes to mind though, is that we have seen Scrapper Blackwell tackle harmonically more sophisticated material with Leroy Carr, as for example in "Longing For My Sugar", which we discussed earlier in this thread along with Snooks Eaglin's "Lipstick Traces".
The recently discussed "Don't Be A Fool" by Al Miller (see topic in the lyrics board) has a minor chord. It's hard to tell if this 13,5 bar song is a blues. The lyrics could be sung over a 12 bar chorus blues (Tight Like That archetype), and the structure is actually 12 bars with an additional half bar pick-up phrase for the chorus and an extra turn-around bar. The chords are far from the usual blues clich?, though:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | I | I | I | I | I | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | VIm | VIm | bVI7 | bVI7 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | I | I VI7 | II7 V7 | I | I V7 |
Cow Cow Davenport's "I've Been Hoodoed" came up elsewhere during the Halloween. It has quite a unique chord progression, again switching between relative minor and major keys. The video pitches the song somewhere between F minor and Ab major, or F#minor - A major, perhaps closer to latter?
Bill Willliams' "Pocahontas" is an instrumental in A minor. In around 1:09 the tune very briefly ventures to A major, only to return to the original minor key.
this Lonnie Johnson tune "a good happy home' weaves in and out minor major, mostly in second half. strange piece .. like the subject is cheering up eventually
Black Boy Shine's "Married Man Blues" is an interesting mix of minor and major in a 12 bar blues form. I don't think I've ever heard anything quite like it before. The first A section or 4 bars of the AAB lyric form starts in minor, but ends up in major in the last 2 bars, or the "response" lick. The same thing happens on the next 4 bars, starting on the minor IV chord, ending on the I major. The last 4 bars are in major, but include a passing bVI chord, if I'm not mistaken.
I'll attach a YouTube video; please note that it has two songs in it, "Married Man Blues" starts in about 2:50, with a (deceiving ?) intro in the G major key. The song ends with a major b7 chord.
Just now tuning into this thread -- re "That's It" -- when I was finding material for the Geoff Muldaur & Texas Sheiks recording, Geoff took every one of my suggestions, except for That's It. He wanted me to play a fiddle instrumental, but That's It was too "ethnic" sounding for him. I ended up playing Yellow Dog Blues, from the Wise String ORchestra, a hillbilly group.
What a great find, Pan! This is my favorite "how did that happen?" song I've heard since "Mama's Angel Child". This definitely qualifies as "One of a Kind and Great". All best, John,