Topic: Barbecue Bob's "Some Cold Rainy Day" and Leadbelly's "In New Orleans"

[LeftyStrat]

Hello, Fellow Blues Enthusiasts.

There are a couple of songs I've been listening to for some time now and wondered if I could get some pointers on how to play the guitar parts.

The first one that comes to mind is Leadbelly's "In New Orleans" from Document Vol. 3 (track 13).

The second one came to mind while I was browsing this thread to make sure there wasn't already an existing thread on the Leadbelly tune. For a long time, I've really enjoyed listening to Barbecue Bob's "She's Coming Back Some Cold, Rainy Day."  Tried de-tuning and playing it once, but my ear is nowhere near good enough to pick it off the record.

Your thoughts on these are greatly appreciated.

Chris (LeftyStrat)

[dave stott]

I too have been struggling with figuring out how to play a tune called "Cold and Rainy day", although I am struggling with a version that Ernie Hawkins performs.

wondering if it is the same tune... Ernie calls it "traditional" on his CD.

Dave

[frankie]

Bbq Bob's "She's Coming Back Some Cold Rainy Day" is one of his tunes in vestapol - tuned to about F.  Tune or capo your 6th string to his recording and then tune relative to that.  F-C-F-A-C-F

Leadbelly's "In New Orleans" is a setting of "House of the Rising Sun."  He's probably tuned down to the neighborhood of B (6th course), but he's playing D figures.  He uses an E chord to harmonize the melody at one point (because the melody note goes to E), which tends to take your ear in a direction that it didn't expect, but that's kind of par for the course with Leadbelly.  The combination of tuning and position puts Leadbelly in the Key of A, so you could play along on a std-tuned 6-string in that key, but a few of the bass runs will have to be either omitted or changed.

Ernie's "Cold Winter Day" sounds to me like a loose cover of McTell's. Ernie plays his in the key of C.  "Cold Winter Day" and "She's Coming Back Some Cold Rainy Day" are both 8-bar blues, basically the same melody with different accompaniment styles and slightly different words.

[uncle bud]

Ernie does credit McTell with the song on his Blues Advice CD. It also goes by the McTell title of "Cold Winter Day" there. I don't know if Ernie has done it on another disc.

"Cold Rainy/Winter Day" was also recorded by Curley Weaver. Seems to have been one of those songs that made their way around the Atlanta scene. However, it's always reminded me of something else and I finally figured it out this morning. Tampa Red. "You Got to Reap What You Sow", a Tampa Red instrumental from 1929(?) is exactly the same melody. And then it turns out Leroy Carr recorded "You Got to Reap What Sow" as well, with lyrics. Perhaps someone with a copy of B&GR can sort out which chickens or eggs came first. I think the Carr recording predates all. Perhaps this is old news to some of you, but it was new to my brain!  Anyway, McTell and Weaver are in Vestapol (though pitched low) on Cold Winter Day, just like Tampa Red.

Mance Lipscomb recorded a great version of Reap What You Sow as well.

[frankie]

McTell and Weaver are in Vestapol (though pitched low) on Cold Winter Day, just like Tampa Red.

And Barbecue Bob.

[uncle bud]

Right, that too.   I suppose Bob would be their likely source, though the McTell/Weaver version comes quite a bit later, in 1935, suggesting by that point it could have been a common song in the musicians' circle/region? Or they were all just learning it off records. Haven't compared lyrics between McTell and BBQ Bob yet.

Bob's version with the Georgia Cotton Pickers wasn't recorded till Dec 1930, so Tampa has them beat on the melody. But I suspect things trace back at least to Leroy Carr.

[dj]

Perhaps someone with a copy of B&GR can sort out which chickens or eggs came first.

Or someone who's started religiously entering recording date and location into iTunes as he rips CDs?  That's me.  Hey, sometimes you're on the road and you just need to know this stuff!  Carr's "You Got To Reap What You Sow" was recorded on August 14 1928.  Barbecue Bob's was on December 12 1930.  Anyone know of an earlier version of either song?

   

[Rivers]

dj I'm impressed! 

[uncle bud]

dj, where do you enter the recording dates? The "year" field for instance, only accepts years, it seems. And you thought we'd mock you.  All we want is to emulate...

[dj]

where do you enter the recording dates?

I put the year up in the year box, obviously.  Then down in the comments box I put the month and date of recording, the recording location, the label, and any personnel other than the primary artist. So for Georgia White's "Jazzin' Babies Blues" my comment box reads:

April 18 New York City Decca Jonah Jones trumpet Fess Williams clarinet Walter Martin drums

I fill out some additional fields as well.  In the grouping box I put Pre-war or Post-war and any regional groups I feel the artist belongs to:  Chicago, Memphis, Atlanta, Georgia, East Coast, etc.  An artist can belong to more than one group and can change groups over the course of a career.  And in the Genre box, I enter genres: Blues, Country Blues, Urban Blues, Jazz, Vaudeville, Jug Bands, String Bands, etc, with the same rules as the Grouping box.  All this info makes for some great Smart Playlists.  I've got a bunch of lists for each individual year starting at 1921, and for major cities, geographical areas, and styles.  And I can define a list to give me, for example, everything Victor recorded in Memphis in September and October of 1929 or everything Sonny Boy Williamson played on either as the main artist or as a backing musician.

I've been trying to figure out how to put in an index so I could sort an artist's complete recorded works by recording date, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do this yet.  Anyone have any ideas?   

It bothers me just a bit that I'm not entering matrix numbers and record numbers, but if I did that, I'd only get a disk a day ripped and I'd be working on this thing for the next 5 years.
     
And a big thanks to Andrew and Rivers for mentioning iTunes and iPods in another discussion and getting me started on all of this.   

[uncle bud]

Hey dj - one thing about entering all that info in iTunes. Make sure you back it up somehow. I've read some stories of people needing to reinstall iPods and iTunes and losing playlists, play counts, and custom info like this. What you're doing is a lot of work to lose.

And now you've got me entering the years in my library as well...