Hello folks. My name?s Jesse and I am a new member of this site. I have been a lover of the Country Blues for a few years now, and I look forward to the day when I can spend many hours learning these old, beautiful songs on the guitar. For now, I have been enjoying listening to a lot of good stuff, and discovering more and more what specific qualities I like about certain folks? playing.
I am eager to talk with other people who share a similar love for analyzing Country Blues, to flesh out the special/unique components of different players (although I have little training in music and don't know how to talk about it properly). This is why I joined this site. To give you an idea of the type of conversations I am hoping to have, I wrote something below. I love the standard ?Nobody?s Business?, and by listening to different interpretations of this tune, I have come up with some ideas, and a lot of questions! I will talk about three versions in this playlist:
http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Nobody+s+Business/88044823
The first is John Hurt?s version from his younger days. There is a quality to Johns playing from this time that I find to be vigorous yet smooth. This combination is what I find unique and special about his playing. What I mean is, between clearly audible notes (say they are 8th notes) he occasionally adds in an additional note (making them in fact 16th notes). Does that make sense? Do you agree? What do you find special about his playing of this song?
The next version is by Frank Stokes and (I think) Dan Sane. I assume that Frank plays the lead and Dan plays the accompaniment (both picking). What is special about this song for me is Dan?s accompaniment in the introduction. I don?t know the right words here, he plays slow trills or runs or something, flowing around Franks notes, and when combined with Franks playing, it makes me want to move a little bit more than Johns version. Ya know?
The last version is by this guy Tommy Bradley. I know nothing about this guy; found the song on the mix ?Good for what Ails Ya?. When I listen to this version, I want to dance. I hear two guitars, and the background one plays a ?note-chord-note-chord? pattern. Would you call that rhythm guitar? At least to me, that pattern gives the song a more driving quality, makes me want to dance!
Do I make any sense here? Apologies for not knowing how to talk about music structure, it makes it difficult to understand me I?m sure. If you love these songs, I would love to hear what it is you love about them, in terms of playing style, composition, analysis, etc. Also, apologies if this type of post isn?t appropriate for this forum/site. If so, any ideas where these kinds of conversations are happening online?
Cheers,
Jesse
