Just got added to faculty for Port Townsend 2020, I'll teach fiddle and -- something else, maybe a string band blues class.  Looking forward to it as always, and especially to being there at the same time as Del Rey -- it's been many years since we've been there together.

Here's the New Mississippi Sheiks version:

I’ve got the railroad blues, boxcars on my mind
I’ve got the railroad blues, boxcars on my mind
I ain’t had no lovin’ in a great long time.

Well, the sun gon’ shine, my back door someday,
Yes, the sun gon’ shine, my back door someday,
Well it may be here, and it may be far away.

Well, tell me baby, who can your good man be?
Yes, tell me baby, who can your good man be?
If you ain’t got nobody, honey won’t you please take me?

Spoken: Play it, boy!

I’m gonna leave here walking, taking chances I may ride,
I’m gonna leave here walking, honey take your chances I may ride,
Because I been mistreated, and I can’t be satisfied.

Hi all,
I don't believe that anyone has volunteered to do the Song of the Month for December.  If you want it, it's yours.
All best,
Johnm

...Just listened to Nile of Genago (what do you suppose that name refers to??)

https://tinyurl.com/s6b48ys

Well Suzy, like Diddie Wa Diddie, I guess it's a great big mystery (--Even for the experts).

I finally sat down and listened to all the waltzes included in this YouTube playlist, provided in the Waltzes played by CB artists thread. As I expected, there are some common chord progressions. The most common is some variation of this:

I I IV I
I I II V
I I IV I
IV I II-V I

For example: Wednesday Waltz, Sunset Waltz, Sweet Bunch of Daisies

A less common progression goes from I to V to I in the first two lines, like this:

I I I V
V V V I
I I I IV
IV I V I

For example: Nile of Genago, Guian Valley Waltz

The variation used by the Jug Band Waltz adds a VI chord in the turnaround, which was pretty rare in this playlist:

I I I V
V V V I
I I I IV
IV-V I-VI II-V I

Only the Guian Valley Waltz uses exactly this progression. The Sunset Waltz uses a VI, but is more like the first progression.

Looking at the dates of the songs with this type of progression is interesting:

1926 - Nile of Genago (Lonnie Johnson)
1928 - Jug Band Waltz (Memphis Jug Band)
1929 - Guian Valley Waltz (Jarvis & Justice)

Listening again to the Kentucky Waltz, it still sounds more similar to the Jug Band Waltz than most of these examples -- same progression, similar melody, similar overall feel. But it's also pretty similar to the Guian Valley Waltz. Was Guian Valley influenced by Jug Band Waltz, or were they both influenced by the earlier Nile of Genago? In an interview in 1960, Will Shade rated Lonnie Johnson as the best guitarist he'd ever heard, so it's possible. Shade also said that he got the idea to start a jug band listening to Dixieland Jug Blowers records from 1926, so perhaps he absorbed this Lonnie Johnson record as an influence that same year.

On a side note, the Crazy Waltz by Jesse Fuller stood out to me as having a similar melody -- mainly in the turnaround -- and overall feel. I guess it helps that he had the same harmonica and kazoo instrumentation as the MJB.