THE BLUES SOUNDSCAPE: A WHIRLWIND TOUR

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THE BLUES SOUNDSCAPE A WHIRLWIND TOUR

• Matt Meacham
• White River Valley Historical Society
• September 16, 2009

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Origins and antecedents

• African-American spirituals
• (Roll, Jordan?)
• Oral-tradition poetry sacred and secular from
  revival sermons to the dirty dozens
• The diddly-bow (see New Harmonies)
• Music of songsters, blackface minstrels, medicine
  show performers, etc.
• Work songs, including field hollers and railroad
  track-laying songs (The Land Where the Blues
  Began, 3011, here)

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Some distinctive sonic features

• Harmonic and melodic vocabulary
• --- Chords with flatted sevenths as
• stable sonorities
• --- The blues scale
• --- The 5-5-6-5-7-5-6-5 motive

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Distinctive sonic features, continued

• Rhythm and form
• --- Syncopations, swung eighths, and other
• complex rhythms
• --- Strophic form (organization in verses,
• each of which consists of phrases)
• --- Call-and-response phrase construction
• --- In some cases free, improvisational
• treatment of phrase rhythm
• --- Specific formal templates, especially
• twelve-bar blues form

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12-bar blues form

• Each verse consists of three four-bar phrases
• First phrase begins on the tonic chord of the key
  (I)
• Second phrase is a variant of the first (often
  with the same text), beginning on the subdominant
  chord of the key (IV)
• Third phrase begins on the dominant chord of the
  key (V) but ends on the tonic chord (I)

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Examples of 12-bar blues

• NRBQ Twelve-Bar Blues
• B.B. King The Thrill Is Gone
• Johnny Cash Folsom Prison Blues

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Regional stylistic traditions

• The three regional stylistic traditions of blues
  most prominently featured in the New Harmonies
  exhibit are
• --- Mississippi Delta blues
• --- Texas blues
• --- Chicago blues

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Other regional stylistic traditions

• Because Delta, Texas, and Chicago blues are
  already discussed very effectively in New
  Harmonies, well focus on three other regional
  stylistic traditions
• --- Bentonia blues
• --- Piedmont blues
• --- St. Louis blues

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Bentonia blues

• Might be considered a subset of Mississippi Delta
  blues
• Comes from the vicinity of Bentonia and Yazoo
  City, Mississippi (west-central MS)
• Characterized by
• --- Hauntingly expressive, sometimes
• falsetto singing
• --- Acoustic guitar played fingerstyle,
  often in
• alternate tunings
• --- A harmonic vocabulary somewhat broader
• and more complex then is typical of rural
• blues
• Representative musicians Henry Stuckey, Skip
  James (here), Jack Owens and Bud Spires (1523
  here)

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Piedmont blues

• Comes from the areas of Virginia and the
  Carolinas that lie within the Piedmont, the
  region of the Southeast situated between the
  coastal plain and Appalachia
• Historically and stylistically related to country
  ragtime, string-band music of the region, and
  music of minstrel shows and medicine shows
• Typically features fingerstyle guitar played with
  sophisticated right-hand technique and sometimes
  other instruments, including harmonica and banjo
• Representative musicians Rev. Gary Davis, Blind
  Boy Fuller, Elizabeth Cotton, Pink Anderson,
  Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Etta Baker
  (here), John Jackson, John Cephas and Phil
  Wiggins (here Peg Leg)
• Many white musicians from the same region have
  been influenced strongly by Piedmont blues
  e.g., Doc Watson

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St. Louis blues

• Reflects St. Louiss multi-layered
  African-American history a quasi-Southern,
  slave-holding city before the Civil War, a
  Northern industrial center afterwards
• St. Louis blues is stylistically very diverse.
  It includes
• --- Solo musicians who sing and play
  fingerstyle guitar
• in styles very similar to those
  characteristic of rural
• Delta and Piedmont blues (e.g., Henry
  Townsend, Hi
• Henry Brown, Charley Jordan)
• --- A strong tradition of barrelhouse
  piano playing
• influenced by the regions ragtime tradition
  (e.g., Henry
• Townsend, Speckled Red, Roosevelt Sykes)
• --- Urban blues, bordering on RB and soul,
  featuring
• electric instruments, horn sections, etc.,
  and
• sophisticated ensemble arrangements (e.g.,
  Fontella Bass,
• Oliver Sain, Little Milton, Albert King,
  Chuck Berry, numerous
• contemporary musicians and bands)

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Blues in the Ozarks

• There doesnt seem to be a long-established folk
  tradition of blues music in the Ozarks. In other
  words, blues in the Ozarks is largely an
  imported music.
• Nonetheless, blues seems to be thriving here at
  present, especially in Eureka Springs, Arkansas,
  and Springfield, Missouri
• The Blues Society of the Ozarks is based in
  Springfield. It sponsors the annual Ozarks Blues
  Festival, which often features local and regional
  musicians.
• A talented young blues band from right here in
  Forsyth, Underground Blues Division, has been
  achieving some measure of success lately (here).

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Sitting on Top of the World

• Is a fascinating illustration of the widespread
  influence of blues within American roots music
  and of the stylistic adaptability of blues (or,
  at least, of this particular tune)
• The song was written and recorded by the
  Mississippi Sheiks, an African-American string
  band, in 1930.
• Countless versions of the song representing
  blues, Western swing, bluegrass, rock, and other
  genres have since been recorded.
• This website provides several examples.