Blind
Lemon is a good example of what is known as the "country
blues." There are some quotes about "country blues" as
follows:
| Country blues
is where it all began. Go back to the early days of 78s and you'll find
the countryblues of Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson. Nowadays,
Taj Mahal and Keb'Mo' (among others) are playing with the fire, the raw
energy of country blues. Country blues is intimate, poetic,
soul-searching stuff. |
| --it is from the biography of
Kelly Joe Phelps "Dust
bowl memories, you can hear me shout : ROLL AWAY THE STONE"
on Fleming Tamulevich and
Associates Online |
| EARLY COUNTRY
bluesmen were itinerant minstrels playing battered acoustic guitars,
shouting the blues so it could be heard over the din of crowds in
saloons, at parties and noises in the marketplace. Without
amplification, these mens' voices became strong and insistent, their
guitars playing dramatic and punctuated by piercing riffs. Modern
guitarists who first hear this music are usually shocked to learn that
the simultaneous playing of complex rhythmic bass and melodies,
accompanied by vocals, is usually the work of one person playing alone. |
| --This quote
from "Deep
Blues: Roots Music of the Deep South" on RETROradio |
| The earliest
blues, country blues, were a product of the 19th-century black rural
experience, especially after emancipation. Itinerant performers
traveled from one black community to another, playing the guitar while
singing about the loss of love, the pain of poverty, the burden of hard
work. Like much folk expression, many songs spoke of the delights and
torments of sex. Early country blues still may be heard on records made
by Leadbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and others. Jelly Roll Morton
wrote his "New Orleans Blues" in 1902. Among the earliest blues
published as sheet music were those of W. C. Handy. They included
"Memphis Blues" (1912) and "The St. Louis Blues" (1914). |
| --Third quote
about country blues is from "The
Blues" on This
Blues Ring site. |
| Texas blues
tends to be more sophisticated and intricate than those of the deep
south, with longer guitar phrases and greater melodic range than are
ordinarily found in the blues of Mississippi River states, and usually
employing a repetitive bass line. Louisianians are notable chiefly for
their nonconformity with musicians from contiguous states and their use
of bottleneck and open tunings. |
| --This quote
is from yazoo
texas blues |
|
It is from the
Blues
Gallery by Neil Harpe. |
