The Blues Time Machine

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The long flight of Muddy's 'Honey Bee' Feb 25, 2014

Show notes

Muddy Waters was born in rural Mississippi, and learned his blues at the feet of Son House and Robert Johnson. By the 1940’s he took that delta blues to Chicago and led the gradual transition to electrified urban blues. He then recorded “Honey Bee” in 1951 with just bass and guitar accompaniment. The sound was closer to the delta, but you can hear the beginnings of the more aggressive modern sound starting to happen.

Hendrix inspired by Earl King's 'Come On' Feb 07, 2014

Show notes

Earl King is one of the great songwriters and performers to come out of New Orleans, and his legacy continues to live on. Many of his compositions, including “Big Chief," “Trick Bag” and “These Lonely, Lonely Nights” have become an important part of the New Orleans “songbook." His 1960 recording of “Come On Pts. 1 & 2” is punctuated with many starts and stops, featuring his expressive voice and aggressive and precise guitar work. If you look through Jimi Hendrix ’s early releases, there are only a handful of songs among the dozens that he did not write. Earl King’s “Come On” is one of those.

'Black Rat' comes from the most powerful singer to walk the Earth Jan 31, 2014

Show notes

The urban blues of places like Detroit and Chicago came from country blues. Little Son Joe and his better known partner Memphis Minnie were among the players who brought the blues to the cities, paving the way for Muddy Waters and others who would follow. Memphis Minnie is known as one of the best guitarists and singers in the blues, and had a prolific career lasting 40 years. She married Little Son Joe (Ernest Lawlars) in the late 1930’s and they recorded “Black Rat Swing” in 1941 with Joe on vocals.

Everybody's got the 'Fever,' but Peggy Lee's got it bad Dec 06, 2013

Show notes

Chances are you’ve heard Peggy Lee’s iconic version of “Fever”– it’s one of the steamiest love songs ever written. But the original recording was released two years earlier by Little Willie John in 1956.

'Kokomo Blues' Among the Roots of 'Sweet Home Chicago' Nov 29, 2013

Show notes

“Sweet Home Chicago” is one of the best known blues songs ever written. But historians seem to agree that when Robert Johnson recorded the song in 1936, he borrowed heavily to make his masterpiece. “Kokomo Blues” is clearly one of the building blocks of that better known blues song. Scrapper Blackwell came out with it in 1928.

Following "Blues With a Feeling" through cutting-edge changes Nov 22, 2013

Show notes

Here’s a perfect example of a song that changed with the times, and was at the cutting edge of those changes. Drummer and singer Rabon Tarrant recorded “Blues With a Feeling” in 1947, a time when big band swing music was in transition to rock and roll. This version straddles both genres with the beat of rock and roll, but the more jazzy instrumentation of piano, sax and trumpet.

Robert Johnson at the Crossroads represents Delta blues the best Nov 15, 2013

Show notes

If I had to pick one person to represent Delta blues at the peak of its expression, it would be Robert Johnson . Saying that he was a superlative guitar player, impassioned singer and masterful lyricist seems barely adequate to convey the importance of the work he accomplished in his 27 years. Many of his songs became not only blues standards but would be a huge influence on rock music.

'Eyesight To The Blind' and the Rock Opera 'Tommy' Nov 08, 2013

Show notes

Sonny Boy Williamson was a blues originator who helped shape the sound of modern blues. In his life, he knew the first generation of Delta bluesmen, and would go on to see the birth of modern rock music. He played with Robert Johnson in the 1930’s, and with Eric Clapton in the 1960’s. His ability to span eras is a testament to the timelessness of his voice and harmonica. As a major radio star in the 1940’s on King Biscuit Time , America’s first live blues radio show, he helped up-and-coming players like Elmore James and Robert Nighthawk get exposure. Many of his songs have become standards of the blues including “Help Me”, “Bring It On Home” and “Eyesight to the Blind”, which he recorded in early 1951. The Larks were an early vocal group that blended the sound of their gospel roots with the R & B that was becoming popular in the 1940’s and 50’s. One of their most popular recordings was “Eyesight to the Blind”, which they released later in 1951. In 1969 the British rock group The

'Traveling Riverside Blues' and the Roots of Led Zeppelin Nov 01, 2013

Show notes

Robert Johnson has become a mythical figure of the blues, who acquired his prodigious skills in a deal with the devil at the crossroads. The truth is he was a man who worked very hard to turn himself into a musician. His early attempts at music – sitting in with legends Charley Patton and Son House—were not successful, and he didn’t appear to have much in the way of musical talent. But then Johnson found a teacher in Ike Zinneman, an unrecorded Mississippi blues player, spending a year developing his musicianship.

The Piedmont Blues of "Crow Jane" Oct 25, 2013

Show notes

It’s hard to trace the exact source of “Crow Jane”, but it’s a song that has outlasted many others from the early days of the blues. Its roots lay in the Piedmont region of Virginia and North and South Carolina. Rev. Gary Davis was known to perform it during the 1920’s, and the first recording was made in 1927 by guitarist Julius Daniels . Daniels is important partly because he was one of the first Black guitarists to record in the Southeast, inspiring others to follow. Piedmont blues guitar has a distinct sound that’s very different from Delta blues, which emphasized single note melodies, often played on slide-guitar. Piedmont guitar is based on a fingerpicking style, with the thumb playing rhythm and the fingers playing melody notes. It is also different from Delta blues in that the rhythms are related to ragtime. Skip James developed his unique fingerpicking guitar style while living in Mississippi in the 1920’s, and was one of the first bluesmen to record, with a session in 1931.

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