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CHARLIE'S CORNER
The Birth of Country Blues (c.1890-1942)
by Charlie Archer
As dance music, the country blues is a syncopated, often highly percussive blend of African and European musical elements. Its emergence in the 1890s was enabled by that of its principal vehicle of accompaniment - the steel-string guitar, and its echoes can be heard in the rock 'n roll, rock music and Chicago blues that grew out of it.
This African-American folk music, which has roots reaching well back into the last century, is a melange of ragtime, pop tunes, novelties, minstrel show remnants, sacred songs and blues of such irregularity and variety as to defy description. In its heyday (c.1910 - 1930) it was the popular entertainment heard at fish fries, country suppers and jukehouses. Today it survives as hundreds of worn 78 rpm recordings, some barely audible, that have, since 1959, been continually reissued on l.p., cassette and CD and in the playing of a handful of nuts like myself who spend countless hours trying to decipher the secrets of the magic hidden in those scratchy artifacts. Those early masters who emerged from the bedrock of the ragtime craze could make their guitars talk and sing in an almost equal partnership with the voice. Their ingenious finger-and-slide technology must be studied by every aspiring guitar player. It has provided the techniques and inspiration for every for every white finger picker from Sam McGee to Chet Atkins, John Fahey, Leo Kottke and beyond.
The folk revival of the sixties introduced the country blues, and some of its surviving practitioners, to the whole country. Presenting the raw form of this music requires the white performer to bridge a considerable cultural credibility gap. Rather than trying to pass myself off as some sort of ersatz "bluesman," I talk about the history of the music and some of the lesser known creators, while performing examples of their work.
Despite differences in the regional styles of Texas, Mississippi, St. Louis, Memphis, Atlanta, East Coast states and various other places, there are unifying structural elements that, combined with a strong personal style, can produce a stultifying sameness, which I avoid by using as many dissimilar guitars, picking and slide techniques and voices as I can to impersonate the sound of artists like Charlie Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Tommy Johnson, Frank Stokes, Jack Kelly, Tampa Red, William Moore, Ramblin' Thomas, Blind Willie Johnson, Kid Bailey, Kansas Joe McCoy, Geeshie Wiley, Buddy Boy Hawkins, Bo Weavil Jackson and many other obscure generators of a powerful and beautiful music.
- Charlie Archer
Master of delta blues and beyond
Online lessons!
Lesson 1 "Pay Day" by Mississippi John Hurt
Lesson 2 "Crow Jane" by Carl Martin's
The Blues Bank Collective is a W.C.Handy Award
winning blues education organization whose mission is:
To further awareness of Blues Music and its African American heritage
To show the historic context that gave birth to the Blues
To use the music as a means of positive social change
And, whenever possible, to eliminate all forms of racism, intolerance and
prejudice.
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DRAWING: B. J. Johnson (1906-1986) was a great Portsmouth bluesman and teacher, as well as an inspiration to all who knew him. Art by Steven Lee.
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