American Popular Music. Blues

Transcription

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2 American Popular Music Blues

3 American Popular Music Blues Classical Country Folk Jazz Rhythm and Blues, Rap, and Hip-Hop Rock and Roll General Editor: Richard Carlin Editorial Board: Barbara Ching, Ph.D., University of Memphis Ronald D. Cohen, Ph.D., Indiana University-Northwest William Duckworth, Bucknell University Kevin J. Holm-Hudson, Ph.D., University of Kentucky Nadine Hubbs, Ph.D., University of Michigan Craig Morrison, Ph.D., Concordia University and McGill University Albin J. Zak III, Ph.D., University at Albany (SUNY)

4 American Popular Music Blues Dick Weissman Foreword by Craig Morrison, Ph.D. Concordia University and McGill University

5 American Popular Music: Blues Copyright 2006 by Dick Weissman All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Weissman, Dick. American popular music : blues / Richard Weissman ; foreword by Craig Morrison. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN (hc : alk. paper) 1. Blues (Music) Encyclopedias. 2. Blues Musicians Biography Dictionaries. I. Title. ML102.B6W '0973'03 dc Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) or (800) You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at Text design by James Scotto-Lavino Cover design by Nora Wertz Printed in the United States of America VB FOF This book is printed on acid-free paper.

6 Contents Foreword Preface Introduction vii xi xv A-TO-Z ENTRIES 1 Appendixes 255 Glossary of Music Terms 269 Further Reading and Research 277 Editorial Board of Advisers 281 Index 283

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8 Foreword The blues as a genre of music is now more than 100 years old. In that time it has gone from a music localized in the American South and made by and for blacks to a music that is known internationally and cherished by people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds. The people who created and developed the blues, at least the ones who managed to get recorded, have been acknowledged in numerous ways. Though only some of them lived to see it, their lives have been researched, their music has been made available in various formats, and their place in history is now assured. Among music fans, the most famous artists are household names, including BESSIE SMITH, ROBERT JOHNSON, MUDDY WATERS, B. B. KING, and JOHN LEE HOOKER. From postage stamps to music festivals to historical plaques marking significant locations, the blues heroes have been honored. They now stand alongside the greats in any other field, musical or otherwise. The blues has triumphed by its indomitable human spirit over the oppressive forces that gave it birth. Because that spirit comes through, on records and CDs, and in performances, the blues continues to inspire and uplift those who can hear its messages. Into it generations of men and women whether entertaining an audience, trying to get a hit record, or giving themselves solace when alone have poured their frustrations, joys, hopes, and observations about the business of living life. The lyrics of the blues can be remarkably direct, beautifully poetic, or both at the same time. Its musical form is deceptively simple: The basics can be learned by fledgling musicians in a matter of minutes. However, the blues takes years to master, because the notes and chords are only the outline; the rest must be filled in by experience. Because of its apparent simplicity, it is easy to grasp on an intuitive level. Even listeners who do not understand English are capable of feeling it, for its emotions are expressed not just in lyrics but are conveyed in the singing and in the musical mood. The journey of the blues is as fascinating as the lives of its performers. It appears to have crystallized at the end of the 1800s, decades after slavery was officially abolished (but while the oppression of blacks was as bad, if not worse, than ever). Its roots are deep in the cultural intermingling that took place when the slaves brought from Africa to the United States encountered the music of their overseers whose background was European. On European instruments and ones adapted from Africa, the slaves and their descendants blended these traditions, along with traces of others, into something unique. Indications point to MISSISSIPPI as the place where the blues began, and musicians from that state have had an inordinate influence on the music s history. From its rural origins, the blues was taken into cities, adopted by professional bandleaders like W. C. HANDY who composed sophisticated variations, and played by jazz musicians. It was recorded by a music industry that finally realized, in the 1920s, that it existed and that there was a market for it. As we can hear in the records made from then until now, the blues blossomed into a variety of styles. vii

9 viii Foreword Each is a product of its time and the creativity of a series of individuals. Blues influenced and was influenced by other genres, particularly jazz, country, gospel, and, since the 1950s, rock and roll. Fanatical interest by British musicians was the catalyst for an international awareness of the blues. The object of their affection, in the 1950s, was folk blues; their response to it led to skiffle, a style that the Beatles played in the earliest part of their career. In the 1960s, the electric blues coming out of the cities, especially CHICAGO, was highly appealing; the British response created blues rock. The ROLLING STONES, the Who, the ANIMALS, the YARDBIRDS, JOHN MAYALL, ERIC CLAPTON, LED ZEPPELIN, and FLEETWOOD MAC, while forging ahead with their own music, all helped to direct their audiences to the blues. A related development occurred in America, first with the folk revivalists, some of whom rediscovered veteran blues musicians and brought them to festival stages and back into recordings studios, and then the blues rockers, such as the PAUL BUTTERFIELD Blues Band, CANNED HEAT, and JIMI HENDRIX (an American who first came to prominence in England). While the musicians were in the spotlight, behind the scenes were record collectors, some of whom would go junking by calling from door to door in black neighborhoods with a car parked nearby or even just a wheelbarrow to carry whatever records they were able to purchase. Because of their efforts, a lot of music that would have been lost was recovered. There were writers, many of them dedicated amateurs, who transcribed lyrics, created discographies, interviewed blues players, published magazines and books, and wrote liner notes for the multitude of reissued records. An industry sprang up around the teaching of the blues. It included private lessons, workshops, summer camps, instructional videos, and books of transcribed songs showing the guitar and piano techniques used on recordings. In learning about the blues and its history, we gain a sense of the broader context of historical events and conditions. Among them are migrations, racial issues, wars, advances in technology, and factors of economics and geography. In hearing the music and the lyrics, modern listeners can have insight into facets and values of the culture in which the blues is situated. A study of the music of notable artists can provide a glimpse into their personalities. We begin to see how each involves himself creatively and subjectively in his music. There is a world of sound in the blues. The singer s voice, grainy or smooth, shouting or crooning, and with inflections that can betray a regional upbringing, is the focal point for most presentations. Also up front usually is the GUITAR, an instrument capable of a seemingly endless array of colors. One single player with an ACOUSTIC GUITAR can make a room full of people dance, draw a crowd to a sidewalk performance, or make a recording so full of subtleties that generations of later musicians devote themselves to making the same sounds. The steady drone of a guitarist s thumb bouncing between two low strings can give a foundation for plucking fingers that pick out a lively tune on the higher ones. A chugging beat generated by strumming two low strings together (with some minimal finger movement on the higher of the strings) can make for an infectious sound that can drive a band or a dance floor. Notes can be made to whine by sliding up and down the strings with a tube of glass, metal, or bone placed over one of the fingers. Anguish can be conveyed by the fretting hand bending and releasing the strings. On electric guitar the expressive possibilities are further increased with more sustain, tonal variations, and greater volume and presence. Pianists can make thundering, hypnotic train rhythms with the left hand or shimmering, cascading phrases with the right. The HARMONICA, so rustic sounding when played acoustically, transforms into something entirely different when played into a microphone plugged into a distorting amplifier. A single sax can ignite an auditorium with a honking solo that sounds at times like screaming. A horn section fills out a band with harmonious punctuations and featured spots for each of the instruments

10 Foreword ix to display its own characteristic tones. If there is a rhythm section, the bass and drums work together, locking into a groove that unifies the band and connects with the listeners on a visceral level. Whether playing straight, even subdivisions of the pulse, the more jazzy shuffle rhythm, or borrowing Latin dance patterns like the rumba beat, a good rhythm section can make the standard blues chord progression seem to be something so fresh and natural that its inevitability is forgotten with the very vitality of the rhythm that propels it. In the lyrics sung by blues artists, the blues is presented as something real, a presence, almost like a person, to be talked to and spoken about. The blues is personal. It is about day-to-day life, the tribulations, the wondering and hoping, the scheming and dreaming. There is a lot of direct talk, a lot of you and me. You re a no-good woman, you re a cheating man, why don t you write me? are you ever coming back? before you accuse me take a look at yourself, I ve got rambling on my mind, I m going back down South, I m being mistreated, I can t hold out. As LITTLE WALTER declared, it s a Mean Old World. Because the blues acknowledges that in a way that is real and still finds something to celebrate, it will continue to speak, with endless and subtle variations, across generations, races, and cultures. Craig Morrison Concordia University and McGill University

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12 Preface American popular music reflects the rich cultural diversity of the American people. From classical to folk to jazz, America has contributed a rich legacy of musical styles to the world over its two-plus centuries of existence. The rich cross-fertilization of cultures African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and European has resulted in one of the unique musical mixtures in the world. American Popular Music celebrates this great diversity by presenting to the student, researcher, and individual enthusiast a wealth of information on each musical style in an easily accessible format. The subjects covered are: Blues Classical music Country Folk music Jazz Rock and Roll Rhythm and Blues, Rap, and Hip-Hop Each volume presents key information on performers, musical genres, famous compositions, musical instruments, media, and centers of musical activity. The volumes conclude with a chronology, recommended listening, and a complete bibliography or list of sources for further study. How do we define popular music? Literally, any music that attracts a reasonably large audience is popular (as opposed to unpopular ). Over the past few decades, however, as the study of popular music has grown, the term has come to have specific meanings. While some might exclude certain genres covered in this series American classical music leaps to mind we felt that it was important to represent the range of musical styles that have been popular in the United States over its entire history. New scholarship has brought to light the interplay among genres that previously were felt to be unrelated such as the influence of folk forms on classical music, opera s influence on jazz, or the blues influence on country so that to truly understand each musical style, it is important to be conversant with at least some aspects of all. These volumes are intended to be introductory, not comprehensive. Any A to Z work is by its very nature selective; it s impossible to include every figure, every song, or every key event. For most users, we hope the selections made here will be more than adequate, giving information on the key composers and performers who shaped each style, while also introducing some lesser-known figures who are worthy of study. The Editorial Board and other outside advisers played a key role in reviewing the entry lists for completeness. All encyclopedia authors also face the rather daunting task of separating fact from fiction when writing short biographies of performers and composers. Even birth and death dates can be up for grabs, as artists have been known to subtract years from their lives in their official biographies. Official records are often unavailable, particularly for earlier artists who may have been born at home, or for those whose family histories themselves are shrouded in mystery. We have attempted xi

13 xii Preface to draw on the latest research and most reliable sources whenever possible, and have also pointed out when key facts are in dispute. And, for many popular performers, the myth can be as important as the reality when it comes to their lives, so we have tried to honor both in writing about their achievements. Popular music reflects the concerns of the artists who create it and their audience. Each era of our country s history has spawned a variety of popular music styles, and these styles in turn have grown over the decades as new performers and new times have arisen. These volumes try to place the music into its context, acknowledging that the way music is performed and its effect on the greater society is as important as the music itself. We ve also tried to highlight the many interchanges between styles and performers, because one of the unique and important aspects of American cultural life is the way that various people have come together to create a new culture out of the interplay of their original practices and beliefs. Race, class, culture, and sex have played roles in the development of American popular music. Regrettably, the playing field has not always been level for performers from different backgrounds, particularly when it comes to the business aspects of the industry: paying royalties, honoring copyrights, and the general treatment of artists. Some figures have been forgotten or ignored who deserved greater attention; the marketplace can be ruthless, and its agents music publishers, record producers, concert promoters have and undoubtedly will continue to take advantage of the musicians trying to bring their unique voices to market. These volumes attempt to address many of these issues as they have affected the development of individual musicians careers as well as from the larger perspective of the growth of popular music. The reader is encouraged to delve further into these topics by referring to the bibliographies in each volume. Popular music can be a slave itself to crass commercialism, as well as a bevy of hangers-on, fellow travelers, and others who seek only to make a quick buck by following easy-to-identify trends. While we bemoan the lack of new visionary artists today like Bessie Smith, Miles Davis, Pauline Oliveros, or Bob Dylan, it s important to remember that when they first came on the scene the vast majority of popular performers were journeymen musicians at best. Popular music will always include many second-, third-, and fourth-tier performers; some will offer one or two recordings or performances that will have a lasting impact, while many will be celebrated during their 15 minutes of fame, but most will be forgotten. In separating the wheat from the chaff, it is understandably easier for our writers working on earlier styles where the passing of time has helped sort out the important from the just popular. However, all the contributors have tried to supply some distance, giving greatest weight to the true artists, while acknowledging that popular figures who are less talented can nonetheless have a great impact on the genre during their performing career no matter how brief it might be. All in all, the range, depth, and quality of popular musical styles that have developed in the United States over its lifetime is truly amazing. These styles could not have arisen anywhere else, but are the unique products of the mixing of cultures, geography, technology, and sheer luck that helped disseminate each style. Who could have forecast the music of Bill Monroe before he assembled his first great bluegrass band? Or predicted the melding of gospel, rhythm and blues, and popular music achieved by Aretha Franklin during her reign as Queen of Soul? The tinkering of classical composer John Cage who admitted to having no talent for creating melodies was a truly American response to new technologies, a new environment, and a new role for music in our lives. And Patti Smith s particular take on poetry, the punk-rock movement, and the difficulties faced by a woman who leads a rock band make her music particularly compelling and original and unpredictable to those who dismissed the original rock records as mere teenage fluff.

14 Preface xiii We hope that the volumes in this series will open your eyes, minds, and, most important, your ears to a world of musical styles. Some may be familiar, others more obscure, but all are worthy. With today s proliferation of sound on the Web, finding even the most obscure recording is becoming increasingly simple. We urge you to read deeply but also to put these books down to listen. Come to your own conclusions. American popular music is a rich world, one open to many different interpretations. We hope these volumes serve as your windows to these many compelling worlds. Richard Carlin, General Editor

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16 Introduction The first enslaved Africans landed in the English colonies of North America in From the earliest days of these dreadful oceangoing voyages, there were reports of slaves singing laments on the ships that brought them from Africa. Prior to their emancipation in 1863, slaves were reported to be excellent fiddlers and banjoists (the banjo being an instrument of African origin), often playing for the entertainment of their masters. Music was also a vehicle for expressing their hopes, dreams, and frustrations. In the period following the Civil War, the newly-freed slaves began to apply their skills in a remarkable variety of styles and genres. MIGRATION from the southern states to the north and west spread these styles throughout the United States. Some African-American musicians joined or formed minstrel companies, refining and expanding this musical mix by adding syncopated cakewalks and dances and song. It also influenced the composition and performance styles of American popular music. Civil War soldiers abandoned brass instruments all over the South, and former slaves learned to play these instruments, forming brass ensembles and, later, jazz bands. On the vocal front, groups such as the Fisk University Jubilee Singers brought spirituals to white audiences in the United States and in Europe starting in the 1870s. Soloists such as black operatic artist M. Sissieretta Jones sang operatic arias on tour. Black theater began to flourish in New York City, with music composed and performed by black musicians. For years the Ziegfeld Follies featured singer-comedian Bert Williams, one of the biggest stars of vaudeville. New black evangelical churches incorporated music into their services. RAGTIME piano later grew out of earlier versions of this music played on the banjo, and it became one of the main ingredients of the early 20th-century music called jazz. But another, less-documented musical development was taking place away from the urban areas. Rural blacks became interested in the instruments played by their equally poor white counterparts, especially the guitar. Creative musicians took instruments already in use, such as the banjo and the violin, and developed hybrid techniques incorporating elements of both white and black instrumental techniques. Borrowing and building on the Anglo-American folk music of the 19th century and incorporating elements of the old slave songs, rural African-American musicians at the turn of the 20th century gradually developed a new and highly personal music: the blues. Although a few early white artists recorded music based on the blues, the first major recorded blues artists were closer to the vaudeville and popular music traditions than to the more rural forms of the blues. MA RAINEY and BESSIE SMITH were the most important singers in this style, known as the classic blues. W. C. HANDY,CLARENCE WILLIAMS, and T. A. DORSEY (later a gospel composer) were among the most important composers of early blues. The rougher, more rural blues style appeared on records in the mid-1920s and was popular through the 1930s, when the Great Depression all but eliminated the sale of these race records to the blues audience. During the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, xv

17 xvi Introduction southern blues musicians began using guitars with pickups plugged into amplifiers, and instruments and singers were utilizing microphones in performances. They had previously been available only in recording studios. The combination of these elements, along with the addition of drums and bass, led to blues combos, and then to the genre called rhythm and blues, or R&B. This was one of the primary sources of rock and roll. With the addition of amplified HARMONICA and SAXOPHONE and/or trumpet, the blues became more organized in terms of both rhythm and harmonic structure. While the blues went underground in the 1950s, largely replaced by the newer rhythm and blues combo styles, the newly awakened interest in roots music by white musicians during the late 1950s and 1960s led to the rediscovery of rural blues performers who had not played publicly, or even recorded for two decades or more. The general interest in American roots music that emerged during the 1960s led to the reissue of many blues recordings on long-playing records, notably the recordings of Bessie Smith and ROBERT JOHNSON. Rock musicians (especially in the United Kingdom) became enamored of blues music, both honoring its stars and recreating it in a rock music style. The interest in rural and urban blues continued to wax and wane in succeeding decades. Although few young African- American performers appeared in this early blues revival, by the 1990s a number of such musicians emerged on records and in performance. By this time the blues had become established as a specific musical genre in the world of American popular music. Blues festivals were presented in all regions of the United States, drawing thousand of blues fans and creating more future fans. There were local blues singers recording and performing in every major city of the United States, and the House of Blues nightclubs had opened a number of blues venues where performers sang and played the blues, and everything from T-shirts to vintage guitars were on sale. B. B. KING went from playing to an older black audience to becoming an internationally-known artist with his own nightclubs in several cities. The U.S. Congress declared 2003 to be the year of the blues, and a series of radio and TV programs brought relatively obscure aspects of the blues to the attention of millions of Americans. The television series called The Legacy of the Blues consisted of seven two-hour television programs. The executive producer of the series was the famous film director Martin Scorsese. He directed one of the films and commissioned a number of other directors, including Clint Eastwood, to do the other six programs. The videos were also available for purchase, and Scorsese was also the impetus for a book about the blues, as well as a series of CD reissues of artists whose work was included in the soundtracks of the various programs. This volume of the Encyclopedia of American Popular Music provides a comprehensive overview of the blues, focusing on its origins, and history during the course of more than 100 years, culminating in its revival in the mid-20th century, and looking at its present and future. It then discusses blues trends and styles, important composers and performers, the cultural and commercial impact of the music, and essential recordings. The book also highlights the ways that American blues has influenced and been influenced by other musical styles. It also includes discussions of the social issues crucial to the evolution of rural and urban blues. The accomplishments of women in the blues field is documented, and key figures in the transmission of the music are discussed. In addition to composers, musicians, and performers, both folklorists and commercial record producers are covered, and their importance in the evolution of the music is evaluated. There are alphabetical listings for these people, and a series of articles is included that is intended to highlight the history, structure, and evolution of the blues. Origin and History of the Blues It is generally believed that the blues began sometime around the 1890s or at the turn of the 20th century. The first written references that we have to anyone actually hearing the blues are W. C. Handy s

18 Introduction xvii and Ma Rainey s reports that they first heard something resembling the blues in Howard Odum was the first folklorist who collected blues songs, and his work began in We know that before the blues began there were other genres of African- American music found in the southern United States. These musical styles included the following: FIELD HOLLERS were unaccompanied songs sung while the singer was actually doing farm work. The musical form of field hollers was very free, because there were no instruments or voices accompanying the singer. Street cries were sung in the cities by vendors selling or delivering food or merchandise. Spirituals were the traditional religious music of African Americans. Spirituals often used a calland-response pattern with the leader singing a verse, and the other singers answering with short refrains, or repeated phrases, such as Oh my Lord. Many of the spirituals repeated a line two or three times, with a final line as a sort of answer or commentary to the first line of the song. Work songs, sung by groups of people at work, often used a call-and-response pattern in the same style that spirituals did. Work songs tended to be sung either on plantations or on prison gangs, where large groups of people were working. RAGTIME was a complex instrumental style that developed out of the dances and banjo playing in the minstrel era. Ragtime centered on the piano, although accomplished banjoists and guitarists played rags on their instruments, and they were also played by bands. Ragtime tunes had as many as four parts and often used key changes in the different sections. The first published ragtime pieces appeared in 1892, which was at the very beginning of or just prior to the birth of the blues. W. C. Handy was an African-American composer and bandleader. Out of his experiences listening to itinerant rural guitar players he wrote a number of famous blues, including the Memphis Blues and the St. Louis Blues. Memphis Blues was the third blues published in sheet music form, and the only one of the three (all of which appeared in 1912) that is still well known today. A number of white vaudeville performers such as Morton Harvey, Marian Harris, Norah Beyes, and Marie Cahill sang and recorded blues before Many of these performances were closer to ragtime and vaudeville styles than to the blues, although ELIJAH WALD, in his book Escaping the Delta, quotes W. C. Handy as saying that Harris s performances were sufficiently convincing that many listeners thought she was black. The Classic Blues The second recorded performance of blues by a black singer was Mamie Smith s recording of Crazy Blues in The first was her earlier record, That Thing Called Love, backed with You Can t Keep a Good Man Down. That recording did well enough for Okeh Records to ask her to record again. Because Crazy Blues had unexpectedly high sales of 75,000 copies in the first month of its release, all the record companies became extremely interested in blues, at least the sort of vaudeville blues that Smith was singing. The classic blues songs tended to be pop-oriented, and the singers came out of tent shows and early vaudeville performances. Among these early blues recordings were performances by IDA COX, VICTORIA SPIVEY, Clara Smith, Lucille Hegamin, Edith Wilson, Rosa Henderson, SIPPIE WALLACE, and ALBERTA HUNTER. Virtually all blues music critics and fans consider Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith to have been the most significant of the classic blues artists. Rainey had toured widely throughout the South, playing in theaters and for medicine shows during performances where allegedly powerful medicines were sold to the gullible consumer. Smith, a younger singer, seems to have been influenced by Ma Rainey s work. Smith met Rainey in 1912, when Bessie joined the Moses Stokes company. Rainey was a singer with

19 xviii Introduction the Stokes Group. Scholars argue about the extent of Rainey s influence on Smith. Of all the classic blues singers Rainey was the closest to embracing the folk roots of the music, sometimes recording with jug band accompaniment that included a variety of homemade instruments like kazoos, combs, and jugs. Smith preferred to record with jazz musicians, even recording with Louis Armstrong on cornet. Blues Form and Content The subject matter of the classic blues, like that of the folk blues, was most often love and romantic difficulties. Most of the songs used repeated lines. A typical verse might have lyrics like the ones below: It rained today, and I don t know where to go, Yes, it rained today, and I don t know where to go Wish I was in California, safe from all this rain and snow. Notice that the first two lines are identical, except for the word yes added to the beginning of the second line. Spoken interjections at the beginning or end of lines were a common feature in the blues. Sometimes lines might be repeated three times, with the fourth line containing the answer line. Some blues historians believe that the earliest blues contained one line that was repeated three or four times without the answer line. Although love was the most common subject, classic blues singers also sang about travel and sometimes about hard times or natural disasters, such as floods. We discuss the music of the blues in the next section, and further details about the lyrics of the blues appear in the entry BLUES LYRICS. Folk Blues Inevitably the record companies began to realize that besides the urban female singers, most of whom did not play instruments, there were quite a few rural blues singers who accompanied themselves on GUITAR or other instruments. The majority of these artists were men. From a record company standpoint, a solo artist who used no studio musicians was extremely cheap to record. The first popular folk blues artist was PAPA CHARLIE JACKSON, who accompanied himself on sixstring BANJO, an instrument tuned and played like a guitar but that sounds like a banjo. Jackson sang comic songs, vaudeville, and minstrel-sounding material, so he was sort of a human bridge between the pre-blues styles of black music and the blues. Jackson fits into a category called songster, an oldergeneration artist who pursues a variety of styles, including the blues. In addition to his solo recordings, he made records with Ma Rainey and Ida Cox, and even with jazz trumpet man Freddie Keppard. Jackson s recording career started in 1924 and lasted into the 1930s. The most influential blues man of the 1920s was BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON. Jefferson, originally from Texas, recorded over 80 songs between 1926 and He wrote mostly blues songs, but he also recorded a few religious songs. Jefferson wrote about whatever was on his mind, hard times, wars, women, animals, and travel, for example. He could come up with original songs, which became very important to record companies and record producers. Record companies needed to establish and feed a market for their products, and obviously they could not keep recording the same songs over and over. The record companies were also eager for artists to come up with new songs, because the record company, or sometimes the record producer, typically owned the publishing rights to the songs. Usually songwriting and publishing rights are split on a basis, with the songwriter receiving half the income and the publisher getting the same amount. Record companies often acquired the songwriters rights as well, by buying them for minimal amounts of money from the artists. Most of the artists were quite happy to sell off the rights, because they had no notion that the songs had any economic value. Some of the artists knew better, but assumed that the record companies would never pay them royalties anyway.

20 Introduction xix Many of the so-called composed folk blues were actually collections of blues verses that most blues singers had heard in one place or another. Often when a blues singer was singing a song and needed another verse or two, he would reach into his mental song bag and come up with traditional verses to complete the song. Blues Styles and Other Artists As the blues developed, there were different regional styles in different parts of the country. Although there was some overlap between the various styles, the early folk styles are usually classified as Piedmont blues, Texas blues, and Delta blues. The Piedmont blues were found in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, and tended to show ragtime and vaudeville influences. Delta blues came from the MISSISSIPPI Delta, and tended to be more intense, often using more heavily textured guitar and vocal styles. Texas blues, often characterized by lighter vocal quality, were harder to pin down, but were neither as intense as the Mississippi styles nor as relaxed and fun-loving as the Piedmont blues tended to be. The first Delta artist to record was ISHMON BRACEY, who cut his first records in Other notable Mississippi artists who followed included CHARLEY PATTON, SON HOUSE, ROBERT JOHNSON, and, later, MUDDY WATERS. Piedmont artists included BLIND BOY FULLER, GARY DAVIS, JOSH WHITE, BUDDY MOSS, BROWNIE MCGHEE and SONNY TERRY. Huddie LEAD BELLY Ledbetter, TEXAS ALEXANDER, and HENRY RAGTIME TEXAS THOMAS were among the early Texas artists. By the end of the 1920s many bluesmen started to migrate to Memphis or Chicago, and therefore to some extent the styles lost their original differences: for example, ROBERT JOHNSON, who traveled widely, recorded one tune called They re Red Hot, which sounds much more like a Piedmont blues than his customary Delta blues fare. MEMPHIS MINNIE (Douglas) was among the few folk blues women artists to achieve popularity. She generally recorded duets where she played lead guitar, and her accompanist was one of her three husbands. When she divorced, she would marry invariably another guitar player. During her career she recorded over 200 sides. Only a handful of other women both sang and played, none as popular as Memphis Minnie. Chicago and Combo Blues LEROY CARR grew up in Louisville and Indianapolis. He was a very influential singer and pianist in the late 1920s and early 1930s, writing some blues songs that were later recorded by other artists. Carr sang in a gentler, almost pop music style compared with artists like Blind Lemon Jefferson or any of the Mississippi performers. He teamed up with guitarist FRANCIS SCRAPPER BLACKWELL, who developed a melodic accompaniment style that would influence many other musicians. The two of them popularized the piano-guitar duo, and Carr brought a new sophistication to blues, in terms of both his songwriting and his smoother vocal performances. TAMPA RED and BIG BILL BROONZY were among the blues artists that migrated to CHICAGO. Broonzy moved from ARKANSAS to Chicago in 1920, and TAMPA RED, who had lived in Missouri and Georgia, moved to Chicago in Both began to experiment with blues combos of various sorts. Broonzy recorded with washboard accompaniment, and later with saxophone and drums. Tampa Red recorded in many different contexts, ranging from hokum jug bands to crooned pop songs in a sort of nightclub style. He also recorded a number of humorous duets with pianist T. A. DORSEY, then known as Georgia Tom, who later moved into the gospel music field. Broonzy had a bouncy and rhythmic guitar style, while Tampa played slide guitar, but in a sweet, melodic way, rather than using the slide in an intense and rhythmic way like Delta Players. Both Tampa and Big Bill wrote hundreds of songs and made dozens and dozens of records. Tampa s house in Chicago was a sort of blues central headquarters.