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204 Part IV: Sounding Like the Masters: Blues Styles through the Ages TEAM LinG
Country and folk style blues often included an instrumental melody, usually
syncopated on top of an alternating bassline. The guitar imitated the pianobased
ragtime style of Scott Joplin’s days. The key of C is the favorite key for
many country and ragtime blues songs. Ragtime chords in the key of C include
E7, A7, and D7, and G7, all of which fall nicely in open position and offer fingerpickers
many options for bass runs, open strings, hammer-ons, and pull-offs.
For the audiences that perhaps found the Delta sound a little too dark or
stark, country and folk music brought more tuneful melodies with a bluesy
treatment that was a more enjoyable mix. People who brought about this
mix included Mance Lipscomb, Big Bill Broonzy, Reverend Gary Davis, and
Mississippi John Hurt. Like Piedmont blues, these styles feature a lively,
relentless bass line in an alternating scheme, and the songs themselves are
drawn more from the folk repertoire than from the 12-bar blues arena.
Giving these “in-between blues” a listen
The best way to understand country and folk blues is to listen to these
styles. Songsters like Mississippi John Hurt wrote with a bouncy ragtime
style, and recorded famous songs such as “Candy Man Blues” (full of
double meanings), “My Creole Belle,” and “Make Me a Pallet on Your
Floor.” These lively songs featured Hurt’s ingenious ragtime work and
had a good blues back story.
In the 1960s a curious sociological phenomenon occurred. Young white blues
fans went looking for the forgotten country blues guitarists that they “knew”
from their music on old, scratchy 78 rpm records. Mississippi John Hurt was
found in Avalon, Mississippi, with the only clue being his “Avalon Blues”
record. If this phenomenon hadn’t occurred, Hurt’s music may have fallen off
the musical radar. He had lived in obscurity for 35 years, but his chops were
still sharp and he became a favorite of concert goers.
Figure 11-7 is a song that features a melody on top of an alternating bass pattern,
similar to Mississippi John Hurt’s style. Pay attention to the way his
confident, driving bass notes (played with the thumb) contrast the high-note
syncopated melodic figures (played with the fingers).
Closing with a lick and some style:
Ragtime tags
One of the best parts about country blues and ragtime playing are the tags.
Tags are closing licks and phrases that are tacked on to the end of songs that
provide a little coda — a finale. Tags are melodically unrelated to the song,