We Still Got Dem Ol’ Kosmic Blues

Charley Patton
http://mp3.com/artist/Charley%2BPatton

Blind Willie McTell recording for John Lomax in an Atlanta hotel room, November 1940. Photograph by the archivist's wife, Ruby Lomax.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Willie_McTell

Delta blues started out with slaves doing what was called a field holler where a leader would belt out a call and the workers would holler a response it was a work song cadence and from that “call and response” came the formula that built the blues as we know it today.

A singer will belt out a blistering blues vocal such as “Ain’t had no loving since my baby done left me!” then a blues riff played originally on an acoustic guitar would be the response. Delta blues are dominated by harmonicas and slide guitars.

Charley Patton (born 1891) is the man that is attributed to giving us the Delta blues sound we know today.

Patton lived on Dockery’s Plantation near Cleveland, Mississippi this was the place where blues legends such as Howl’n Wolf, Son House, Robert Johnson, Willie Brown, and a host of others cut their blues teeth on Patton’s tutelage.

Patton is noted for penning Pony Blues, Revenue Man Blues and others.

As former southern slaves headed north so did the blues the music took on a new sound called jazz, when guitars became electrified so did the blues.

During the late forties and early fifties northern cities like Detroit, Chicago were treated to blues icons like Muddy Waters, Howl’n Wolf, Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon and others they played basic Mississippi Delta blues backed by piano, drums, bass and harmonica.

The sound became popular, at the same time the likes of Memphis blues man B.B. King and Houston’s T-Bone Walker were pioneering a style of blues guitar playing that brought together jazz technique combined with the tonality and repertoire of the Delta blues.

In the late forties three songs had the moniker rock and roll. Erline “Rock and Roll” Harris recorded “Rock and Roll Blues” in 1949.

Much controversy exists about who recorded the first true rock and roll song. It does not matter whether it was Jackie Brenston’s, “Rocket 88”, Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock”, or Elvis Presley’s “That’s Alright Mama”.

What matters is that the Delta blues influence and it roots are still alive and well with the likes of iconic Rock and Rollers such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Stones, Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers or new talent such as Derek Trucks, John Mayer, Joss Stone or Susan Tedeschi.

Thank you Charley Patton, W.C. Handy and all that dedicated their lives to singing the blues.


Grab some great blues and listen to these folks that knew how to give feeling to their music as they forged their way into the heart of American culture!