Discussing and Writing About Country Blues (Patton and Jefferson, etc.)

To participate in discussion, read these thoughts below, including the instructions “DISCUSSION ASSIGNMENT” below— and then click on “Post New Entry” above to begin your participation in this conversation.

The “Country Blues” playlist contains songs performed by country blues musicians in two major categories of performance practice. The first practice is typified by Blind Willie McTell, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller. Sometimes called “Piedmont-style” fingerpicking, the style is influenced by ragtime music, and usually involves a lot of syncopated rhythm. The singing and choice of melodies is influenced by Anglo-American folk music, popular ‘parlor’ songs, and ragtime compositions that were popular in the late 19th century.

The second practice, called “Delta Blues Style”, originated in Texas, Louisiana, and tributary regions of the Mississippi Delta.  Son House, Tommy Johnson, Skip James and Charley Patton are good examples. The style involves a steadier strumming beat, and a style of singing that more closely resembles the well-known blues styles of later periods: gruff, declamatory singing, using simple melodies that facilitate more extensive improvisation. (Don’t be confused by nicknames — “Mississippi John Hurt” was a versatile folk musician and his style of guitar playing reflects the more complex “Piedmont” finger-picking style. The nickname “Mississippi” was given him by Okeh records, without regard to the delta blues style that would later be associated with Mississippi and neighboring states.)

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DISCUSSION ASSIGNMENT (Due October 15 — or submit by October 10 at noon to get TA guidance toward an essay):

Choose one recording from the “Pre-war Country Blues” playlist and analyze what you hear. Treat each of the elements of the song separately. How is the guitar played? (You could just say “Piedmont Style” or “Delta Blues Style” — but I’ve already given you those answers! Instead, try to listen to the whole song and identify specific sounds within the recording. Use lyrics as place markers, or describe time intervals in relation to your formal analysis.) Does the style change in some way? How would you describe the change, and is it related at all to a change in the meanings of lyrics, or the expression of a singer?

Your initial post (submitted through the “Post New Entry” button above) should be about two paragraphs, about 200 words. Once you’ve posted, please read your classmates’ posts and begin commenting on them…your TAs will contribute to the conversation as well. Full participation requires you to comment on your classmates’ posts and try to keep the conversation going!

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ESSAY ASSIGNMENT(Due October 15 — if you choose to write an essay in this unit):

In light of last week’s readings, consider the differences in expression and style between two different blues singers in the “pre-war country blues” playlist. Choose one recording from each of the two performance styles listed above, or two different artists in one category. Although this is not a research paper, feel free to speculate a little on questions related to the history and diasporic experience of Americans in the Deep South. What aspects, in particular, of each song, reflect an African, or African-American diasporic experience? In considering this issue, remember that diaspora is a process of interaction between cultures, and not just the legacy of a single culture. Can you hear the influence of Euro-American folk or art music in the performances that you have chosen? How do those musical attributes influence the music’s emotional expression?

(You don’t need to answer all of these questions—and you may choose to focus on just one or two. But consider them carefully as you plan your comparison of the songs.)

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To write your essay, carefully follow our instructions on the “How to do the essays” page.

Your finished essay (due before noon on Thursday, October 15) should be between 600-800 words long, about the length of four double-spaced pages. Please keep in mind your peers will want to respond to what you say, so make your thoughts intelligible, organized, and easy to read. When you are finished, post the essay to the Country Blues Essays page, under Unit 1 in the discussion section of the website.

When you are done, please take time read your peers’ posts and essays, compare and contrast your thoughts, and continue discussion.

"Salty Dog"

Mississippi  John Hurts “Salty Dog” (Okeh 1928) song, as we all should know,  is a typical Delta style country Blues song.  This “Pre-war” era song shows some of the themes that were popular to sing about in the south.  This particular one makes little sense but what I can take away from this song is that it talks about how God made women so irresistible.  He mentions one particular woman who is in fact another man’s woman who he was caught with.  Taking the theme aside, his voice is what makes the song stand out.  The chorus is a pretty catchy tune that gets stuck in your head, which is in fact intended.  He sings it in an almost comical way.  The audience can tell that he is not being serious by the way the pitches go fast and slow and up and down. 

What makes this song “popular” would be the catchy tune that it encompasses.  This is what the Delta style Blues is all about.  It takes a steady rhythm, which in this song is the one string steady tune, with sliding, and then it’s mixed together with memorable lyrics and a powerful voice.  This memorable, yet arguably repetitive, type of music is what makes a song like “Salty Dog” and other Delta Blues songs part of popular culture.  They are no longer in the category of folk music because it reaches the masses outside of their community.  The outside masses can get a taste of what music is like in the south, however, authentic music is held in higher regards than any old person who can play the type of music just as well.  Authentic music to them means that the lyrics has come directly from the mouths of those unlucky individuals who have lived through the ordeal of heartache.  This is the paradox of authentic popular music.  The individuals outside of the south think they are experiencing the diasporic essence of what it means to be a down-on-your-luck African-American but in reality the versions that do become popular are songs that the masses are more familiar with and can sing along to, which may no longer be “authentic”.                   

Noemi Villalpando

 

Update on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 4:27 PM by OttoKoivunen

I truly enjoy your interpretation of the lyrics and how they try to appeal to the masses that don’t quite know the feelings that made the song what it is. I agree that many listening to this music outside of the south think they are “experiencing the diasporic essence of what it means to be a down-on-your-luck African-American”, which probably made them feel more multicultural and included in this musical revolution.

With respect to the musical quality of the song, I agree that it has a simple catchy tune, but I do think that the guitar is more of a Piedmont style than Delta blues. The only distinction would be that the bass of the guitar is accompanying the higher tones, instead of the guitar playing one simple tune.

"Rag, Mama, Rag"

      Blind Boy Fuller’s “Rag, Mama, Rag” is played in the Piedmont Style. The type of rhythm that the guitar plays throughout the song is reminiscent of the ragtime style as it is syncopated. More specifically the ragtime influences can be heard in the lyrics, especially in the refrain “Rag……..Baby, rag……Yeah, rag now mamma….Baby how I love it when ya do that rag” (von Dirk Hagemann).

        The style of the song remains constant. The way the lyrics are sung and the way the guitar is played are the same throughout the song. The refrain repeats after each verse and is sung in the same style each time.  I feel that this song would have been highly marketable to the people of the time, and perhaps would have been something people would have danced to at parties and played in their homes. It seems like it is popular music because it is enjoyable and has a portion, the refrain, which sticks with you even after the song is over.  I found it to be something that I enjoyed listening to, and it certainly made me want to dance.

 Sources:

von Dirk Hagemann , Geschrieben. “Blues Classics im Detail - The Rag Mama Rag .” Blueslessons.de.     

        Bluelessons.de, Web. 10 Oct 2009. http://www.blueslessons.de/index.php?   

        option=com_content&task=view&id=98&Itemid=51.

OoooOOOohh Rag, Rag, Said do that Rag.

In Blind Boy Fuller’s “Rag, Mama, Rag,” we can see a few interesting themes we have been talking about in class.   It is obviously a narrative of either Fuller’s experiences, but most likely those of another individual or a group of events that Fuller knows happens around him.  There are 4 main verses that all have very different focuses. 

The first verse tells of a man going to town looking for a woman, but expressing how hard that is to do since most have a man already.  Looking for a woman is a common topic used by many musicians, not just in early blues, but I think this verse serves as a beginning to the rest of the song.  The second verse now tells about a man who’s “gal” has cheated on him, a very common theme we have seen across most of the genres we have studied thus far in class.  It is a very interesting song in the sense that right after the above verse stating, “Says I wouldn’t have thought my gal would treatin’ me so,” it goes into a verse about giving advice saying that you should have 2 girls.  I can’t seem to understand what exactly he is meaning.  I thought at first that he was just talking about having a mistress, maybe for just some variety, but I think it relates back to the second verse in that you need 2 gals because it is certain one of them is going to cheat on you, hence, “Now if you’ll get you one woman better get you two, one for your buddy other one for you.”  Now the last verse holds a dark theme seen in a lot of the songs in this section.  You could deduce that now the man is going to let her “reap what she has sown,” expressed earlier in the song.  We don’t really know what he does to her, but she does scream “murder,” and he confesses that he has a pistol in his pocket and a black jack in his hand.  I don’t see why it would be necessary to let the audience know he had a pistol unless he intended to use it. So it could be a story about one man and his girl problems, or different instances by different individuals. 

 Also, it should be noted that the narrater expresses no change in intensity or feeling in his voice even while singing about his woman cheating on him, or when he takes her under the willow tree where he is at least going to beat her.  This is yet again another theme we have studied, although we have seen it used in folk.  I think this song is considered blues, but we can see that there is a folk influence.  So it could be a story about one man and his girl problems, or different instances by different individuals. 

I’ve also made some conclusions to what the refrain could mean.  At first I thought he could be using “rag” as reference to ragtime music.  He sings, “rag, baby” and “do that rag,” which I thought alluded to dancing which would be a common thing to do while listening to a ragtime tune.  Now I think that he is actually referring to her as a “rag,” which is a common insult to woman.  I’m still not sure so any insight from you guys would be cool. 

I chose this song because it was a challenge.  The form of the song is a little different from anything we have covered in class.  It looks like the verse’s all differ in little ways.  All the lines within them are very similar, but have small variations.  I don’t think there is a definite pattern it follows.  It looks like the first verse is A, A’, A’. A’, while the next verse has a A, B, C, B format.  If you take a look at the refrain too, he also uses variation almost every time he sings it.  Very interesting song and I hope we can dissect it in class because it seems different from anything we have listened to in class. 

Mississippi John Hurt’s Salty Dog

This piece by Mississippi John Hurt uses a simple version of the Piedmont finger picking guitar. By using the guitar’s deeper bass notes, the artist complements the melodies of the song. This is very typical of the Piedmont style blues; using the guitar to play both a melody and an accompaniment for the piece. There are two melodies present in this song, one being played by the higher notes of the guitar, and the other (more prominent) melody is sung. These two melodies often alternate; the singer will sing a line and the guitar will “answer back”. This kind of technique gives the guitar an interesting feel, almost humanizing its “voice”.

Lyrically, John Hurt’s Salty Dog touches upon some serious issues in a sort of silly manner. The feel of the song is quite light-hearted, but some of the lyrics such as “scardest I ever was in my life, Uncle Bud like to caught me kissin’ his wife” hint at adultery. Even though the topic is somewhat serious, John Hurt makes the issue seem mild and reasonable by issuing the lyrics “you salty dog”, which seem to resemble the old saying “boys will be boys”. The song is up-beat and often relaxed, as some of the lyrics do not even fall into a specific rhythm. All of these aspects of the tune create an almost care-free vision of the “old south”.

Update on Monday, October 12, 2009 at 1:13 PM by NoemiVillalpando

Your post on Mississippi John Hurt’s song “Salty Dog” touches on subjects that I let slip on my previous post.  Mentioning the piedmont sytle fingering captured the technique that the song uses to stay within the Delta style Blues perfectly.  It was interesting to see your perspective on what you thought the song was about.  It was similar to mine, but your insight captured the adultery side of the song better.  The part where you compared the chorus and the title of the song “you salty dog” to the saying “boys will be boys” was very clever.

Noemi Villalpando 

Update on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 11:40 PM by AndrewPascoe

Hi, Noemi,

I don’t want to hassle you about this because your posts thus far have been very good, but it might matter for the midterm: Delta Blues style and Piedmont style are distinct.  My extensive Wikipedia research suggests that Piedmont style is also known as “East Coast” style, which is geographically separated from the Mississippi delta.

—Andrew

"Statesboro Blues"

Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” begins with a slow and simple guitar introduction. When Blind Willie’s vocals come in, it is clearly to go along with the song as he “wake up Mama”. Though the song begins with a slow, consistent melody on the guitar, as it progresses the melody not only gets faster, but more complex. By the end of the song, there is a new, underlying melody that has been added on the guitar and the overall sound is more upbeat even though the lyrics express that everyone in the entire family is experiencing Statesboro Blues.

            Although the melody of the song gets progressively more complex, there are a few points where Blind Willie breaks the melody down completely and begins strumming one cord at a time in a syncopated rhythm (such as when he sings “Big Eighty Left Savannah”).  These changes seem to occur when the verse changes to a quatrain form as opposed to the repetitive three line stanzas that preceded them.

            Like in most blues songs, Blind Willie uses the lyrics to express the woes of his life, but in an almost nonchalant way. He sings about the death of his parents leaving him wild, problems with women, and being ugly all while managing to sound upbeat. It actually almost seems to be the more he goes into the details of the misfortunes of his life, the more lighthearted the song sounds. 

That Bad Man

I must admit that I really wanted to write this response about Charlie Patton’s “High Water Everywhere,” since I’ve always been a fan of two-parters; it’s as though the first one had too much to say, and a second had to be written to add more depth and complexity to the artist’s message. What happened in “High Water Everywhere (part 2)?” Did poor Charlie survive the first song only to find that he was surrounded by yet another torrential flood?

Yet, I found myself inexplicably attracted to Mississippi John Hurt’s “Stack O’ Lee” Blues. It’s a simple tune, with only one vocal melody repeated over and over as Hurt narrates the events of Stack O’ Lee’s murder of Billy De Lyons. The lyrical pattern operates in an A B C fashion in the form of three line chunks: the first of the three lines introduces Hurt’s perspective as it changes throughout the course of the song, the second continues to explain the circumstances, and the third consistently chastises “that bad man, oh cruel Stack O’ Lee.” This pattern is repeated six times, shifting from the scene of the murder as Billy and Stack O’ Lee exchange words, then Hurt (as the narrator) comes across the dead man’s body, and finally the song ends in court as Stack O’ Lee is convicted and executed.

            Despite the song’s dark tale and antiquary language, I found the song to be extremely accessible to a 21^st century listening audience. Perhaps this is because, as a Piedmont-style song, it is inherently influenced by ‘pop’ music – even with a catchy vocal line and a straightforward structure, the song is still able to tell a story line by line. 

... With the forty four

   The song I decided to analyze is Mississippi John Hurt’s song “Stack O’ Lee. This song caught my attention initially because it seemed to have a sort of light, almost simplistic melody. As the song progressed, I realized that the song was actually about a crazy murderer, which reminded me of the Irish folk songs we had analyzed earlier in class, which generally were morbid and sad stories about murder and death, yet were sung to light melodies that didn’t change at all.  This of course makes sense, considering that John Hurt belongs to the “Piedmont-style” of finger picking, which is influenced by Anglo-American Folk music.

   When the melody begins, the listener is introduced to the two layers (of sorts) of guitar finger picking: The “top” layer, which is the more prevalent and dynamic stream, and the “bottom” layer which is the more steady base-like line.  When the lyrics begin, the first verse sets the model for the rest of the song- with the first line (ending with “be?”) acting as the “A”, the second (ending with “Lee”) as the “B”, and the third line (“Lee” again) as the “C”. This scheme repeats- and doesn’t change throughout the rest of the song.  

 

...all because of a hat?

Mississippi John Hurt’s: Stack O’Lee

The song is set up by introducing a man, Billy de Lyon, pleading for his life by saying he’s got a couple of little kids and “a darlin’ lovin’ wife”. Stack O’lee, on the other hand, could care less because Billy stole his $5 hat in which case he replies, “I’m bound to take your life.” Personally, I’ve never owned anything worth killing someone for. Stack O’Lee must have really loved that hat. The Lyrics don’t seem to fit with the melody… similar to irish folk song the Sun and the Moon, for example. (Maybe the hat symbolizes something else? Like the tree in Sun and the Moon symbolized incest) Anyways, at times, both songs are sung from the murderers point of view and because of the melody, it’s implied that they don’t feel bad for what they’ve done.   

The middle portion of the song is hummed, which I find interesting because when Hurt continues singing he sings “Boom Boom… with the forty-four.” The humming is powerful and effective because it represents the ongoing verbal and possibly physical confrontation between Stack O’lee and his victim (Billy de Lyon) in the moments leading up to his death. I like to imagine that the struggle between them was so intense that it can’t be expressed in words, and the only thing  you hear is the gun shot.

To my surprise, the song concludes in a court room where a jury’s sentencing Stack O’lee to his death. So it turns out the narrator of the song is from the point of view of the prosecuting attorney. Hence the repetition of “That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O’lee” placed at the end of every bar to emphasize the conviction of this murderer. (So if you go back and listen to it, Hurt’s singing the song to us as if we are all members of the jury.)

I believe the song form is ABC. However Stack O’lee doesn’t take on the traditional 12-bar blues format, instead it repeats after just 11-bars. There is also a sense of call and response between the guitar and vocals. The piedmont style, in this case, is performed by only one person but this style of guitar playing gives off the impression that there’s more accompaniment because of it’s multiple layers. The recording isn’t too bad… yes there are scratches and hisses (which helps establish the time period- 1928) but overall the guitar and the vocals can be heard very clearly. 

Statesboro Blues--Blind Willie McTell

In Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues”, a man struggles to forget his troubling past. The style that is used is the Piedmont style. This song starts out slow, and gradually speeds up as the song progresses. The guitar style starts out simple, and then becomes more complicated as the singer’s story unfolds. In the very first line when he says “Wake up Mama, turn your lamp down low” it is almost as if he is whining, and saying it with frustration and sadness. The general emotion that I feel from this song is sadness, and I also get the idea that the singer is failing to escape the memories of the troubling events that have already occurred in his life. It is clear that the deaths of his parents have had a troubling effect on him, when he says “My mother died and left me reckless, my daddy died and left me wild, wild, wild”. During this line, his voice deepens when he says “wild, wild, wild”, which makes the line almost a sad sort of “warning” regarding the effect that his father’s death had on his personality/mindset.

Another important aspect that I noticed in this song was that it seems like the guitar is playing to the singer’s rhythm instead of vice versa. It’s like the guitar is following the singer’s words, and making up its rhythm/style according to the singer’s pace. I know that when reading about songwriting, people often try and match their words to the beat of a song/rhythm, and I definitely see the opposite in this song. The guitar starts off slow, matching the singer perfectly in his introduction to his story. As the singer begins elaborating on his story, the guitar speeds up to match the singer’s pace. I can hear the definite speed change around the line “Sister, tell your Brother, Brother tell your Auntie…”. The speed becomes further noticeable in the last few lines “Sister got ‘em, daddy got ‘em
 Brother got ‘em, friend got ‘em, I got ‘em”, almost like it is building up for the end, with the guitar ending with a nice little melody.

Devil Got "My" Woman

Skip James’ “Devil Got My Woman” is an example of the Delta-Blues Style. This is apparent due to two aspects of the song. Firstly, though it may seem an obvious thing to say, it sounds like the blues. Unlike the Piedmont Style, which has a more ragtime feel, “Devil Got My Woman” sounds distinctly blues-like. It’s melancholy tune, slow strumming guitar, and lyrics which detail the situation that broke a man’s heart all follow the classic blues style.

The song begins with an instrumental introduction that is a common strumming guitar, with some grace notes. The music does not change as the vocals begin and do not seem attached to the singer at all. However, throughout the piece the music does evolve but it does not change much. It slowly gets more complicated, adding more and more grace notes to the strumming.

The vocals are fairly repetitive and tell an interesting tale. Since the lyrics were not provided on the website I looked them up and they may be different but it is difficult to understand the singer. My interpretation of the lyrics is that the narrator of the song would rather be the devil if it meant he got the keep the woman he loves, because the devil was the only one who had the power to change her mind. However, he lost the woman he loves to the “devil” who also happens to be his best friend. Until the end of the song the lyrics make one sympathetic to this singers situation until he states that he stole his woman from his best friend in the first place, which makes one less likely to feel for the blues singer.

High Water Everywhere

         “High Water Everywhere,” by Charlie Patton, details the account of a society overwhelmed by a flood.  The narrator takes us through his options of where to flee, saying, “I’m gonna move to Greenville…. Boy, I’m goin’ to Vicksburg…” and so on.

         The shape of the song fits A, A’, B format.  But Patton also embellishes the song in every A, A’, B succession by singly every stanza uniquely with different voice inflections and strumming patterns. For instance, the line, “Lord the whole round country,” differs in tone and rhythm from “well backwater done rose all around,” even though they are both versions of the “A.”  Moreover, the percussion holds a steady 1, 2, 3, 4 count, but at times, such as “Lord, the water done rushed all over, down old Jackson road,” the beat shifts emphasizes the AND; 1 AND 2 AND 3 AND 4 AND.

         The guitar and vocals stay true to “Delta Blues Style.”  The harmony and melody are repetitive, but there are also elements of syncopation, which speak of the “Piedmont Style.” The guitar mainly sticks to strumming, but also utilizes soft plucks.

         As the song plays through, one can notice meticulous changes.  The tempo shifts a bit from the subtle beginning, to the quicker paced line: “River was risin’ high.”  The climax hits at “Now, the water now, mama,” where Patton’s voice raises in forcefulness.  The song builds layers, getting louder and more intense in parts, and then goes back to hold at a steady medium.  There are definitely emphasized lines, which convey stress as well as grit and emotion.

         Additionally, there are also interjections of the casual non-singing voice of another man, such as, “Boy, hit Sharkey County and everything was down in Stovall.”  The rough voices and southern accents add to the layers of storytelling as well.  In the end, the narrator portrays how the people persist, even though it seems the water follows them. The listener is left without closure, since Patton never ends the cyclical journey in his lyrics. 

Experience Blues

“Experience Blues” by Ruth Willis and Blind Willie McTell is a “Piedmont-style” song, which uses the fingerpicking technique often heard in this style. Willis sings most of the song, with a few interjections from McTell between verses. The whole song is in an A-A-B format following one similar melody throughout each verse. Every line she sings include both high and low pitch, but she always ends on a low note. The song was very consistent and steady the whole way through.

The only time the melody changes throughout the whole song is between the last two verses. She has finished her sad story filled with heartache, and suddenly the music shifts to a more upbeat, peppy guitar solo. I am confused by this because it doesn’t fit with the mood or style of the song thus far. As soon as the guitar interlude is over we return to the same A-A-B format and dreary lyrics that follow the previous pattern. What I find interesting is the upbeat change comes between the two lines where she is singing to the Lord. I am having trouble figuring out what that might mean, but I feel like there could be a connection there. 

Based on the lyrics, tone, and melody of this piece I can definitely hear the blues aspect. She is sharing her story of her realization that her love was not real, and the hurt from the lie of him claiming it was. 

Georgia Rag

Blind Willie McTell’s Georgia Rag is a great example of how to play guitar in the rag time influenced Piedmont Style of playing.  The guitar is the only instrument Blind Willie McTell uses in the song so it is the instrument that keeps the timing and rhythm, along with providing a basis for the melody that is sung.  It sounds as if Blind Willie is using a 12 string guitar in order to replicate the sound a piano makes when played in rag time, particularly the sound one would expect from playing parlor song sheet music.

Although he is playing rag music, it is clear that Blind Willie was influenced by rural blues and folk musicians in the south.  His syncopated singing and overall casual tone suggest that Georgia Rag is his ode to other musicians like himself and to all the people who enjoy listening to and dancing to rag time music. 

The lyrics are fun, which is in contrast to most southern blues artists.  Lyrics like “Out in the alley, in the street, every little kid that you meet, doin that rag, Georgia rag” show that Blind Willie is a musical artist signed to a major record label with the intention of selling music.  However, he does mention in the song that “Out in dark time night and day, trying to dance them blues away, doin that rag, Georgia rag.”   This can either mean that he is still in touch with his blues roots, or he is trying to sway away from the sad emotions that accompany blues.

 

Experience Blues

In the song, Experience Blues by Ruth Willis and Blind Willie Mctell, the artists go through a standard blues progression with the first line is repeated and the next line delivers some kind of a solution to whatever was proposed in the first line.  The song starts out slow and slowly builds up tempo as the song progresses.  Ruth Willis speaks about how her man shows her little love and means her no good.  Her voice expresses much emotion especially in the second line when the chord changes and she says the reason why she wants to leave her man, John.  For the most part the composition of the song stays on track with the basic AA’B blues style, until right before the last verse Blind Willie Mctell plays a soulful guitar solo to try and prepare the audience for the closing of the song, the last two lines.

This song definitely is more lyrical than instrumental, the meaning of the song is shown through the lyrics of Ruth Willis.  She outshines the guitar with her intense voice and deep lyrics.  She gives the song that “bluesy” feeling, upset, angry and heartbroken. 

"Rag, Mama, Rag" does Scat.

In the song “Rag, Mama, Rag” sung, in this version, by Blind Boy Fuller, it is played in the “Piedmont Style” of the “Blues” popular in the more northern states and heard commonly on “Blues” recording from Okeh Records. The “Piedmont Style” can be heard by the guitar from its layered strumming of the guitar notes. In the song the guitar is accompanied by, what sounds like, a washboard adding to the layered sound already being played. There is also synchopation in the song easily heard when Blind Boy Fuller sings the word “rag” multiple times during the song.

When Blind Boy Fuller sing the song “Rag, Mama, Rag” the verses stay the same in sound only breaking away from that pattern when he talks some of the parts in and out of the song. He is able to keep the beat of the song in the parts when he is more talking the parts and only singing little bits of the song because he plays the same chords over and over again. the major consistency of the song comes from his never ending strumming of the some notes. When he actually sings the verses, he stick to a simple beat and does not change it. The rhythm sings to the beat of A A A’A” BB’CD. the Bs Cs and DS are the different times he sings the word “rag”.

Lastly Blind Boy Fuller also added in the singing style of “Scat” around the length of 1:27-1:34 in the song. “Scat” is improvides random vocals sung and could be used as instrumental solos during song, like in “Rag, Mama, Rag”. The History of “Scat” goes back to traditional African music contrubuting to the “diasporic” movement in American music. In this version of the song “Rag, Mama, Rag” the use of “Scat” is broughten to life.