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.

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. 

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.

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. 

         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. 

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.

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.

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. 

   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.  

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.