Pre-war country blues, specifically the styles represented by Charlie Patton and Blind Willie Mctell, paint a colorful picture of the southern African American lifestyle. This music was influenced by a culture of people seeking social being and cultural identity. Many songs such as “Statesboro Blues” by Blind Willie McTell sing about everyday activities and troubles in a way that normal people can identify with. By appealing to the masses through the use of believable yet motion invoking lyrics, pre-war blues artists were able to communicate with their audiences. Lyrics such as “She’s a mighty mean woman, to do me this a-way oing to leave this town, pretty mama, going away to stay” speak directly of woman troubles that many listeners could relate to. Many blues songs such as this one lament life’s mistakes and hardships, which is interesting because musically the song is not quite as sad. The song in question uses a Delta blues style guitar accompaniment, that is surprisingly upbeat and hopeful. In a sense, the song is saying that although life can bring you down in so many ways, the true victory is to overcome these hardships and keep on moving. Blind Willie describes this by stating: “Sister got ‘em, daddy got ‘em,  Brother got ‘em, friend got ‘em, I got ‘em, Woke up this morning, we had them Statesboro blues”. Many people can relate to the feeling of the blues, and this sort of music revolution brought a multiple ethnicities of people together by describing and evolving this feeling.

     Charlie Patton used many of these same themes and styles in his form of blues. In his song “Moon Goin’ Down”, Charlie Patton uses a strong guitar part to accompany the singer. The texture of the song seems to be a interesting form of the Delta Blues, that creates a strong beat by alternating the use of low and high pitches on the guitar. He even uses what sounds like percussive hits on the down beats of the song, solidifying the simple duple feel of the song. This sort of percussive aspect of the song is quite different from the other recordings from this time period, and gives it a “live” sound. This type of blues music has a comforting  and nostalgic feel to it, as if it was meant to be listened to live. This is because southern blues evolved from rural forms of entertainment. The lyrics incorporated into this tune depict images of dark times, such as ” Oh well, where were you now, baby, Clarksdale mill burned down”. The blues often describes events in life that are not the fondest of memories, but essence, that is partly the reason for the coming of this music; to help overcome life’s sad sides with the help of catchy tunes and up-beat (sometimes) melodies.

     Female artists of this time period were just as important and influential as their male counterparts. Ruth Willis performs the “Experience Blues” with Blind Willie Mctell, and brings a whole new side of blues to the table. While the ideas in this song are quite similar to the ones in the previous pieces, the fact that a woman is singing it changes the feel of the song. Female artists began reaching out to their communities through music, and began forming closer knit relationships between themselves and other rural women. With lyrics such as “I once loved a man, that didn’t mean me no good”, it was clear that female artists wanted to be heard, and wanted to distinguish themselves in the music industry. With slogans such as “trust no man”, as shown by Angela Davis’s article “Mama’s got the Blues”, southern female artists wanted to create a sense of identity and strength in their communities.  In many cases, the subjects sung about were sad, but the women in the songs had a sense of strength and stability that ensured their listeners. Even the name of the song, Experience Blues, implies that the artist has seen their fair share of disappointments but has overcome them. This unique character of blues songs makes them uplifting, because while most people associate “the blues” with sadness, many of these songs represent a never-ending cycle in which people overcome whatever troubles that life can throw at them.

 References:

Davis, Angela. “Mama’s Got the Blues”, http://benleedscarson.com/storage/readings/blues_legaciesCh2Davis.pdf