{"id":1182,"date":"2016-05-24T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=1182"},"modified":"2016-05-23T22:37:21","modified_gmt":"2016-05-24T02:37:21","slug":"kansas-city-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas City Blues (I&#8217;m Going to Move to Kansas City)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kansas City Blues\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QuB7uiOJOT0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This accompaniment in &#8220;dropped D&#8221; tuning, carefully arranged to seem simple and unobtrusive, has always seemed to me the Apollonian ideal of a Dave Van Ronk guitar arrangement.\u00a0 He recorded it during his early peak of popularity, right after the <em>Folksinger<\/em> LP, on an album that featured him with a trad jazz band including some of his old friends from Brooklyn and Queens. <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1183 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg?resize=224%2C225\" alt=\"Van Ronk in the tradition\" width=\"224\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg?w=224&amp;ssl=1 224w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/>Half the tracks had the full band, half just Dave with his guitar, and someone made the odd choice to mingle the cuts rather than having a solo side and a band side, with the result that I&#8217;ve very rarely listened to the record, because when I&#8217;m in the mood for the quiet, meditative solo stuff I don&#8217;t want to hear the rowdy band, and when I&#8217;m up for the band the solo cuts are too quiet&#8230; which is a pity, because that record has some of Dave&#8217;s greatest solo performances, including &#8220;Green Rocky Road,&#8221; &#8220;St. Louis Tickle,&#8221; and this song.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Kansas City Blues&#8221; was one of the defining songs of the third blues boom &#8212; the first was a dance craze, set off by W.C. Handy&#8217;s hits in the early teens; the second a record craze for &#8220;blues queens,&#8221; set off by Mamie Smith&#8217;s &#8220;Crazy Blues&#8221; in 1920; and the third took off with Blind Lemon Jefferson&#8217;s success and mostly featured male singers accompanying themselves on guitar or piano. <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1184\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/jimjackson-kansascity-208x300.jpg?resize=208%2C300\" alt=\"jimjackson-kansascity\" width=\"208\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/jimjackson-kansascity.jpg?resize=208%2C300&amp;ssl=1 208w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/jimjackson-kansascity.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 208px) 100vw, 208px\" \/>One of the first major hits of that boom was recorded by a Memphis street singer named Jim Jackson and issued toward the end of 1927 as &#8220;Jim Jackson&#8217;s Kansas City Blues.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Born in 1884, Jackson was one of the oldest artists who recorded in that period and his repertoire is a window into what African American musicians were playing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from rural ditties like &#8220;Old Dog Blue&#8221; to minstrel comedy numbers like &#8220;I Heard the Voice of a Porkchop,&#8221; Handy&#8217;s &#8220;St. Louis Blues,&#8221; and his hit about moving to Kansas City, which was so popular that he shortly followed it with &#8220;Jim Jackson&#8217;s Kansas City Blues,&#8221; parts 3 and 4, then &#8220;I&#8217;m Gonna Move to Louisiana.&#8221; Other artists jumped on the bandwagon, the Memphis Jug Band and Lonnie Johnson recording their own &#8220;Kansas City Blues&#8221; and Charlie Patton asserting his individuality by singing &#8220;Going to Move to Alabama.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I would guess that by 1928 there were very few blues singers who didn&#8217;t have some version of this song in their repertoires, and variants of it continued to circulate in the jazz world, which may well be where Dave first heard it &#8212; the liner notes to his album describe it as &#8220;one of the most popular race recordings of the twenties and &#8230; still a favorite of many today.&#8221; The funny thing being that when I came across it in the early 1970s I was a dedicated folk-blues listener, regarded it as a traditional &#8220;country blues,&#8221; and would have been baffled if anyone had suggested it was a pop hit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the defining blues hits of the late 1920s for Jim Jackson, and the Apollonian ideal of a Dave Van Ronk guitar accompaniment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kansas City Blues (I&#039;m Going to Move to Kansas City) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the defining blues hits of the late 1920s for Jim Jackson, and the Apollonian ideal of a Dave Van Ronk guitar accompaniment.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kansas City Blues (I&#039;m Going to Move to Kansas City) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the defining blues hits of the late 1920s for Jim Jackson, and the Apollonian ideal of a Dave Van Ronk guitar accompaniment.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-24T11:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/kansas-city-blues\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/kansas-city-blues\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Kansas City Blues (I&#8217;m Going to Move to Kansas City)\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-24T11:00:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/kansas-city-blues\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":526,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/kansas-city-blues\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/kansas-city-blues\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/kansas-city-blues\\\/\",\"name\":\"Kansas City Blues (I'm Going to Move to Kansas City) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/kansas-city-blues\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/kansas-city-blues\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-24T11:00:48+00:00\",\"description\":\"One of the defining blues hits of the late 1920s for Jim Jackson, and the Apollonian ideal of a Dave Van Ronk guitar accompaniment.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/kansas-city-blues\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/kansas-city-blues\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/kansas-city-blues\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/kansas-city-blues\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Kansas City Blues (I&#8217;m Going to Move to Kansas City)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"description\":\"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\",\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"width\":70,\"height\":85,\"caption\":\"Elijah Wald\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kansas City Blues (I'm Going to Move to Kansas City) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"One of the defining blues hits of the late 1920s for Jim Jackson, and the Apollonian ideal of a Dave Van Ronk guitar accompaniment.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kansas City Blues (I'm Going to Move to Kansas City) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","og_description":"One of the defining blues hits of the late 1920s for Jim Jackson, and the Apollonian ideal of a Dave Van Ronk guitar accompaniment.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/","og_site_name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","article_published_time":"2016-05-24T11:00:48+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Elijah Wald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ElijahWald","twitter_site":"@ElijahWald","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elijah Wald","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/"},"author":{"name":"Elijah Wald","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"headline":"Kansas City Blues (I&#8217;m Going to Move to Kansas City)","datePublished":"2016-05-24T11:00:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/"},"wordCount":526,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/","name":"Kansas City Blues (I'm Going to Move to Kansas City) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg","datePublished":"2016-05-24T11:00:48+00:00","description":"One of the defining blues hits of the late 1920s for Jim Jackson, and the Apollonian ideal of a Dave Van Ronk guitar accompaniment.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kansas City Blues (I&#8217;m Going to Move to Kansas City)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/","name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9","name":"Elijah Wald","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","width":70,"height":85,"caption":"Elijah Wald"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3007,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/antelope-rag\/","url_meta":{"origin":1182,"position":0},"title":"Antelope Rag (Dave Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"August 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In the early 1960s, when other people on the folk scene were learning rural string band and blues music, Dave Van Ronk recorded the first fingerstyle guitar arrangement of a formal, multi-part rag, \"St. Louis Tickle.\" As I wrote in the \"Tickle\" installment (and others),\u00a0 that piece spawned a small\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/dave_van_ronk-e1499731736570.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":42,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/sunday-street\/","url_meta":{"origin":1182,"position":1},"title":"Sunday Street (Dave Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"December 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Dave Van Ronk was a close friend, mentor, and kind of a second father to me--aside from guitar, he taught me about literature, history, politics, food, jazz, the ins and outs of New York, and the vagaries of the music business. When I was studying with him in 1976-77, he\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Sunday Street","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Sunday-Street.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1869,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/st-louis-tickle\/","url_meta":{"origin":1182,"position":2},"title":"St. Louis Tickle (Dave Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This was Dave Van Ronk's first venture into classic ragtime, and spawned an entire generation of ragtime guitar virtuosos. Dave Laibman, Eric Schoenberg, Ton Von Bergeyk, Leo Wijnkamp, Guy Van Duser... they all started out with \"St. Louis Tickle.\" Dave had been singing and playing the second section since the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"ragtime jug stompers - front cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/ragtime-jug-stompers-front-cover-293x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2997,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/because-of-the-wind\/","url_meta":{"origin":1182,"position":3},"title":"Because of the Wind (Joe Ely)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I first heard Joe Ely in 1979-80, when I was visiting my erstwhile washboard player, Rob Forbes, in Ithaca\u00a0 and a friend of his played me Honky Tonk Masquerade. Rob's friend introduced it as a fusion of new wave rock with country music, but I didn't hear anything new wave\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Joe-Ely-LP-e1660418076967-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5777,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/ace-in-the-hole\/","url_meta":{"origin":1182,"position":4},"title":"Ace in the Hole (Dave Van Ronk, among others)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"May 31, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I first heard \"Ace in the Hole\" on Dave Van Ronk's 1963 album with the Red Onion Jazz Band,\u00a0In the Tradition. It was written around 1909 by a couple of obscure songwriters, James Dempsey and George Mitchell, and is a musical evocation of the New York\u00a0borderline underworld limned by Damon\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/In-the-Tradition-LP-e1729819363380.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1491,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/why-dont-you-do-right\/","url_meta":{"origin":1182,"position":5},"title":"Why Don&#8217;t You Do Right? (Lil Green)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Most of the early blues albums I bought during that year with Van Ronk were by male guitarists, with a few by male pianists. Aside from the complete Bessie Smith sets, the only album by a female blues singer I recall buying in that period was of Lil Green, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Lil Green LP","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Lil-Green-LP.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1182"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1458,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions\/1458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}