{"id":3645,"date":"2018-05-05T01:00:51","date_gmt":"2018-05-05T05:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=3645"},"modified":"2021-10-10T16:09:55","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T20:09:55","slug":"southern-rag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/southern-rag\/","title":{"rendered":"Blind Blake&#8217;s Southern Rag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Blind Blake&#039;s Southern Rag\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/duoQIiNxLVM?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>Blind Blake was one of the greatest guitarists of the early blues era, distinguished not only by the speed and precision of his playing, but by the fact that he was known for instrumental showpieces. Blues was generally <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1954 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Blind_Blake.jpg?resize=220%2C281&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"281\" \/>considered a singing style, so even Lonnie Johnson \u2014 the consummate virtuoso who can lay claim to being father of both blues and jazz lead guitar \u2014 was advertised as a singer and his few instrumental recordings sold poorly and seem to have had little influence. (They are now widely admired, but I\u2019ve never seen or heard anyone before the 1970s mention them.)<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, Blake first hit with an instrumental called \u201cWest Coast Blues,\u201d and it quickly became a kind of test and showpiece for guitarists across the South. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/cincinnati-flow-rag\/\">Gary Davis<\/a> learned it in the Carolinas, and could still play an accurate version in the 1960s. Even in the Mississippi Delta, which is known for a distinctively different guitar style, Blake was greatly admired, and I\u2019ve got a story about that:<\/p>\n<p>Blues scholars, like Western academicians in general, tend to get wrapped up in taxonomy and categorization, and by the 1970s many were\u00a0 filing the wonderfully varied singer-guitarists who recorded in the 1920s into Delta, Texas, and Piedmont styles &#8212; the latter meaning the style popular around Georgia and the Carolinas, exemplified by Blake.<\/p>\n<p>Delta blues was generally enthroned as the deepest and greatest style, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/walking-blues\/\">Robert Johnson<\/a> in particular was hailed as the King of Delta Blues &#8212; and there was this terrific musician named Robert Lockwood who grew up in the <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3648 size-full alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Robert-Lockwood.jpg?resize=276%2C259&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"276\" height=\"259\" \/>Delta and got his start as a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Johnson\u2019s, then went on to explore jazz chording and became a foundational figure in the electric style\u00a0 often called Chicago blues. Although he was a unique and important innovator, in later years Lockwood was constantly presented as a follower of Robert Johnson and asked to play the songs Johnson taught him\u2026 and since he had grown beyond that style by his teens, he eventually acquired a reputation among blues scholars and interviewers for being grumpy and uncooperative.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, one day I was chatting with Steve James \u2014 a fine and knowledgeable musician \u2014 and he mentioned that Lockwood\u2019s great musical love was Blind Blake. That surprised me, because Lockwood\u2019s playing didn&#8217;t sound at all like Blake\u2019s and although I was dubious of categories, Blake\u2019s light ragtime seemed like the antithesis of the Delta style.<\/p>\n<p>So when I finally got to meet Mr. Lockwood, I started out like everyone else, talking with him about Mississippi and Chicago blues, and he was typically taciturn \u2014 polite, but nothing more \u2014 so I thought what the hell, and mentioned Blind Blake\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Lockwood\u2019s face broke into a broad smile, and he sounded genuinely eager as he asked, \u201cYou can play Blind Blake&#8217;s stuff?\u201d I said yes, a bit, and he told me to get my guitar.<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3755 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/EW-with-Robert-Lockwood-hi.jpg?resize=300%2C241&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"241\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/EW-with-Robert-Lockwood-hi.jpg?resize=300%2C241&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/EW-with-Robert-Lockwood-hi.jpg?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> So I did, and played him a bit of this, and he took the guitar out of my hands and played a much better facsimile of \u201cWest Coast Blues\u201d than I will ever manage.<\/p>\n<p>Frankly, I like Blake\u2019s playing but my touch is nothing like his \u2014 not to mention my speed, grace, and virtuosity. So I&#8217;ve tended not to attempt his instrumentals, but when I got <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kijana-muke\/\">back from Africa<\/a> I was looking for moments when blues players hinted at Congo-Angola rhythms (what folks in the US call Latin or Caribbean), and Blake\u2019s \u201cSouthern Rag\u201d has a section he calls \u201cthe Geechie dance\u201d \u2014 a reference to the deeply African culture that survived on the Georgia Sea Islands \u2014 with some nice off-center bass figures.<\/p>\n<p>So I worked up a version of this, which led to another treasured memory: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/traveling-man\/\">Paul Geremia<\/a> sold me the guitar I\u2019m playing in this video, but continued to feel kind of protective about it, and one day he was fooling around on it and announced it needed a fret job \u2014 which, in this context, meant I should come to his place in Newport and he would refret it. So I did, and Paul got to work, and then <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/railroad-bill\/\">Ramblin\u2019 Jack Elliott<\/a> pulled his mobile home into the yard\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2026and for the next five <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3665 \" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/ramblin-jack-elliot-300x275.jpg?resize=244%2C224&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"244\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/ramblin-jack-elliot.jpg?resize=300%2C275&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/ramblin-jack-elliot.jpg?w=379&amp;ssl=1 379w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 244px) 100vw, 244px\" \/>hours Paul refretted my guitar and Jack talked \u2014 which is what Jack does, brilliantly, and is why they call him Ramblin\u2019 Jack \u2014 and then Paul handed me the newly fretted guitar and I played some ragtime licks, and Jack asked, \u201cCan you play Blind Blake\u2019s \u2018Southern Rag\u2019?\u201d So I started playing this, and damned if Jack didn\u2019t start doing Blake\u2019s spoken routine from the record, word for word:<\/p>\n<p><em>Now we&#8217;re goin\u2019 on an old southern rag. Way out there on that cotton field. Where them people plant all that rice, with sugarcane. And peas and so forth grow\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;which was where I originally ended this post, but someone just asked me if I had tablature, and yeah, I have some I wrote out a dozen years ago, and I don&#8217;t know how accurately it matches what I play in the video, but if you want it, here it is: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Southern-Rag-Blind-Blake-more-or-less.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Southern Rag (Blind Blake, more or less)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blind Blake was one of the greatest guitarists of the early blues era, distinguished not only by the speed and precision of his playing, but by the fact that he was known for instrumental showpieces. Blues was generally considered a singing style, so even Lonnie Johnson \u2014 the consummate virtuoso who can lay claim to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/southern-rag\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Blind Blake&#8217;s Southern Rag<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/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":[9],"class_list":["post-3645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blind-blake"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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