West Coast Blues

[Kerbie]

Great thread, guys... thanks, especially to Norman! I need to spend a little more time looking through it. Love the music.

Here's Scott Ainslie with "Chump Man Blues." Great tune..

[NormanKliman]

Always glad to see people taking interest in Blake. A couple of weeks ago, I deleted from my website the G-chord variations I’d uploaded for post #13 of this thread. They’re back in place; here’s the link:

http://canteytoque.es/WCB_G_variations.png

I’ll point out again that the three variations are heard at different points in the recording and that Blake doesn’t play them consecutively. However, playing them one after another in a loop has helped me a lot with this tune.

ARockmon, I hope you don’t burn out on this one like I did for a while, as frustration seems to be inevitable. I’ve been working on it for years now and I think I’m making slow progress, but it’s such a handful that I have to be a few days into playing and warmed up that evening to get my hands around it.

Broonzy’s another favorite of mine. I play his House Rent Stomp (studio recordings made in France or England in the 1950s, I think) with alternating bass instead of monotonic, and all the patterns fit together surprisingly well.

Broonzy and Blake may have known each other, as it looks like they lived in Chicago around the same time and probably in the same neighborhood. I wonder if anyone asked Bill about him.

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by NormanKliman

I’d like to see a few more posts that are commensurate with the experience and skills of the members of this forum. To that end, here are four questions about Blind Blake’s “West Coast Blues.”

Not sure why it's called "blues." It's not 12-bar blues, and though it repeats after 8 bars, it's not "8-bar blues" either. My dad would call it "circle of sevenths." It's amazing it's a single recording - it sounds like it must be two separate tracks, but apparently it's not!

[NormanKliman]

Originally Posted by DCCougar

My dad would call it "circle of sevenths."

Well, the chords are basically C-E-A-D-G, so, although most of them are sevenths, the progression would be a cycle of fourths from the E onward: A is the fourth of E (E-F-G-A), D is the fourth of A (A-B-C-D), and so on.

In another thread, I mentioned a few tunes that are based on the cycle of fourths, although I didn’t use that term: Tommy Johnson’s “I Wonder to Myself,” Charley Patton’s “Spoonful,” Willie McTell’s “Kill It Kid” and Gary Davis’ “Twelve Sticks.” I forgot to mention Blind Boy Fuller, and I’m sure there are many more that I don’t know about.

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by NormanKliman

Well, the chords are basically C-E-A-D-G, so, although most of them are sevenths, the progression would be a cycle of fourths from the E onward.....

Well, he wasn't schooled in music but just played a sort of swing/big band kind of rhythm guitar. Not sure why he called it "sevenths."

But what I notice is, E is the dominant or 5 chord (V) of A, A is the 5 chord of D, D is the 5 chord of G, which brings you back to G being the 5 chord of C. In music theory, the dominant chord most naturally leads back to "home," the tonic or 1-chord. So you've got all these dominant chords piled up, which doesn't just bring the progression "back home," it brings it home with a vengeance!