Bluestone's Track of the Day: Blues Before Sunrise

This tune has a piano, a lead guitar, a rhythm guitar, and some brass, but it has the vibe of a country blues.  John Lee Hooker lived from 1917 to 2001, and he was from Mississippi, where he began as a sharecropper.  He developed a kind of talking blues style, where he plays a lick then the only accompaniment to the lyric is the tapping of his foot.  Hear it here in his famous Boom Boom.  Lightnin' Hopkins does some good talking blues, too, like I'm Beggin' You.  Lightnin's kind of talkin' blues is even a bit more sparse than Hooker's, which I like.  They build this real relationship between the singer and the guitar, where the guitar's voice is no more valuable nor abundant than the spoken word, but I digress.  Blues Before Sunrise is a sincere tune.  Hooker got a little mannish with some of his songs and sounded like Muddy Waters, but not here.  Blues Before Sunrise is somewhere between Lightnin' and Muddy (not a bad couple o' guys to be between.)  It's just the right balance of sadness and hope, it's the right balance of music and lyrics, the right balance of guitar and piano.  It's a delicately put together blues that could not have been done better.  I chose the above photo of Hooker with purpose.  He usually plays a hollow body jazz guitar, but he has an acoustic here.  I don't know what he really plays Blues Before Sunrise with, but I picture it as an acoustic, simple and sincere.

Bluestone's Track of the Day: Baby Please Don't Go

Baby Please Don't Go is a blues standard and possibly the best tune ever written. It has been covered by innumerable artists and in countless different yet compelling ways. According to Wikipedia, the lyrics are derived from 20th century work songs Another Man Done Gone, Alabama Bound, Don't Leave Me Here, and Turn Your Lamp Down Low. As we already know, all blues are interconnected and derived from one another and so on and so forth and here and there and it's all the same. What is so special about this song? Don't ask me, because i couldn't tell you. Don't ask me why Bob Dylan was so successful with a terrible voice and sub par guitar skills. Don't ask me why Crank That by Soulja Boy was such a big hit. Some things are just good, they're appealing, the devil has some stake in them.
Supposedly Big Joe Williams' version was the first recorded (1935). I don't know which version he recorded first, but the one I have here is on a 9-string guitar with a first fret capo, and is absolutely brilliant. The video is a must watch. Big Joe is fat and passionate, he taps his foot, and he freakin' plays it. His vocals fade in and out in such a way that they blend together with his playing. I commented on Hendrix's blend of vocals and playing earlier; it's fascinating to note that parallel here in a completely different setting.

Van Morrison's version is a fast paced, full band blues rock. A lead guitar plays the melody over a simple bass, there's a harmonica, drums, and everything. Van sings it well, too. Although this is not how this tune began, it's well done.
Lightnin' Hopkins' version is played in typical Lightnin' fashion and is another knockout. He plays the melody then strums out a blues. Hopkins' is hilariously distant looking in this performance, but it's still good. The version recorded on his Blues Masters Compilation album of 2000 is also very good, different from the one here.
And here is Muddy Waters' version. He of course is the bridge that leads from Big Joe and Lightnin' to Van Morrison.  Not quite rock, but not an old fashioned blues. Check it out.

Bluestone on Lightnin' Hopkins

Sam Lightnin' Hopkins was born in Centerville, Texas in 1912.  At the early age of 8, Hopkins met Blind Lemon Jefferson and got into the blues.  He played with Jefferson at church gatherings, who supposedly never let anyone else accompany him.  That was about it for his early music career, though.  He moved to Houston with his cousin, Alger Alexander, to try and break into the music industry, but had no success.  He returned home to work on a farm.  In 1946, he tried again in Houston and was discovered playing on the street by Aladdin Records.  Hopkins, a true Texas bluesman, got sick of recording with Aladdin in Los Angeles and returned home to Gold Star Records.  Hopkins' recognition blew up in the 1950s and in 1960 he debuted at Carnegie Hall.  That same year he signed with Tradition Records.  After a treacherous beginning to his career, Hopkins finally became known as one of the greats.
Lightnin' appears in most photographs with dark shades, a goofy smile, and a flask full o' whiskey.  He's just a guy with the blues, who happens to be really good at singing them.  He doesn't play with a back up band, he doesn't need a big stage.  He is, in my opinion, the best at playing bass, lead, rhythm, and percussion all together.  He hammers the low E with a heavy thumb, glazes over the body of the chord, and picks out a high lead with the rest of his fingers.  All the while, using his foot like a drumstick on the floor, and his palm on the body of the guitar; he's a one man show.

 What's great about his style is that it's so universal.  His sound is distinct, but it can also be found everywhere.  The way he played his licks is only one of many; they can be applied to any blues.  The Red Hot Chili Peppers even said they were influenced by Lightnin' around the time Stadium Arcadium came out.
Lightnin's sense of humor shows in a lot of his songs.  Here is Katie Mae Blues; "she walks just like she has oil wells in her backyard," he sings, "some folks say she must be a Cadillac, I say she must be a T-model Ford.  Yeah she got the shape alright, but she can't carry no heavy load."
Listen to Katie Mae Blues.

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