Delta blues

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The Delta blues style of blues is one of the earliest. It

originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United Delta blues
States stretching from Memphis, Tennessee, in the north to
Stylistic origins Blues
Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the south and from Helena,
Arkansas, in the west to the Yazoo River in the east. The Cultural Early 20th century, Mississippi
Mississippi Delta is famous for its fertile soil and for its origins
poverty. Delta blues is regarded as a regional variant of
Typical Guitar harmonica
country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant
instruments
instruments; slide guitar (usually played on a steel guitar) is a
hallmark of the style. Vocal styles in Delta blues range from Derivative Chicago blues Detroit blues
introspective and soulful to passionate and fiery. forms electric blues
Regional scenes
Memphis blues
Contents
1 Origin
2 Style
3 Themes
4 Women performers
5 Influence
6 List of artists
7 See also
8 Bibliography
9 References
10 External links

Origin
Although Delta blues certainly existed in some form or another at the
turn of the 20th century, it was first recorded in the late 1920s, when
record companies realized the potential African-American market for
"race records". The major labels produced the earliest recordings,
consisting mostly of one person singing and playing an instrument. Live
performances, however, more commonly involved a group of musicians.
Current belief is that Freddie Spruell is the first Delta blues artist to
have been recorded; his "Milk Cow Blues" was recorded in Chicago in
June 1926.[1] Record company talent scouts made some of the early
recordings on field trips to the South, and some performers were invited The Mississippi Delta (not to be
to travel to northern cities to record. According to Dixon and Godrich confused with the Mississippi River
(1981), Tommy Johnson and Ishmon Bracey were recorded by Victor on Delta, in Louisiana)
that company's second field trip to Memphis, in 1928. Robert Wilkins
was first recorded by Victor in Memphis in 1928, and Big Joe Williams
and Garfield Akers by Brunswick/Vocalion, also in Memphis, in 1929.

Son House first recorded in Grafton, Wisconsin, in 1930 for Paramount Records. Charley Patton also recorded
for Paramount in Grafton, in June 1929 and May 1930. He also traveled to New York City for recording
sessions in January and February 1934. Robert Johnson recorded his only sessions, for ARC, in San Antonio in
1936 and Dallas in 1937.
Subsequently, the early Delta blues (as well as other genres) were extensively recorded by John Lomax and his
son Alan Lomax, who crisscrossed the southern United States recording music played and sung by ordinary
people, helping establish the canon of genres we know today as American folk music. Their recordings,
numbering in the thousands, now reside in the Smithsonian Institution. According to Dixon and Godrich (1981)
and Leadbitter and Slaven (1968), Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress researchers did not record any
Delta bluesmen or women prior to 1941, when he recorded Son House and Willie Brown near Lake Cormorant,
Mississippi, and Muddy Waters at Stovall, Mississippi. However, this claim has been disputed, as John and
Alan Lomax had recorded Bukka White in 1939, Lead Belly in 1933 and most likely others.

Style
Scholars disagree as to whether there is a substantial
Cross Road Blues
musicological difference between blues that originated in
the Mississippi Delta and blues from other parts of the
country. The defining characteristics of Delta blues are
"Cross Road Blues", performed in
instrumentation and an emphasis on rhythm and 1937 by Robert Johnson, a Delta blues
"bottleneck" slide guitar; the basic harmonic structure is not guitarist
substantially different from that of blues performed
elsewhere. Delta blues is a style as much as a geographical Problems playing this file? See media help.
form: Skip James and Elmore James, who were not born in
the Delta, are considered Delta blues musicians. Performers traveled throughout the Mississippi Delta,
Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Tennessee. Eventually, Delta blues spread out across the country, giving rise to
a host of regional variations, including Chicago blues and Detroit blues.

Themes
Delta blues songs are typically expressed in the first person and often concern love, sex, the traveling lifestyle
and its tribulations, sin, salvation and death. Several blues musicians were imprisoned in the Mississippi State
Penitentiary at Parchman Farm, which is referred to in songs such as Bukka White's "Parchman Farm Blues"
and the folk song "Midnight Special".

Women performers
In big-city blues, women singers such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith dominated the recordings
of the 1920s.[2] However, women rarely recorded Delta blues and other rural or folk-style blues. In Delta blues
female performers often had some romantic connection to more notable male performers: Geeshie Wiley was
reportedly linked with Papa Charlie McCoy, whose brother Kansas Joe McCoy was married to Memphis
Minnie, and the seminal Charlie Patton sometimes played and recorded with his wife, Bertha Lee. It was not
until late in the 1960s that women began to be heard in recorded performances at the level they had previously
enjoyed. It was then that Janis Joplin arrived as the first female performer to achieve both accolades from her
peers as a blues performer and crossover commercial success, reaching diverse audiences with a powerful and
emotive vocal delivery. Other women influenced by Delta blues, who learned from some of the most notable of
the original artists still living, include Bonnie Raitt, Rory Block, and Susan Tedeschi.

Influence
Many Delta blues artists, such as Big Joe Williams, moved to Detroit and Chicago, creating a pop-influenced
city blues style. This was displaced by the new Chicago blues sound in the early 1950s, pioneered by Delta
bluesmen Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter, harking back to a Delta-influenced sound, but with
amplified instruments.
Delta blues was also an inspiration for the creation of British skiffle music, from which eventually came the
British invasion bands, while simultaneously influencing British blues, which led to the birth of early hard rock
and heavy metal.

List of artists
See List of Delta blues musicians

See also
Delta Blues Museum, in Clarksdale, Mississippi
Delta Cultural Center, in Helena, Arkansas
King of the Delta Blues Singers, an album by Robert Johnson
Music of Mississippi

Bibliography
Cobb, Charles E., Jr. "Traveling the Blues Highway", National Geographic Magazine, April 1999, vol.
195, no. 4.
Dixon, R.M.W., and Godrich, J. (1981). Blues and Gospel Records: 19021943. Storyville: London.
Ferris, William R. (1988). Blues from the Delta (rev. ed.). Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80327-5, ISBN
978-0306803277.
Ferris, William R. (2009). Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues. University of
North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-3325-8, ISBN 978-0807833254 (with CD and DVD).
Ferris, William R., and Hinson, Glenn (2009). The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Vol. 14:
Folklife. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-3346-0, ISBN 978-0-8078-3346-9.
Gioia, Ted (2009). Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized
American Music. W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-33750-2, ISBN 978-0393337501.
Hamilton, Marybeth. In Search of the Blues.
Harris, Sheldon (1979). Blues Who's Who. Da Capo Press.
Leadbitter, M., and Slaven, N. (1968). Blues Records 19431966. Oak Publications, London.
Nicholson, Robert (1999). Mississippi Blues Today! Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80883-8, ISBN 978-0-
306-80883-8.
Palmer, Robert (1982). Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta. Penguin
Reprint edition. ISBN 0-14-006223-8, ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6.
Ramsey, Frederic, Jr. (1960). Been Here and Gone. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.
Idem, 2nd printing (1969). New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.
Idem, (2000). University of Georgia Press.
Wilson, Charles Reagan, Ferris, William, Abadie, Ann J. (1989). Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. 2nd
ed. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-1823-2, ISBN 978-0-8078-1823-7.

References
1. Leggett, Steve. "Freddie Spruell" (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p475029/biography). AllMusic. Retrieved
December 6, 2011.
2. Wyman, Havers, Doggett (2001).Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey. Dorling Kindersley. pp. 7796.

External links
Trail of the Hellhound Delta Blues in the lower Mississippi Valley
The Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola
"The Blues", documentary by Martin Scorsese, aired on PBS.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Delta_blues&oldid=784077297"

Categories: Delta blues Blues music genres Music of Mississippi

This page was last edited on 6 June 2017, at 10:01.

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