Let me try to say this respectfully, because I do not in any way want to suggest that MJH was not a tunesmith in his own powerful right. But I can almost hear, in an alternate tune called Ripley at the Cyberhymnal, a diatonic version that MJH's blues version may have improved upon in his version. Or maybe it was the other way around, in MJH's time or an earlier time. CLICK to go to the page, click the alternate tune, and tell me what y'all hear.

I say all of this somewhat trepidatiously (sp?!?!) because my research with spirituals has shown time after time that, at this late date, it is often virtually impossible to tell the chicken from the egg.

Also my MIDI software is not happy at the moment and I do not read tab, so I can't really SEE whether the melodies have a relationship, for myself, at the moment.

Just curious,

~Susan