Hi,

As I remember Alan Lomax also called Careless Love the first blues. I read somewhere (Handy's autobiography?) that Handy commented that it was a blues and the 16 bar form was shortened from three repeated lines to two repeated lines and an answering line (AAB) which would be 12 bar form. I can't find the quote now. So Handy was saying that the 16 bar form pre-dated the 12 bar form and the 12-bar form was derived from it.

Do you consider East St. Louis Blues, an early eight-bar form before 1900, to be a blues (related to How Long Blues, Crow Jane etc)?

Richie