I've been listening recently to Rev. Gary Davis, who I thought was a bluesman, but some of his stuff (Hesitation Blues, Right Now, I Didn't Want to Join the Band) sound more ragtimey/Travis-picky than bluesy to me.

Do you (gentle readers who know the songs I mean and are into blues) consider these to be blues songs? Are ragtime and blues more closely linked than I thought - or did Rev. Davis just happen to go back and forth between them?

Another song I'm wondering about is Merle Travis' "Re-enlistment Blues". I'm not surprised that it sounds Travis-picky, but again it sounds more country than blues to me (although it does have a 12-bar progression, if not other blues conventions). Do you think it's called a blues because of the subject matter rather than the musical elements?

M.Ted posted above:

" The blue note, or notes, (because there are several tasty little intervals that you can bend) open up a different world when you understand the simple tricks that dictate the way they are used--

And of course, the blues bass figures, which seem to have re-defined all of popular music-- "

By "blues bass figures", you mean alternating between a major and sixth chord, or between a major and sixth and seventh chord, right?

And just how simple are these blue note tricks?

Cough cough ahem ahem hint hint,

Marion