Leadbelly on 16- and 12-bar blues (?)

Subject: Leadbelly on 16- and 12-bar blues (?)
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 09 Jun 15 - 06:44 PM

Leadbelly makes some interesting comments before he begins performing on his previously unreleased version of "One Dime Blues" released this year. He says: "You may not know what a four-way blues is, but when the people -- I mean _our_ people -- started making blues, they had four-way, didn't know how to change them, put 'em on three-way...." As Jonny Meister pointed out in _Blues Blast_ magazine, considering that Lemon's version of "One Dime Blues" was a 16-bar AAAB blues, Leadbelly is likely saying there that he believes the earliest blues were 16-bar and later some people changed them to 12-bar.

Subject: RE: Leadbelly on 16- and 12-bar blues (?)
From: GUEST,just a-passin' through
Date: 09 Jun 15 - 07:48 PM

16 bars is a fun arrangement for blues. Also lends itself to more folky/ragtime chord progressions than just a standard 1-4-5.

Subject: RE: Leadbelly on 16- and 12-bar blues (?)
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 09 Jun 15 - 09:18 PM

Well, normal 16-bar blues is the same progression as normal 12-bar blues except the IV to I part appears twice in a row.