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16-bar blues progression

19 Mar 15 - 04:59 PM (#3695338)
Subject: 16-bar blues progression
From: GUEST

William Moore's "Midnight Blues," Lemon Jefferson's "Wartime Blues," and Eddie Mapp and Guy Lumpkin's "Decatur Street Drag" (which are all on youtube) are examples of 16-bar blues, in which the chord progression is I-I-I-I-IV-IV-I-I-IV-IV-I-I-V-V-I-I or close to it. The 16-bar approach to blues was apparently considered no less authentically blues than 12-bar blues by Southern musicians as of about 1911. More examples of musicians who knew the 16-bar approach to blues are Texas Alexander, Elester Anderson, Pink Anderson, Charles Avery, Dorothy Baker, Etta Baker, Barbecue Bob, Wiley Barner, Jim Baxter, Ed Bell, Tom Bell, the Birmingham Jug Band, Blind Blake, Lucille Bogan, Tom Bradford, John Bray, Big Bill Broonzy, Gabriel Brown, Samantha Bumgarner, Thomas Burt, Sam Butler, Butch Cage, Bo Carter, Will Chastain, Big Boy Cleveland, Bob Coleman, Elizabeth Cotten, Wilton Crawley, Reese Crenshaw, Jesse Crump, Tom Darby, Cow Cow Davenport, Calvin Davis, Rev. Gary Davis, Robert Davis, Lem Fowler, Blind Boy Fuller, Jesse Fuller, Bobby Grant, William Harris, George Higgs, Willie Hill, Lightnin' Hopkins, Peg Leg Howell, Mississippi John Hurt, Bill Jackson, John Jackson, Skip James, Edna Johnson, Elizabeth Johnson, Henry "Rufe" Johnson, Little Hat Jones, Richard M. Jones, Charley Jordan, Leadbelly, Furry Lewis, Johnie Lewis, Mance Lipscomb, Alura Mack, Willie McTell, the Memphis Jug Band, the Mississippi String Band (Johnson and Copeland), Turner Parrish, Lesley Riddle, Walter Roland, Bayless Rose, Isaiah Ross, Thomas Shaw, Freeman Stowers, Sonny Terry, Elvie Thomas, Henry Thomas, Edward Thompson, Odell Thompson, Walter Vinson, Johnny Watson, Curley Weaver, Henry Whitter, Geeshie Wiley, Robert Wilkins, Connie Williams, and Richard Williams.

Jack Bruce used it on "Sleepy Time Time."


20 Mar 15 - 01:36 PM (#3695549)
Subject: RE: 16-bar blues progression
From: The Sandman

careless love?


20 Mar 15 - 03:31 PM (#3695582)
Subject: RE: 16-bar blues progression
From: GUEST

"Careless Love" has a progression that is on the V chord as the first half of the progression ends. That was an extremely well-known approach in American music in the 1800s (e.g. "The Crawdad Song" has close relatives back into the 1800s), and not what any of the above examples are.