Elijah Wald plays Furry Lewis's "Casey Jones"

This is one of the most striking examples of a pre-blues, banjo-derived, African-American guitar arrangement, as discussed in Elijah's book "Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues." Versions of this song were known throughout the South at the turn of the century, and were recorded as "Milwaukee Blues," "Jay Gould's Daughter," and other titles. For more information on Elijah's music and writing, visit http://www.elijahwald.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Kassie Jones
• acoustic guitar
• fingerpicking
• open G
• Spanish tuning

[frg8524]

Very nice playing and history lesson. Got your book 'escaping the delta. What kind of slope shouldered dread is that, It sounds great? Thanks

[burlesquepaper]

It's a Gibson J45, from 1949.

[elijahwald]

Many thanks for alerting me that there is now video up of Lewis himself playing this--obviously his is the best version to watch. On the first verse, he didn't always sing the words the same way--as with most such songs, there is no single "right" lyric, since he never sang any single version twice without making some changes.

[MrBruceBarham]

the BEST way to se how to do this tune is to watch furry do it.....fortunately there are some videos of him doing it, it really derived from the jugband and single soloists working to play good music with beat in our area..this version here is too fast, my version is too slow, furry's is right and the best,,, was good hobo, on first verse by the way, not engineer

[MrBruceBarham]

the BEST way to se how to do this tune is to watch furry do it.....fortunately there are some videos of him doing it, it really derived from the jugband and single soloists working to play goo dmusic with beat in our area..this version here is too fast, my version is too slow, furry's is right and the best,,, was good hobo, on first verse by the way, not engineer

[TheRealDadfad]

When playing in Spanish Tuning at times you want the 6-string D like for ex. Charlie Patton. But when you don't want/need it (like Kassie), many years ago an old bluesman I met near Batesville, Mississippi, used what he called Sawtooth Spanish, tuning the 6-string UP to G, which gave two consecutive G's on the 5 and 6. He said he used it for several reasons... It took the unwanted bass-D out of the way as well as giving him a much stronger G-bass by thumbing both strings, especially for slide.

[elijahwald]

I'd never thought about it before, but no, I don't pick the 6th string. I also don't alternate regularly between the 5th and 4th, though I guess that's the default pattern.

[heisman9]

I'm not the player but I learned an almost identical interpretation from my teacher Shari Kane who is a local blues musician and no you do not play the 6th string. The bass pattern alternates between the 5th and 4th strings the entire song.

[weadley]

Sounds great! Do you pick the 6th string during the song at all? I only could tell for sure that you picked there on the ending.

[pschaafs]

Really excellent performance and history lesson

[yardbirdsweet]

I figured as much. Thanks for your help.

[lwapulariver]

The general assuption is that both are derived from an earlier song, or family of songs, which were already widespread at the turn of the century. Another great example is Charlie Poole's "Milwaukee Blues."