A jaunty warning of the misfortunes awaiting good-time pleasure-seekers in early pre-war African-American entertainment districts has made “Deep Elem Blues” a perennial blues number that has transcended time and genres. The music is considered to be of traditional…

Widely regarded as a masterpiece of American culture, Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)” (1927) is a deeply moving, haunting guitar instrumental of the pre-war blues period.  Johnson boils down the blues to…

“Railroad Bill” is an African-American blues precursor and ballad that celebrates the exploits of former slave and railroad outlaw Morris Slater, a.k.a. “Railroad Bill”. Not long after his demise in a shootout in 1896, songs were written about…

The venerable New Orleans jazz and blues standard, “St. James Infirmary Blues,” also known as “Gambler’s Blues,” belongs to a collection of similarly themed songs that have evolved from the same Anglo-Saxon ballad root over several…

An early American folk song with a wild mixture of country, blues, and legendary sea creatures, “Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me” tells the sad tale of a man enduring hardship and heartache who’s driven to seek sweet…

In 1955, Chicago blues trailblazer Little Walter delivered one of the most significant specimens of postwar blues with his R&B hit “My Babe”.  The original recording for Chess Records captured a stripped down arrangement, resulting in a fresh…

Elizabeth Cotton’s legendary folk classic “Freight Train” became a standard showpiece for fingerpicking artists in the folk revival movement of the 1960’s and has enduring popularity. Cotten composed “Freight Train” when she was 11 years old…

Out of old blues comes new on the Maverick Stanzas’ adaptation of “I’m Satisfied” by blues legend Mississippi John Hurt.  Probably a souvenir of his childhood, Hurt was reportedly performing the song as early as 1905 (age 12) at house…

The pre-war era downhome classic, “I’ve Got Them Big River Blues,” (1933) is one of the first Delta crossover numbers that helped plant the blues firmly into country music. Written by the great harmonizing duo, The Delmore Brothers…

Traditional, 1915

Over a century old, “Hesitation Blues” is a perennial folk-blues standard with a highly adaptable form and unknown original composer.  It’s catchy melody and 12-bar format predates the recording era originating from an unknown 19th century