![]() ![]() “Do Lord, Remember Me” follows a 16-bar form with stanzas of four lines each: Mississippi John Hurt: "Do Lord Remember Me" (1963) Lightfoot observes that the “Worried Man Blues” melody may be derived from the African American spiritual “Do Lord, Remember Me.” None of these songs feature the “Worried Man Blues” melody or harmonic structure despite shared lyrics and similar titles. Fox in “The Worried Man Blues” (1927), the Memphis Jug Band in “State of Tennessee Blues” (1927), Ishman Bracey in “Saturday Blues” (1928), and Charley Patton in numerous songs, including “Green River Blues” (1929) and “Down the Dirt Road Blues” (1929). Blind Blake sang similar words in "Blakes’s Worried Blues” (1926), as did John D. Ida Cox sang it on her "Southern Woman's Blues” record, released in 1925. The tag line of the "Worried Man Blues" chorus, "I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long," was common in blues records of the 1920s. ![]() Likewise, Texas blues musician Blind Lemon Jefferson sings "The train I ride, eighteen coaches long" in his 1927 recording of "Right of Way Blues."īlind Lemon Jefferson: "Right of Way Blues" (1927) The song "Hawkie is a Schemin' Bird," published in writer and folklorist Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 book On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs, references a train "sixteen coaches long." Scarborough collected the song from Wirt Williams in Mississippi. ![]() You may know I've caught a train and gone I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long It takes a worried woman to sing a worry song The following lines from the song, or variations, would later appear in "Worried Man Blues." The general subject matter is that of wandering the country on the railroads. "The Railroad Blues" contains eighty four-line stanzas with little narrative unity. The Journal of American Folklore published the song in their July-September, 1915 issue. The earliest documented lyrics that later appeared in "Worried Man Blues" occur in "The Railroad Blues." Historian Walter Prescott Webb collected the words, without a tune, from African American musician Floyd Canada in or near Beeville, Texas. Often singers improvised songs with guitar accompaniment, singing whatever words came to mind, including fragments of other songs they had heard or sung before. Their musical repertoire included spirituals, field hollers, British ballads, blues ballads, minstrel songs – anything that might appeal to the listeners before them at any given moment. Following emancipation, Black musicians, or songsters, traveled from town to town on foot, horseback, or train, trying to eke out a living. Such floating lyrics or maverick stanzas were typical in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Key phrases from “Worried Man Blues” appear in folk and blues songs that may predate it. I went across the river, I lay down to sleep While the song "Worried Man Blues" does not specify the reason for the narrator's incarceration, the opening stanza suggests that this prison laborer may be guilty only of the crime of vagrancy. It was outlawed over time, state by state, and finally abolished by President Franklin D. The convict leasing system peaked around 1880. These prisoner laborers, primarily African American men, sometimes lived out their lives without trial or connection to their families. Under the convict leasing system, prisoners were leased to the owners of factories, farms, mines, and railroads to meet the South's demand for cheap labor after the abolition of slavery. Black Codes passed by southern state governments reinforced the ideology of white supremacy and kept African Americans in subservient positions by restricting their rights to vote, move, get better jobs, mix with White people, and be treated as citizens.ĭuring this time, African Americans could be arrested and imprisoned for the crime of "vagrancy," which meant being unemployed. As a result, African Americans suffered extreme prejudice and were subject to discriminatory laws, violence, and murder. Despite new constitutional guarantees of citizenship and voting rights, many White Southerners were unwilling to accept African Americans as their equals. It doesn't really matter about your source,but you tube is a good place to start.Just type in the tune title followed by"old time","clawhammer banjo"."fiddle" etc.If you get stuck learning by ear there are usually chord sequences for guitar,or tabs for banjo or uke available.I also have a few tabs for uke.If you aren't familiar with old time music,the basic principle is that most tunes have an A and a B section (although some have more.) Each section is usually played through twice by all instruments-no flashy soloing like in bluegrass! And don't be worried if you can just strum chords-that's OK.The rebuilding of the South following the Civil War was a highly contentious and divisive time. ![]()
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