- published: 25 Sep 2014
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Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is acoustic, mainly guitar-driven forms of the blues, that mixes blues elements with characteristics of folk. After blues' birth in the Southern United States, it quickly spread throughout the country (and elsewhere), giving birth to a host of regional styles. These include Memphis, Detroit, Chicago, Texas, Piedmont, Louisiana, West Coast, St. Louis, East Coast, Swamp, New Orleans, Delta, Hill country and Kansas City blues.
When African-American musical tastes began to change in the early 1960s, moving toward soul and rhythm and blues music, country blues found renewed popularity as "folk blues" and was sold to a primarily white, college-age audience. Traditional artists like Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Boy Williamson II reinvented themselves as folk blues artists, while Piedmont bluesmen like Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee found great success on the folk festival circuit.
Seminal compilations of pre-WWII country blues recordings assembled in the 1950s are the Anthology of American Folk Music and The Country Blues.
Bob Dylan (/ˈdɪlən/; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, artist and writer. He has been influential in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when his songs chronicled social unrest, although Dylan repudiated suggestions from journalists that he was a spokesman for his generation. Nevertheless, early songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems for the American civil rights and anti-war movements. After he left his initial base in the American folk music revival, his six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" altered the range of popular music in 1965. His mid-1960s recordings, backed by rock musicians, reached the top end of the United States music charts while also attracting denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement.
Dylan's lyrics have incorporated various political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the performances of Little Richard, and the songwriting of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, Dylan has amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning 50 years, has explored the traditions in American song—from folk, blues, and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and the Great American Songbook. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but songwriting is considered his greatest contribution.
(spoken:
Lightnin': "I'm wonderin' if my folks are gonna be
there when I make it there,
I'm just wonderin' if they in the same ol' spot"
Friend: "I don't know Lightnin', but as bad as you
playin' that guitar now,
They got to be there. But you playin' it pretty
lonesome there though
Some might be in heaven, I can't never tell"
Lightnin': "No, you know I'm just gettin' back I been
in State Prison"
Friend: "How was it down there?"
Lightnin': "It was hard on me And it was a shame on
everybody else"
Friend: "Yes, now you can hear, about how they would
ring them big bells"
Lightnin': "Yeah"
Friend: "And every mornin' about the break of day,
You can hear how, how, howlin' goin' on everyday"
Lightnin': "Well, I got over it so I'm glad But mama's
what I'm thinkin' about
I wonder if she's in the same old spot?"
Friend: "Yes, I'm quite sure she's there, but I know
she's got a worried mind
'Cause she's got to be worried over her child)
Mmmmmmmmmm, the blues come down on me
Friend: Lord, have mercy, child
Po' Lightnin' can't hardly keep from cryin'
Friend: Yes, the blues'll make you cry, I know how you
feel
Whoa, Lord have mercy,
Po' Lightnin' can't hardly keep from cryin'
Well, I'm just wonderin' will I ever make it back,
To that old native home of mine?
Friend: Please, take me with ya when you go, Lightnin'
Lord have mercy