- published: 12 Feb 2014
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Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is a general term that refers to all the acoustic, mainly guitar-driven forms of the blues. It often incorporated elements of rural gospel, ragtime, hillbilly, and dixieland jazz. 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, Atlanta, 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.
Will Richardson is the author of the highly ranked and read edublog Weblogg-ed and author of the book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Richardson is also active on the web, he has both a twitter and YouTube channel.
Richardson is now an independent presenter and owner of Connective Learning, LLC. He promotes the implementation of Read/Write technologies in K-12 classrooms. He is also an advocate for school reform which encourages the integration of technology in learning. He was also recently named to the National Advisory Board for the George Lucas Education Foundation. Along with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, he is co-owner of Powerful Learning Practice, a company that delivers job-embedded, year-long professional development to schools worldwide around the pedagogies of Web 2.0 tools.
District Administration magazine publishes a quarterly column by Richardson titled The Online Edge.
Richardson has been part of a panel presentation at the 2006 Milken Global Conference and has given presentations all over the world.
Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer considered one of the giants of American music. Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser" and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed over 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70.
His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are consistent with Monk's unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations. This was not a style universally appreciated; poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin dismissed Monk as 'the elephant on the keyboard'.
Monk's manner was idiosyncratic. Visually, he was renowned for his distinctive style in suits, hats and sunglasses. He was also noted for the fact that at times, while the other musicians in the band continued playing, he would stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano.
(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