phogi
1 post
Aug 01, 2009
5:07 AM
|
I went to my first jam last week, it was cool, but I did not know most of the tunes. I noticed that harp players are expected to sing, and act as band leader. Not a problem, but somehow I did not prepare for this, figuring I would just hang out in the corner and play a few licks where space allowed. I also noticed that a guitar player will solo for 4 minutes if given the chance!
My question: what are the blues tunes that everybody knows? I'd like to learn about 5 or so of them so that I can call a tune everyone is comfortable with.
|
Elwood
95 posts
Aug 01, 2009
9:21 AM
|
Hi Phogi,
Good question. Perhaps this thread on top-ten harp songs will give you some pointers -- particularly the tip by Belfast Harper: "In David Barrett's book, Improvising Blues Harmonica he lists 52 blues standards that he says are worth learning..."
At my local jam in Brighton they can't go an evening without playing 'Roadhouse Blues', 'Crossroads', 'Key to the Highway' and, of course, 'Sweet Home Chicago'.
|
Buzadero
111 posts
Aug 01, 2009
11:18 AM
|
Here's a start. This is by no means a 'set in stone' list. Just a list that I have that was actually typed that I could cut and paste quickly, I'm not even sure where I plagiarized it from:
1) Ain't Nobody's Business If I do - Jimmy Witherspoon & Billy Holiday (*Granger & Robins)
2) All Your Love - *Otis Rush
3) Baby Please Don't Go - *Muddy Waters
4) Baby Scratch My Back - *Slim Harpo (a.k.a. James Moor) [F]
5) Baby What You Want Me To - *Jimmy Reed [E]
6) Blues with a Feeling - *Little Walter [A]
7) Boogie Thing - *Mat Murphy
8) Boom Boom (Out Go the Light) - *Little Walter [E]
9) Boom, Boom, Boom, .. - *John Lee Hooker
10) Born in Chicago - Paul Butterfield (*Nick Gravenitis) [A]
11) Caldonia - Louis Jordan, B.B. King & Big Joe Turner (*Fleecie Moore)
12) Chicken Shack - *Jimmy Smith [F]
13) Crosscut Saw - *Albert King
14) Driving Wheel - Jr. Parker (*Roosevelt Sykes) [D]
15) Dust my Broom - *Elmore James [E]
16) Everyday I Have the Blues - *Memphis Slim a.k.a. Peter Chapman, B.B. King & Joe Williams
17) Everything Gonna be Alright - *Little Walter [G]
18) Further Up the Road - *Bobby Blue Bland
19) Good Morning Little School Girl - *Sonny Boy I (John Lee) [A]
20) Got My Mojo Workin' - Muddy Waters (*Preston Foster)
21) Help Me - *Sonny Boy Williamson [F]
22) Hide Away - *Freddie King (Hound Dog Taylor is noted as originator) [E]
23) House Party - *Amos Milburn
24) Hoochie Coochie Man - *Willie Dixon & Muddy Waters
25) I Can't Quit You Baby - *Otis Rush
26) I'm Ready - Muddy Waters (*Marry Johnson)
27) It Hurts Me Too - *Elmore James [D]
28) Just Your Fool - *Little Walter [A]
29) Kansas City - *Wilbert Harrison
30) Key to the Highway - Little Walter & *Big Bill Broonzy
31) Killing Floor - *Howlin' Wolf [A]
32) Little By Little - *Jr. Wells
33) Little Red Rooster - *Willie Dixon
34) Mean old World - *T-Bone Walker, Little Walter & Otis Rush
35) Messin' with the Kid - *Jr. Wells
36) Next Time You See Me - Jr. Parker (*Don Robey & William Harvey)
37) One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer - John Lee Hooker (*Amos Milburn)
38) One Way Out - *Sonny Boy II & Elmore James
39) Reconsider Baby - *Lowell Fulson
40) Rock Me Baby - *B.B. King & Muddy Waters
41) Rock this House - *Jimmy Rogers (a.k.a. James Lane)
42) Same Thing - Muddy Waters & *Willie Dixon
43) Spoonful - Howlin' Wolf (*Willie Dixon)
44) Stormy Monday - *T-Bone Walker & Bobby Bland
45) Sweet Home Chicago - Magic Sam & Jr. Parker (*Roosevelt Sykes)
46) T-Bone Shuffle - *T-Bone Walker
47) That's Alright - *Jimmy Rogers
48) The Sky Is Crying - *Elmore James & Steve Ray Vaughn
49) The Things I Use to Do - *Guitar Slim
50) The Thrill is Gone - *B.B. King [Bm]
51) Walkin' Blues - *Robert Johnson & Paul Butterflied [A]
52) Walkin' By Myself - *Jimmy Rogers [A]
53) Woke up This Morning - *B.B. King
54) You Don't Love Me - *Jr. Wells
And, while I realize that this is a so-called "blues" forum, here is a list of tunes for that next open mic you happen to roll up on that turns out to be a bunch of country boys:
Country Jam Tunes
A Girl I Used To Know
Abilene
Above and Beyond
After the Fire is Gone
All Shook Up
Apartment #9
Be Bop a Lula
Behind Closed Doors
Big Big Love
Bird Dog
Blue Eyes Cryin'
Blue, Blue Day
Blues, Stay Away
Bubbles in My Beer
Buckaroo
Bye Bye Love
C'est La Vie
Cigarettes & Coffee
Cold Hard Facts of Life
Crazy
Crazy Arms
Cry, Cry, Cry
Cryin' Time
Deep In the Heart of Texas
Deep Water
Dim Lights, Thick Smoke
Drivin' Nails in My Coffin
Faded Love
Folsom Prison Blues
Fool Number One
Forty Cups of Coffee
Fraulein
From a Jack to a King
Give Me More (Lefty)
Give My Love to Rose
Go Boy Go
Goin' Steady
Golden Rocket
Half as Much
Heart Over Mind
Heartaches by Number
He'll Have to Go
Hello Walls
Hey Good Lookin'
Honky Tonk Man
Honky Tonk Song
Howling at the Moon
I Ain't Never
I Don't Hurt Anymore
I Fall to Pieces
I Saw the Light
I Still Miss Someone
I Thought I Heard You Call
If I Could Only Win Your Love
I'll Be There
I'm So Lonesome
Invitation to the Blues
Is Anybody Going to San Antone
It Keeps Right On Hurting
It's Only Make Believe
Jackson
Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
Just One Time
Kickin Our Hearts Around
King of the Road
Legend In My Time
Let It Be Me
Little Sister
Lonesome Fugitive
Lonesome7-7203
Mama Tried
Memphis
Miles and Miles of Texas
My Baby Thinks He's a Train
My Bucket's Got a Hole
My Shoes Keep Walking Back
My Son Calls Another Man Daddy
My Window Faces the South
North to Alaska
Oh, Lonesome Me
On the Wings of a Dove
One Woman Man
Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line
Panhandle Rag
Peace in the Valley
Pick Me Up
Playboy
Pride
Release Me
Right or Wrong (Bob Wills)
Right Or Wrong (Wanda)
Rock n Roll Ruby
Rolling In My Sweet Baby's Arms
Roly Poly
Sad Singin'& Slow Ridin'
Saginaw Michigan
Satin Sheets
Seven Spanish Angels
She Thinks I Still Care
She's Gone Gone Gone
Sick Sober and Sorry
Silver Wings
Singin' the Blues
Six Days on the Road
Six Pack to Go
Stand By Your Man
Steel Guitar Rag
Sweet Dreams
Swinging Doors
Take Me Back to Tulsa
Tennessee Waltz
Texas In My Soul
That's the Way Love Goes
That's Why I'm Walkin
The Bottle Let Me Down
The Key's in the Mailbox
The Race is On
There's a Fool Such
Together Again
Too Many Rivers
Train of Love
Truck Drivin' Man
Under Your Spell
Walk on By
Walkin' After Midnight
Walkin' the Floor
Waltz Across Texas
What in the World
White Lightnin'
Why Baby Why
Wine Me Up
Workin' Man Blues
Yellow Rose of Texas
You Ain't Woman Enough
You Are My Sunshine
You Win Again
Young Love
Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad
----------
~Buzadero
Underwater Janitor, Patriot
|
Bluzdude46
105 posts
Aug 01, 2009
11:56 PM
|
Great lists good stuff. I would add Hey Bartender, Red House and Mannish Boy as things you're likely to run into at a Jam. Also if you get a chance to talk a band into letting you do Wang Dang Doodle it's loads of fun to jam on harp, guitarists hate it because it's boring same riff over and over. Great song if you want revenge for a guitarist that impresses himself with 10 minute lead guitar masterbation lead.
Last Edited by on Aug 02, 2009 12:02 AM
|
phogi
10 posts
Sep 02, 2009
3:17 AM
|
After a session last night, I noticed that it is kinda important to stick to 12 bar blues. I got to sing five tunes, and on two of them, they are not standard 12 bar, and the bass player missed some key (pun, unfortunately intended!) changes, leaving me in no man's land whilst singing. Not my idea of a good time. So...which of these are standard 12 bar? I've been going through them one at a time.
|
Buzadero
136 posts
Sep 02, 2009
5:20 AM
|
Which are 12 bar? You want me to do all the work for you? Start counting.
It's an indefinite science. There is even a rumor out there that you can make Key to the Highway a 12 bar. Heresy? Or, something more sinister?
----------
~Buzadero
Underwater Janitor, Patriot
|
phogi
11 posts
Sep 02, 2009
8:37 AM
|
"You want me to do all the work for you?"
Counting is exactly what I've been doing. Just thought if someone knew off the top of their head it might save me some time.
BTW, thanks for the list! Its awesome.
|
bluemoose
58 posts
Sep 02, 2009
10:08 AM
|
Nobody lookin'? Good....
(cut)
(paste)
:)
Alright! Thanks Buzadero!
Last Edited by on Sep 02, 2009 11:07 AM
|
walterharp
40 posts
Sep 02, 2009
10:09 AM
|
Good list
Pride and Joy, SRV shows up pretty often at blues jams
|
GamblersHand
82 posts
Sep 02, 2009
10:44 AM
|
While I agree with Buzadero's sentiment - it's good practice to work out the arrangement of a blues song, and then be able to succinctly describe it to your fellow jammers - but I thought I might be able to help a little.
Most of that list are straight 12-bars, with the slower ones generally being quick-change. Exceptions to that are Aint Nobodys Business (which is something like I iii VI IV I V I vi ii V
(I use lower case when the chord is minor when you'd expect major for that key, and vice-versa)
It Hurts Me Too and Key to the Highway (usually) aren't 12-bars, and Chicken Shack is nearly a 12-bar, but not quite. Stop-time songs are usually efectively a 16-bar, with 8 bars on the I-chord. Stormy Monday? Blues jammers can spend hours agreeing which version to use
Also there are a few there that I wouldn't attempt unless the other jammers knew the song - Caldonia comes to mind, as well as the songs above.
This might be useful too
www.jt30.com/jt30page/BluesCheat.pdf
|
bluemoose
60 posts
Sep 02, 2009
4:49 PM
|
Hey All!
I'm pulling the blues tunes into a play list and finding
you should not necessarily go for the suggested artist.
Those are the 'classic' cuts but others are better for harp.
Like Charlie Musselwhite's Chicken Shack or Junior Wells for Good Morning Schoolgirl.
Good exercise exploring the versions though!
Only a couple I'm not familiar with. Must be a good sign.
Thanks again.
Last Edited by on Sep 02, 2009 4:50 PM
|
