Week 21: Hard Road Blues



Blind Blake

The Man

Blind Blake is considered the best of the early finger style guitarists, and along with Blind Lemon Jefferson is the first master of blues guitar. He was a ragtime player and was one of the pioneers of blues, and he is the single biggest influence on the Piedmont style of blues. His technique is unparalleled – it has been copied, but no one has surpassed him. Despite his fame, influence and lasting legacy, very little is known about his life and most of what we know was discovered as recently as 2011.

He was born completely blind as Arthur Blake in 1896, in Newport News, Virginia. His birth date is unknown, and prior to 2011 his name was generally thought to be Arthur Phelps, and his birthplace was usually cited as Jacksonville Florida. From his birth to 30 years of age, nothing at all is known about him. It is likely he spent some time living in or near the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina, Georgia or Florida. It’s likely he earned money playing on street corners. It’s likely he played with various musicians, because the range of styles he could play was immense. The first thing we really know is that he was living in Jacksonville, Florida and travelled to Chicago to record the first of 80 tracks in July 1926 for Paramount, organised by an unknown talent scout.

His first sessions were as an accompanist to Leola B. Wilson, recording “Ashley St Blues” and “Dying Blues”, and his first solo session was in August, 1926, where he cut two tracks “Early Morning Blues” and “West Coast Blues”. Paramount was quickly impressed with Arthur, he recorded more solo sides in October and November, and in November and December was playing behind the famous Ma Rainey. March and April of 1927 saw another 3 solo records released saw more sides recorded, and his records were proving to be very successful commercially.

It appears that Blake would travel back to Jacksonville during the winter months and return to Chicago to record in the summer. He had an apartment in Chicago, and would rehearse and jam with other Paramount artists – and drink them under the table. Ishmon Bracey recalls a jam session with Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red and Scrapper Blackwell where Blake outplayed them all with his speed. Blake recorded throughout the summer of 1928 as a solo artist and was Paramount’s first choice as an accompanist. In June and August, 1929 he recorded in Richmond, Indiana, with the great pianist Charles Spand, then was back in Chicago briefly in September before recording in the brand new and start of the art studio in Grafton, Wisconsin.

It is likely he was initially living in a boarding house Paramount had in Milwaukee for their artists and travelled back to Florida and occasionally Chicago in the winters. All of his recording after September 1929 was done in Grafton; and in 1932 he married a girl named Beatrice. He was also drinking heavily and many suggest the slight decline in his performances on his records from 1930 is a result of his fondness for the bottle. His output certainly reduced. From 6 records recorded and released in 1930, he was only recorded 4 more times, and only once in 1931. This maybe a reflection on his drinking, but it is likely the onset of the Great Depression ruined his career as it did for every other “race record” artist.

He last session was in 1932, and like most of his life it is drenched in mystery. On June 2, 1932, Bake recorded “Champagne Charlie is my name”. It was released with “Depression Gone from Me Blues” – a reworking of “Sitting on Top of the World”. Both were credited to Blake, but whether he actually performed “Depression Gone from Me” has been disputed. The guitar work is good, but nowhere near Blake’s quality and features none of the ragtime thumb work that was his style. The voice is quite different, a lot lower in pitch and lacking Blake’s skill.

In 1932, Paramount folded, and Blind Blake supposedly disappeared. Some say he returned to Jacksonville, some say he returned to Chicago. Some say he was murdered. Some say he died in an auto mobile accident. The Reverend Gary Davis, a keen student of Blake’s, claimed Blake wound up in New York, and was hit and killed by a street car in 1934. For 80 years, that was the accepted story of the untimely end of the greatest early blues guitar player.

Then in 2011, a research team delving deep into old records and tracking down any lead they could find, discovered Blind Blake’s death certificate. From that we can piece together his later years.

After marrying Beatrice in 1932, the two settled in a house in Milwaukee’s Brewer’s Hill. After the collapse of the Paramount label, Blake couldn’t find employment due to his blindness, and eked out a living as a street musician. In 1933 he was hospitalised for pneumonia and was discharged before he could make a full recovery. The next year, in late November he started to cough up blood occasionally, and just before midnight, in freezing temperatures on the last day of November, 1934, Beatrice called an ambulance to their house on Brewer’s Hill. Blake was feverish and he was coughing up blood. On the way to the emergence ward, he suffered a pulmonary haemorrhage and he died in the ambulance. The official time of death was 1:51 on December 1st, 1934; the cause of death pulmonary tuberculosis.

The research team of Bob Eagle (Australia), Eric LeBlanc (Canada), Rob Ford (UK), Angela Mack (USA) and Alex van der Tuuk (Netherlands) found Blake’s burial site in a cemetery in Glendale, Wisconsin, a few miles north or Milwaukee. The grave was bare, without a headstone. The research team raised funds, and arranged a grave marker. It reads “Arthur ‘Blind Blake. King of the ragtime guitar”. Truer words have never been spoken.



The Song

Hard Road Blues is a quick change 12 bar in the key of G# – Blind Blake either has his guitar tuned up half a step or he uses a capo on the first fret. Blake shows his rag time experience by inserting an A chord for half a bar in the intro and in bar 10.

Blake was a rag time guitarist and adapted the highly syncopated style of rag time piano to the guitar. It is often said that finger style blues is playing the piano on the guitar, and Blake is simply the best there has ever been at doing this. Listen to the song – what he is doing is piano playing; there isn’t a single half bar where something isn’t happening. This song is extremely difficult to play.

Although Blake uses open chords all based in the first 3 frets, his speed, fluency and use of his thumb to add syncopation to the bass lines is what makes this a very hard song to execute properly. Blake perfected his technique by playing Charleston numbers, and he uses it to great effect in this song. Rather than hitting with the thumb on the beats, he mixes it up in nearly every bar and generates incredible momentum from his thumb alone. The melody is complex, and difficult in it’s own right – the thumb work is insane.

Some bars start with the one-two-three-four rhythm commonly used for finger style thumb work, but he uses the shuffle beat to great effect – hitting the shuffle with the thumb for half a bar and then jumping back to the beat in the other half. This combined with his quick and fluid melodic lines makes the song what it is. In some parts he goes into a quick double time phrase, then back to the usual speed. All throughout, the smoothness and sheer control of his thumb never wavers.

The melody is sophisticated as you would expect with a player of Blake’s skill. A demonstration of how far ahead of most other players Blake was is the contrary motion turnaround in bar 11 of the progression. Contrary motion means going in two directions at once: the bass line on the D string is descending, while a melody is ascending on the B string. And he adds the high E on the bass notes, and has the open G root note in the mix. Conceptually and technique wise this is world class. Throughout the entire melody, he maintains a bouncy feel, and lets notes ring out over the top of his thumb work. To achieve this, most of the notes on the 3rd fret of the treble strings are played with the pinky. This includes the super quick melody in “the variation”.

One thing you have to really concentrate on is the sense of space Blake creates in this piece. There are a thousand things going on – syncopated thumb lines, contrary motion turnaround, super quick use of the pinky – but his playing is very relaxed and almost casual. When you play it, you really have to be in control – your mind has to be thinking 10 times as quickly as you can move your fingers. You have to hit the notes exactly when you want to hit them, and not just because they come next. Let the melody sing, let the thumb bring it all back.

The only advice I can give is to practice it really slowly, and gradually build up speed. The good news is that you can get away with a pretty good version by sticking to the on the beat rhythm of the thumb and exploring the melodies. That said, you can really add another trick to the bag by getting familiar with the completely independent work of the thumb that Blake demonstrates in this tune. If you can master the technique, you can use it on any other song and you will enhance your playing significantly.

Good luck!



The Lyrics

(key adjusted for capo - it really is half a tone higher) G D7 G7 Keep on walking and walking talking to myself C G7 Keep on walking and walking talking to myself D7 A7 D7 G7 D7 Gal I love with somebody's else I got the hard road blues walking on down the line I got the hard road blues walking on down the line Maybe some day my gal must change her mind It's a hard hard road when your baby done throwed you down It's a hard hard road when your baby done throwed you down Going to keep on walking from town to town It's been a long long time since I seen my baby's face It's been a long long time since I seen my baby's face And I don't see her joker stand to my place I'm going to find my baby don't say she can't be found I'm going to find my baby don't say she can't be found Going to walk this hard hard road until my moustache drags the ground

The Intro



$6.3.$4.0.$3.3 $2.0h3 $1.0.$4.0.$3.0 $1.3 3 1 $2.3 $4.0.$3.0 | $4.2.$3.2 $1.3 3 $4.2.$3.2 $4.0 $3.2.$1.2 $4.0 $3.2.$1.0 $1.3 | $6.3 $1.3 $4.3.$1.3 $2.0 $3.0 $4.2.$1.3 $2.1 $3.0 $4.1.$1.3 $2.2 $3.0 | $4.0.$3.0.$2.3.$1.3 $6.3.$2.3 $1.0 $4.0.$3.0.$2.3 $1.0 $6.3.$1.3 3 $4.0.$3.0 0 | The intro starts off nice and bright, moves into the A7 chord in bar two, and then hits that wonderful contrary motion turnaround run in bar 3. Keep your thumb under control, and play with a bright, fluid motion.

The Progression



G / D7 / G7 $6.3.$1.3 3 $4.0.$3.0 $6.3 $4.0.$3.0.$1.3 3 $4.0.$3.0 $4.0.$1.0 | $3.2.$1.2 2 $4.0.$2.1 1 $3.2.$1.2 $4.0.$2.3 $2.1 $3.0 | $6.3 $1.1 1.$4.0.$3.0 $1.1 1.$6.3 $1.1 $4.0.$3.0 $6.3 | G7 / C / C A7 D7 $3.3 $6.3.$2.0 3 $4.0.$3.0.$1.1 $3.3 $6.3.$2.0 $1.1 $4.0.$3.0 $5.2 | $5.3.$2.1 $1.3 $5.3 $3.0 $5.3 3.$2.1 $5.3.$1.3 $5.3 3 | $3.0 $5.3 3 $3.0 $4.2 $3.2.$2.2 $4.0 $3.2.$2.1 $6.3 | G7 / G7 / D7 $4.0.$3.0 $1.1 1.$6.3 $1.1 1.$4.0.$3.0 $1.1 $4.0.$3.0 $6.3 | $3.3 $2.0.$6.3 $2.3 $4.0.$3.0.$1.1 $2.3 0 $3.0.$6.3 $1.1 $4.0.$3.0 | $3.2.$1.2 $4.0.$3.2.$2.1 $3.2.$2.1 $4.0.$1.2 3 1 0 $2.3 | A7 D7 / G / D7 $5.0.$2.2 2 2.$1.3 $4.2 $3.2.$1.2 $2.3 0 $4.0 | $6.3 $4.3.$1.3 $2.0 $3.0 $4.2.$1.3 $2.1 $3.0 $4.1 $2.2 $3.0 | $4.0.$3.0 $4.0 $3.2.$1.0 $4.0 $3.2.$1.2 $2.3 0 $4.0 | The progression is a quick change 12 bar – he changes to the IV chord in bar 2 – and it uses a half bar of the II chord in bar 10. It’s all based around open G, C, D and A chords. Try to keep it nice and bright, but pay most of your attention to what your thumb is doing. He hits both the open D and G strings with the thumb as the alternate bass note of the G sections. NOte: my tab plug in isn’t displaying the A7 chord properly – its a standard A with the G note on the 3rd fret of the high E added, as seen in the tab.

The Variation



$6.3 $3.0 3 $2.0 3.$4.0.$3.0 $1.3 $6.3 $3.0 $4.0.$2.3 $1.3 $4.0.$3.0 | $6.3 $3.0 3 $4.0.$2.0 3 $4.0.$3.0.$1.1 $6.3 $3.0 $4.0.$2.3 $4.0.$3.0.$1.1 $4.0.$3.0 | Blake doesn’t vary the main themes in the progress that much – there’s so much variation in the “standard” progression that he doesn’t need to, but at a few places he goes into a different rhythm with a riff in G. It’s super quick, heavily syncopated and the timing is really different to the rest of the song. The first 4 notes are played at the same speed as a triplet – beat 2 is the first D note 3rd fret B string. He plays a bass on it in the first bar, but the bass comes in earlier in the second. Here’s what I think he does in the third verse.

The Outro