Week 10: Saturday Blues



Ishmon Bracey

The Man

Ishmon Bracey is a relatively unknown early Mississippi Delta bluesman. He had an unusual style (for the time), but his influence on the development of the blues is massive.

Born in Byram, Mississippi on January 9th, 1901, Ishmon moved to Jackson sometime in his teens to work as a waterboy on the Central Illinois Railroad. In Jackson, he met the local ‘Blues King’ Ruben Lacey in or after 1920, who taught him how to play guitar. Lacey was the leader of a group of aspiring blues players in Jackson, including Bracey, Tommy Johnson, Son Spand, Charlie McCoy and Walter Vincent. This band of budding musicians would play the blues at picnics, dances and parties, teaching themselves new things and absorbing ideas of other musicians who came through Jackson.

Lacey recalls “we would serenade so many nights a week, unless we had a dance to play. We’d just walk the streets and go to playing. We’d all be together. When we started music, then the folks would start to calling, hollering, white and coloured, rich and poor. Well, we’d go prop our foots, maybe, on the steps, play ’em a few pieces. They’d give us big tips. We’d go on to the next one”.

Also in Jackson was HC Spier, a local record store owner specializing in ‘black music’. In 1926 he started acting as a talent scout for record companies, but some of the companies were reluctant to sign artists solely on word of mouth. In April 1927 he installed a recording machine in his shop that cut grooves into an acetate disc. He used it as a both a ‘vanity’ recorder – $5 to record your own songs – and as a way to make test recordings for artists to send to the record companies.

In December of 1927, Spier found Ishmon Bracey busking on a street corner in Jacksonville, singing his own song “Saturday Blues”. Spier asked Bracey to come back to the store to record a test, but Bracey initially thought Spier was a police detective because he was wearing a suit. Spier convinced him, and he recorded a test of “Saturday Blues” which Spier sent to the Victor Record label in Memphis. Bracey also told Spier about his best friend Tommy Johnson, although Tommy only had one song at that stage. The labels required an artist to have at least 4 songs, so Tommy quickly worked out a few more and made a test.

Late in January 1928, Spier heard back from Victor who asked both Tommy and Ishmon to travel to Memphis to record for them. Ishmon recorded 2 tracks over February 3rd and 4th, 1928. His old friend Charlie McCoy featured on them as an accompanying guitarist. The tracks were released on a double sided 78 and was very successful – “Saturday Blues/Left Alone Blues” was reported by Spier to have sold 6,000 copies in a time where 500 copies was breaking even. On August 31, 1928, Bracey recorded two more double sided records for Victor.

In 1929, Bracey swapped labels to Paramount and ventured to Grafton, Wisconsin, to record for them as a solo artist, or with other artists signed to Paramount. In November or December, he recorded two tracks released under “Ishman Bracey and the New Orleans Nehi Boys” and another two tracks released under “Charley Taylor and Ishman Bracey”. A further track from these sessions was recorded with Charley Taylor

Two more sessions followed for Paramount in January 1930, with 4 tracks released under “Ishman Bracey” and another 4 under the Nehi Boys name. The total recorded history of Ishmon Bracey was 19 tracks, however despite Paramount having records of 3 of these tracks (2 under ‘Ishman Bracey’ and one with Charley Taylor); no surviving copies of them have ever been discovered.

Always a religious man, and with the Depression starting to be felt in the poorer areas of the US, Ishmon Bracey left the life of a blues musician to embrace religion. He was ordained as a minister in the 1940’s, referred to blues as the Devil’s Music and disappeared from view.

In 1963 blues researcher Gayle Dean Wardlow tracked down Bracey, still living in Jackson and working as a preacher and interviewed him. He had well and truly left the blues behind and could not be convinced to take it back up again despite the rewards on offer during the Blues revival of the 1960’s, though he did fill in some details of the birth of the Delta Blues and information that lead to the rediscovery of Skip James in a hospital in Tunica. In these interviews it was confirmed his name was “Ishmon Bracey”, and that his name was incorrectly given as “Ishman Bracey” on most of his recordings.

Ishmon Bracey died on February 12, 1970, in Jackson Mississippi and has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

The Song

Saturday Blues is one of the earliest Delta Blues songs recorded. Credit for the first is usually given to Freddie Spruell’s ‘Milk Cow Blues’ recorded in June, 1926, 18 months before Bracey recorded this tune. Saturday Blues predates Charlie Patton and Son House and exemplifies some of the defining sounds of the developing genre.

The recording has two guitars, Ishmon playing ‘rhythm’ and Charlie McCoy playing lead. The song illustrates the improvisation inherent in Delta Blues, with McCoy playing different things each verse. The structure is a standard 12 bar in E, with guitar lines improvised to match the sung melodies. The song features string bending which was fairly rare at the time, and illustrates the nature of Delta Blues – a singer accompanying themself on guitar with no other instrumentation and relying on improvisation over a central theme to create tension and release.

The guitar lines, both lead and rhythm (in the A section) match the vocal lines with a ‘standard’ riff played between singing parts. Bracey’s vocal delivery is also somewhat rare – sang in a natural, low, voice which contrasted the practice of singing in a high pitched falsetto voice common in early blues.

He utilizes an experimental melodic concept – an 8 line vocal structure usually consisting of 4 lines with the last two repeated twice, which is very different to the 3 line AAB arrangement of most 12 bar blues. The lyrics deal with the common blues themes of infidelity and revenge, and it is likely that Saturday Blues introduced the line of “I asked for water, she brought me gasoline” that Howlin’ Wolf would popularize some 30 years later.



The Lyrics

E Now you tell me mama Do you think that’s right? You’re with your kid all day and run to me at night A With your kid all day And run to me at night E B7 Wit' your kid all day C#7 An' run to me at night Now my regular woman totes my pocket change And my sometime woman Wants to do the same and you Better not let my Regular catch you here Don’t never let my Regular catch you here 'Cause it's ain't no tellin' What she might do Now, an she might cut you And she might shoot you, too Now, an she might cut you She might shoot you, too Lord, she might cut you She might shoot you, too Now, she's the meanest woman That I've ever seen And when I ask for water Gave me gasoline Now, I asked her for water Gave me gasoline Lord, an asked for water Gave me gasoline Now, if you want yo' woman To look like the rest You buy her high-brown powder Palmer's Skin Success You buy her high-brown powder Palmer Skin Success Buy her high-brown powder Palmer Skin Success Now, I've got 4, 5 puppies An got 1 shaggy hound It takes all them dogs To run my women down It takes all them dogs to Run my women down 6 for them dogs to Run my women down Now, just 4, 5 puppies An got 1 shaggy hound It takes all them dogs To run my women down It takes all them dogs to Run my women down Takes all a-them dogs to Run my women down.

The Intro



$6.0.$2.0 0 0h2 0 $5.2 $2.0 $3.0h1 $4.2 | $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2.$1.0 0.$2.2 $6.3 $2.0 $3.0h1 $4.2 | $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | The intro is very short, and sets up the rhythm used throughout the song by both guitars. Bracey plays a half bar in the lead in to each progression, and I’ve included the first one here.

The Progression



The plug in I use to generate tabs means I can only do 3 bars per line, sorry if it’s confusing. But it is a standard 12 (13) bar progression: 4 bars of E; 2 of A, 2 (and a half) of E, 1 of B, 1 of C# then 2 (and a half) of E and start it all over again.

The first 4 bars change most times, and there are heaps of subtle and great blues riffs played by the two guitars. I’ve tried to adapt it to just one guitar and have included a few of the variations you can play. The main A section riff is played by Ishmon’s guitar every time, but McCoy’s ‘lead’ guitar does different things each time. There’s another 2 beat bar leading into the B chord. The B/C# section that Ishmon plays is usually just the bass notes of the straight chords, but again McCoy changes it up. I’ve tried to combine both guitars into one there. The G note 3rd fret low E string is bent a micro tone.

Em

$6.3 $2.0 $4.5 2 $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | $6.3 $2.0 $4.5 2 $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | $6.3 $2.0 $4.5 2 $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | Em / A

$6.3 $2.0 $4.5 2 $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | $5.0 4 $4.2 5 | $5.0 4 $4.2 5 $4.2 | E

$6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 $6.3 $2.0 $3.0h1 $4.2 | $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 $6.3 $2.0 $3.0h1 $4.2 | $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | B7 / C#

$5.2 2 2 2 | 4 4 $4.2 5 5 | Em

$6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 $6.3 $2.0 $3.0h1 $4.2 | $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 $6.3 $2.0 $3.0h1 $4.2 | $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | The progression is a standard 12 bar with two half bars added in – I guess that makes a 13 bar blues! The half bar that leads into each progression I’ve included at the end of the progression tab as it sets up the next go round. The song uses a C# instead of the usual A in bar 10.The plug in I use to generate tabs means I can only do 3 bars per line, sorry if it’s confusing. But it is a standard 12 (13) bar progression: 4 bars of E; 2 of A, 2 (and a half) of E, 1 of B, 1 of C# then 2 (and a half) of E and start it all over again.The first 4 bars change most times, and there are heaps of subtle and great blues riffs played by the two guitars. I’ve tried to adapt it to just one guitar and have included a few of the variations you can play. The main A section riff is played by Ishmon’s guitar every time, but McCoy’s ‘lead’ guitar does different things each time. There’s another 2 beat bar leading into the B chord. The B/C# section that Ishmon plays is usually just the bass notes of the straight chords, but again McCoy changes it up. I’ve tried to combine both guitars into one there. The G note 3rd fret low E string is bent a micro tone.

The Variations



Using the high G – first 4 bars (play each of these twice) Bend the high g note up a quarter to half tone:

$6.3 $2.0 $4.2.$1.3 0 $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | $6.3 $2.0 $4.2.$1.3 0 $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | More high Gs.

$6.3 $1.3 $4.2.$1.3 0 $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | $6.3 $1.3 $4.2.$1.3 0 $6.0 $2.0 $4.2.$2.2 0 | A section, melody notes in the first bar are on the one-and, two, two-and and three-and beats:

$5.0 $2.2.$1.3 $4.2.$2.2.$1.2 $2.2.$1.3 $2.2.$1.0 | $5.0 $2.2.$1.3 $4.2.$2.2.$1.2 3 $5.0.$2.2.$1.3 0 | The B/C# section is weird – Ishmon plays the straight bass notes of the chords nearly every time:

$5.2 2 2 2 | 4 4 2 2 | But because the 2nd guitar riffs over the top of it, it almost never sounds like that! The 2nd guitar adds that G note that makes the sound so effective here, so it probably best to try and use that most times as tabbed in the progression. But he plays a bunch of cool runs back down to the E:

$5.2 2 2 2 | 4 4 2 0 $6.3p2 | Here are some of the many variations played by the second guitar; these will help fill out the sound for a solo guitar. I suggest finding the one that sounds best for you, and improvising around it. Aside from the first 4 bars, all other E’s are played as tabbed in “The Progression”. He only changes the E pattern up in the first 4 bars.Using the high G – first 4 bars (play each of these twice) Bend the high g note up a quarter to half tone:More high Gs.A section, melody notes in the first bar are on the one-and, two, two-and and three-and beats:The B/C# section is weird – Ishmon plays the straight bass notes of the chords nearly every time:But because the 2nd guitar riffs over the top of it, it almost never sounds like that! The 2nd guitar adds that G note that makes the sound so effective here, so it probably best to try and use that most times as tabbed in the progression. But he plays a bunch of cool runs back down to the E:

The Outro