(blues guitar music) ♪ Well it must've been a devil ♪ Must've been a devil ♪ Changed my babe's mind ♪ Babe's mind ♪ Well I laid and I wonder ♪ Laid and I wonder now Blues actually is, the blues really is around me every day.

That's just a feeling, from within a person I reckon, you know.

You ever had, you have a hard time you know, when those things happen.

It's like every time you get kinda straightened out on one thing, or somethin' else happens.

Those different than the hardships between, you and your wife.

Maybe you and your girlfriend or somethin' like that.

That's what that is, and that's all it is.

It's down-heartedness, that's all it is.

Hardship.

Can never be.

I mean they knew.

You express it through your song I guess.

That's all I can say.

(blues guitar music) ♪ You know I would go to Cairo ♪ But the water too high for me ♪ ♪ The Lord be praised ♪ The girl I love ♪ Walking Jerusalem just like John ♪ ♪ Walking Jerusalem just like John ♪ ♪ Yeah I'm gonna walk ♪ Walking Jerusalem just like John ♪ ♪ Yeah getting John through the Jordan ♪ ♪ Walking Jerusalem just like John ♪ ♪ Just like John ♪ Walking Jerusalem just like John ♪ ♪ Yeah just like John ♪ Walking Jerusalem just like John ♪ ♪ Walking Jerusalem just like John ♪ ♪ Walking Jerusalem just like John ♪ ♪ Ah just like John ♪ Walking Jerusalem just like John ♪ ♪ Ah ah ah got to walk ♪ Walking Jerusalem just like John ♪ ♪ Ah ah ah got to walk (fast bluegrass music) - The music which you heard at the beginning of the program, is Mississippi Delta Blues sung and played by, James "Son" Thomas from Leland, Mississippi, who is our guest today on the Folkroots Program.

The blues date back to before the Civil War, when black slaves worked in fields, chopping cotton with hoes or chopping wood, as in this scene to my right here.

This work was frequently done with song accompaniment, and a leader would sing a verse, which was then chanted by a group of workers.

Somewhat similar to a work chant which I recorded several years ago, in Parchman Penitentiary in the Mississippi Delta.

♪ To the man or bow ♪ Let a flywheel knot can bauma ♪ ♪ Uh huh ♪ With a bauma bom ♪ With a bauma bom ♪ Oh roll that ♪ Oh bauma ♪ Again ♪ And pull out yeah ♪ Oh roll that ♪ Uh huh ♪ Get a whole lot gah ♪ Get a whole lot gah - Following the Civil War, blacks began to travel throughout the South.

And gifted musicians would accompany themselves with guitar instruments.

Usually for groups of singers, or traveling with minstrel shows.

And one of the most important areas of the South, in which the blues developed, was the Mississippi Delta.

This very rich agricultural area, stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the North, to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the South.

And it was here in the rich Delta, that the famous composer, musician, W.C.

Handy first discovered the blues, and recorded it in 1898 in Tutwiler, Mississippi.

Handy overheard a blues musician in Tutwiler singing the verse 'Going where the Southern crosses the Dog.'

The Southern crosses the Dog, in a small Delta town of Moorhead, Mississippi, where the Southern Railway intersects with the Yazoo Delta Railway, popularly known as the Yellow Dog.

And it was from this verse that Handy composed his very famous "Yellow Dog Blues."

Now partly due to the influence of Handy, the record industry began to realize the tremendous potential for sales in records of blues singers.

And they issued a series which was knows as Race Records.

The series was called Race Records because it was sung by black musicians, and the music was sold primarily to blacks.

And many of these singers were Mississippi Delta bluesmen.

They included men like the famous Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy, and Big Joe Williams.

One of the most famous series of records, which was a Race Series, was the Blue Bird issue by RCA Victor.

And we're going to hear an example of a Mississippi Delta singer, Big Joe Williams singing "Baby Please Don't Go."

We're going to hear this on an old 78 RPM machine, which was typical of the machines that were used during this period.

(blues music) ♪ Don't call my name ♪ Don't call my name ♪ Baby, please don't go back to New Orleans ♪ - As transportation improved during the 30's and 40's, black people began to move northward to the urban areas of Chicago and Detroit.

And as they moved, the blues moved with them.

And again, many of the most famous urban blues singers were from the Mississippi Delta.

They included men such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and the famous B.B.

King.

The urban blues was a different sound from the traditional country blues.

It had a faster beat.

And electric guitars replaced the traditional, unamplified instruments in the South.

Today blues is recognized as one of the most important musical forms to have come out of our country.

And many of these singers came from the Mississippi Delta.

In England alone, there are two monthly publications which deal with the blues.

Blues Unlimited and Blues World.

And both of these magazines focus on Mississippi Delta singers in their articles.

We've looked at the history of blues, from their origin in slave songs, to work songs, the traditional blues, and finally urban blues.

Let's look now at the true Mississippi Delta blues, as sung by James "Son" Thomas who's going to sing "The Beefsteak Blues."

The film you'll see during this portion, was made in his home in Leland, Mississippi.

(blues guitar music) ♪ Beefsteak when I'm hungry ♪ And whiskey when I'm dry ♪ I said beefsteak when I'm hungry ♪ ♪ Whiskey when I'm dry ♪ Good lookin' woman when I'm livin' ♪ ♪ And heaven when I die ♪ It's not like I didn't hear the mornin' ♪ ♪ My baby callin' me ♪ It's not like I didn't hear this mornin' ♪ ♪ My baby callin' me ♪ When she be gone 24 hours ♪ Seems like a million years ♪ Well I love ya baby ♪ Better than I do myself ♪ Well it's a days comin' ♪ You gone lovin' you ♪ Well I love you baby but I ♪ Sure do hate your ways ♪ Well you got ways like an injured mule ♪ ♪ Act like a baby child ♪ Got somethin' in you ♪ Baby will I ever change ♪ Well I don' wanna marry ♪ Just wanna be your man ♪ It's not like I didn't hear this morning though ♪ ♪ Slow down with your love ♪ It's not like I didn't hear this mornin' ♪ ♪ Slow down with you love Thank you Mr. Bill - Thank you Son.

I wonder if you could tell us a little about your life as you were growin' up near Yazoo City.

- Oh yeah.

Well when I was young boy, my grandmother and grandaddy, they raised me.

I didn't like to live with my mother.

Because I thought she always mean, she liked to beat on me.

So my grandmother and grandfather, they let me have my way practically.

So when they wanted to send me to school, if I didn't play hooky, I would play sick.

So my grandmother she'd come to the bed, and she'd put her hand on my head, she'd say he has got hot fever.

My grandaddy said oh ain't nothin' wrong with 'im.

So by the time they go to work I'd get the fishin' pole and go to fishin' or either go shootin' marbles.

- Well now could you tell me a little, about the kinda work you did when you were a young man.

- Well the first job I had on a farm-- I was too small to plow or hoe-- was beatin' up soda.

- What would you do with the soda?

- Well you put that with a bucket, you walk down through the fields, and sling it out with a bucket.

50 cents a day.

- Was that for fertilizer?

- For fertilizer.

- And what sorta work did you do after that?

- Well after that there wasn't nothin' for me to do till time to gather crops.

I could pick a little cotton.

Put a little cone, pick it off the ground.

- Could you tell me how you learned to play the blues.

- Well I learnt' from my uncle.

He put a mark on the guitar for me to learn how to play.

- How would he do that now?

- Well he'd take a pencil and he'd put three marks on the neck.

Where to place my fingers.

And I went from that.

I don't know no music by book.

I knows it by head.

- Well now when you moved to Yazoo City, can you tell me, and moved from Yazoo City to Leland, can you tell me about that part of your life?

- Well when I moved from Yazoo City, my mother was over at Leland.

She kept on me about moving closer to her, because my grandmother and grandfather had died.

And so I decided to come over close, and live with her for the rest of my life.

- A lot of Delta blues singers don't like to play church music.

Can you tell me why they feel this way?

- Well it's just 'cording how you mind run.

You take if you, if you gotta feelin' for the church, you ain't gonna go towards the jukehouse.

If you's a beer drinker, whisky drinker, that whatcha gon do.

But now I hear some church members drink beer and whiskey.

They'll drink it and go to church.

But I don't know what kinda man you'd call that, because that's servin' two gods: the devil and the real man.

What I think you outta do is to be one thing.

- Now you say a jukehouse.

What is a jukehouse?

- Well a jukehouse is where they sell whiskey, beer, dance, fight.

That's what I would call a jukehouse.

- Uh huh.

Now when you were in Leland, a lot of people call you Cairo.

Why is that?

- Well they call me Cairo because I sing "The Cairo Blues."

- Where did you learn "The Cairo Blues"?

- I learnt that in the hills.

- Now I wonder if you could give me a little verse or two of "Cairo Blues."

- Sure can.

- Thank you.

(blues guitar music) ♪ You know I would go to Cairo ♪ But the water too high for me ♪ ♪ You know I would go to Cairo ♪ But the water too high for me ♪ ♪ The girl I loved ♪ She got washed away ♪ The girl I loved ♪ She got washed away ♪ You know she got drownded ♪ Swimming along after me ♪ Cairo, Cairo ♪ That is a place for me ♪ Cairo, Cairo ♪ That is a place for me ♪ You know women all love me ♪ And men don't like me round ♪ ♪ Cairo, Cairo ♪ Water runnin' all over town ♪ Cairo, Cairo ♪ Water runnin' all over town ♪ You know I would get the girl that I'm lovin' ♪ ♪ But she's out puttin' me down ♪ ♪ Cairo, Cairo ♪ That is a place for me ♪ Cairo, Cairo ♪ That is a place for me ♪ You know the women all love me ♪ ♪ Men don't like me round ♪ Cairo, Cairo - Son, you talk to me about what you call a make up verse.

Can you tell me what that is?

- Well, words just come to you what to say.

Like makin' up a song.

It just come to you whatever cords you playin', you get the verse out there that goes with what you playin'.

And you can sing it all the way through, as long as you can think of what to say while you playin'.

- And how long, when you're makin' up a song, how long can you play?

- Well I have played 30 minutes on make ups.

- Now when you were playin' in the jukejoints up in the hills around Yazoo City, what was it like on a average Saturday night?

- Well I can tell you I was at Lexington, Mississippi.

That's up in Holmes County.

I had to run off and leave my instrument up there.

I was standing up in the middle of floor with a half pint corn whiskey.

And the sheriff broke the door down, and I got strangled on the whiskey, and I run off and left my guitar, microphone, and all of it and went back run about two miles 'fore I stopped.

(chuckles softly) - Well now would you stay there usually all night on a Saturday Night?

- Well that's the night you stay up all night, Saturday night.

If you don't stay up Saturday night, you ain't even goin out.

(chuckles softly) - Right.

Well now tell me, Son, when you make up blues, what are the subjects that are ideas that come to you when you're makin' up a verse?

- Well you get started word and you get to playin', and them verses just come to you.

- What are some of the verses that you've made up now?

- Well I made a part of "Nothin' but the Devil."

I put a few verses in that.

"Beefsteak When I'm Hungry."

I made all of that up.

- Son, tell me why you sing the blues.

- Well I have the blue feelin' all the time, especially when I'm 'round my guitar.

I keeps the blues all the time.

And if I get worried, I sure enough got the blues.

Ever since my first wife quit me, I've been had the blues ever since.

- Now a lot of the singers in the Delta play what they call bottleneck style.

Can you tell me what that is?

- Yeah I plays a steel slide.

Which is a slide what comes off like twisted.

We use a twisted wire.

And I sawed this off to make it to cover my fingers, for to play guitar with.

And you can make it too long, or you can not have it long enough.

If you don't have it long enough, you can't make your recordings on your guitar, like you should.

So I cut this one just right.

- [Bill] Can you show me how you put that on your hand?

- Oh yeah it screws on.

I got threads on my finger, you didn't know that?

- [Bill] I sure didn't.

- Well I got threads on my finger.

'Cause they wearing out.

- [Bill] You used it so much.

- I used it so much.

- Uh huh.

Well now lemme take this guitar from you, and maybe you could take your electric guitar, and show us how you hit a cord or two.

And show us the difference in the sound of when you play just with your fingers.

Play a cord or two with your fingers, and then play one with the slide, and show us the difference.

- Well this a way if you're gonna play with your fingers, you would play like this.

(electric guitar tune) That's to see if you're in tune.

And when you get ready to make your slide you come down.

Then it's ready to work.

- Now how old were you when you learned how to play slide?

- 15 or 20.

- Can you tell me a little about where you were, and how you learned it?

- Up in the hills of Yazoo county.

- [Bill] And how did you learn it?

- Well I learnt mostly from Elmore James, taking patterns out of him.

- Well now I'm gonna ask you if you could give us a little of "Standing at the Crossroads."

- I'd be glad to.

- Now when we play this-- when you play this, we're gonna be showin' the film we made at the jukejoint near Leland about a year ago.

- Well that'd be real fine.

- Good.

(blues electric guitar music) ♪ I was standing at the crossroads ♪ ♪ With my head hang down and cryin' ♪ ♪ I was standin' at the crossroads ♪ ♪ With my head hangin' down and cryin' ♪ ♪ I was cryin' about my baby ♪ She'll be back home someday ♪ Baby please ♪ Baby please come back to me ♪ Baby please ♪ Baby please come back to me ♪ Well you don't want em' lovin' ♪ ♪ And why I hate the blues ♪ Write me one letter ♪ Baby let me hear from you ♪ Write me one letter ♪ Baby let me hear from you ♪ Well you don't 'em lovin' ♪ And why I hate the blues ♪ If I lose you woman ♪ I lost everythin' I had ♪ And If I lose you woman ♪ I lost everythin' I had ♪ You know you don't want 'em lovin' ♪ ♪ And why I hate the blues ♪ I was standin' at the crossroads ♪ ♪ With my head hang down cryin' ♪ ♪ I was standin' at the crossroads ♪ ♪ With my head hang down cryin' ♪ ♪ I was cryin' about my baby ♪ She'll be back home some day