Bman's Blues Report

Standing 6'5" and weighing 300-plus, Ernest "Big" Crawford loomed large in Chicago's explosive postwar blues scene. Crawford's slapped upright lines pushed recordings by the likes of Little Walter, Big Bill Broonzy, and Memphis Slim, but his work with former plantation hand Muddy Waters carved Crawford's name for all time in the blues bass hall of fame. In April 1948, fellow South Side denizens Waters and Crawford recorded "I Can't Be Satisfied" for the Chess brothers' Aristocrat label. (Seven years earlier in Mississippi, Waters had recorded the song as "I Be's Troubled" for musicologist Alan Lomax.) On the'48 track, Crawford's slap-bass accompaniment begins with a simple root-5 pattern that hangs on the I chord's G and D notes even when Waters goes to the IV. On the turnaround, Crawford pedals an A under the V chord (and tosses in a non-chord E), and on the IV he introduces a chromatic lick with a syncopation ...

Big Bill Broonzy was born William Lee Conley Broonzy in the tiny town of Scott, Mississippi, just across the river from Arkansas. During his childhood, Broonzy's family -- itinerant sharecroppers and the descendants of ex-slaves -- moved to Pine Bluff to work the fields there. Broonzy learned to play a cigar box fiddle from his uncle, and as a teenager, he played violin in local churches, at community dances, and in a country string band. During World War I, Broonzy enlisted in the U.S. Army, and in 1920 he moved to Chicago and worked in the factories for several years. In 1924 he met Papa Charlie Jackson, a New Orleans native and pioneer blues recording artist for Paramount. Jackson took Broonzy under his wing, taught him guitar, and used him as an accompanist. Broonzy's entire first session at Paramount in 1926 was rejected, but he returned in November 1927 and succeeded in getting his first record, House Rent Stomp, onto Paramount wax. As one of his early records came out ...

Big Bill Broonzy (26 June 1898 – 15 August 1958) was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences. In the 1950s a return to his traditional folk-blues roots made him one of the leading figures of the emerging American folk music revival and an international star. His long and varied career marks him as one of the key figures in the development of blues music in the 20th century. Broonzy copyrighted more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including both adaptations of traditional folk songs and original blues songs. As a blues composer, he was unique in that his compositions reflected the many vantage points of his rural-to-urban experiences. Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click HERE

Big Bill Broonzy (26 June 1898 – 15 August 1958) was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences. In the 1950s a return to his traditional folk-blues roots made him one of the leading figures of the emerging American folk music revival and an international star. His long and varied career marks him as one of the key figures in the development of blues music in the 20th century. Broonzy copyrighted more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including both adaptations of traditional folk songs and original blues songs. As a blues composer, he was unique in that his compositions reflected the many vantage points of his rural-to-urban experiences. Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click HERE