# Please School Me On The Blues **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2010, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-school-me-on-the-blues/544211 "2010-06-23T05:03:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-school-me-on-the-blues/544211/21 "2010-06-23T19:16:49Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > One thing I forgot to mention is that a certain amount of early country music is just the blues played by hillbillies. See Jimmie Rodgers. Later on, country got another infusion of the blues (this time, electric blues and jump blues) and produced rockabilly. (I’ve always been kind of bemused by the fact that the first white cats to really pick up on what was about to become rock & roll were, of all people, hillbillies.) > [@Ogre](#): > > I have a slightly different interpretation. It was, IMO, the merging of hillbilly music and the blues, which are very similar in structure (lots of I-IV-V, for example), typical keys, and approach, that created rock n’ roll. The hillbillies didn’t swipe the blues. They had their own blues, or something very much like it, and the two styles were incredibly compatible with each other. Absolutely. And what is little remarked-upon is that the musical cross-fertilization worked in both directions. Most of the Delta blues cats were tremendous country music fans, and listened to the Grand Ole Opry religiously, incorporating many of the songs they heard into their own repertoires. No less a titanic figure than Howlin’ Wolf stated that his trademark wolf howl was directly influenced by Jimmie Rodgers’ yodeling. Vocal styles, instrumental licks, and songs flowed freely between the genres. It’s no accident that a song like “Sittin’ on Top of the World” was found in the repertoires of black bluesmen and white Western Swing bands alike. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-school-me-on-the-blues/544211/22 "2010-06-23T22:06:13Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > Absolutely. And what is little remarked-upon is that the musical cross-fertilization worked in both directions. > > Most of the Delta blues cats were tremendous country music fans, and listened to the Grand Ole Opry religiously, incorporating many of the songs they heard into their own repertoires. No less a titanic figure than Howlin’ Wolf stated that his trademark wolf howl was directly influenced by Jimmie Rodgers’ yodeling. > > Vocal styles, instrumental licks, and songs flowed freely between the genres. It’s no accident that a song like “Sittin’ on Top of the World” was found in the repertoires of black bluesmen and white Western Swing bands alike. Yeah, it’s a popularly-held “fact” that white people stole blues from black people and made a lot of money on rock n’ roll. That’s powerfully revisionist, though. It doesn’t reflect reality. I’m not saying that black musicians weren’t cruelly taken advantage of. They were. Charley Patton died a pauper, while his songs made record companies a lot of money (Jimbo Mathus will always have my respect for his album “Songs For Rosetta”. He donated all proceeds from the album to Charley’s widow, Rosetta.) But in places like Memphis and Muscle Shoals, where black blues musicians and white country musicians met and mingled and played together, magic happened. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-school-me-on-the-blues/544211/23 "2010-06-25T03:14:49Z")
The public radio station in Kansas City has a four-hour blues program every Friday and Saturday night. [Here is a link to their audio archives.](http://www.kcur.org/FFArchives.html) It’s a pretty good mix of many different styles of blues, along with some soul, R&B, and zydeco. Give it a listen, you’re bound to hear something you like. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-school-me-on-the-blues/544211/24 "2010-06-25T05:24:25Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > The public radio station in Kansas City has a four-hour blues program every Friday and Saturday night. [Here is a link to their audio archives.](http://www.kcur.org/FFArchives.html) It’s a pretty good mix of many different styles of blues, along with some soul, R&B, and zydeco. Give it a listen, you’re bound to hear something you like. Ah, the Fish Fry! A propos of nothing, the guy who fills in for the main host when he’s off is a good friend of mine. Always great stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-school-me-on-the-blues/544211/25 "2010-06-25T05:41:44Z")
People! People! People! Has anyone thought to ask this man if he has paid his dues? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-school-me-on-the-blues/544211.md?page=1)