Hesitation Blues : Oh! Baby, Must I Hesitate?

Portrait of \u27The Ranos\u27https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/7576/thumbnail.jp

Hesitation Blues (Oh! Baby, Must I Hesitate?) / music by Billy Smythe; words by Scott Middleton

Cover: photo of the Ranos [photocopy]; Publisher: Billy Smythe Music Co. (Louisville)https://egrove.olemiss.edu/sharris_c/1088/thumbnail.jp

I Belong to the Band: The Music of Reverend Gary Davis

“I Belong to the Band” is the first extensive analytical examination of the music of guitarist/singer Reverend Gary Davis (1896-1972), whose vast repertoire and instrumental virtuosity made him a favorite performer and teacher during the folk and blues revival. Discussed in detail are his songs and aspects of musical technique as well as larger issues such as appropriation in traditional song, the interplay of sacred and secular content and style in African American song, the role(s) of blindness in musical culture, and contrastive and associative symmetries in blues performances. To better glean Davis’s music and the world in which he lived, numerous methodologies were called on including the use of musicological, structuralist, and Jungian interpretative models, textual linguistics in my examination of visual and violent imagery and inference in Davis’s songs, and contextual and biographical analysis. This dissertation also contains the most complete and accurate discography of Davis to date, plus analysis and classification of songs and performances through a number of data-driven as well as hermeneutic approaches including key choice, sacred or secular content, stanzaic structures, and lyric tropes. In the process, I have debunked certain well-established generalizations about Davis, pointing out the extent to which he cultivated a secular repertoire later in his life despite frequent claims by writers that he did not, and I have shown the overreaching influence blindness had on his music and his life. At the same time, this examination of a “folk” figure suggests avenues of research beyond typical folkloric and biographic models, notably through a kind of musicological rigor rarely applied to the performances of such artists. Much can still be culled from this rich swath of musical history simply by revisiting the songs themselves with a more pointed, analytical pen. Ultimately, “I Belong to the Band” demonstrates how one traditional musician forged a highly personalized style from layers of “belonging” and foundation building, from his rural Carolina and African American regional and cultural roots to the rootless solidarity of the Piedmont blues scene to his Christian faith and its expression through gospel music and finally to the “discipleship” he engendered in others who continue to perform his music

Langston Hughes\u27s Ask Your Mama : 12 Moods For Jazz An Explication of Hope In The Midst of Protest

A thesis presented to the faculty of the School of Humanities at Morehead State University in partial. fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of English by William J. Read on July 1, 1982

Hillbillies and Sharecroppers: An introduction to East coast and Mississippi blues styles

In his thesis, Hillbillies and Sharecroppers: an introduction to East coast and Mississippi blues guitar styles, along with the accompanying CD performance, John Taylor discusses pre-WWII blues. The discussion includes regional guitar styles as well as physicalities involved in the performance of early acoustic blues in Appalachia and Mississippi. There is a chapter devoted to subjects covered in early blues songs with a list of lyric examples as well as a biography section devoted to both white and black performers in these styles. The live performance utilizes stories behind the songs and historical information of the performers discussed in the thesis. As Taylor performs, he also reveals the elements such as chord progressions, chord types, etc... that are involved in the performance of rural blues. The writing and performance when coupled present an introduction to early acoustic blues performance and history