"Shuffle Rag"

Hello all, welcome to the May 1st post!

I wanted to focus on Big Bill Broonzy this month, and specifically on an instrumental solo he recorded on May 7, 1957, a little over one year before his death.

“Shuffle Rag” was originally included on the LP Blues with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee . From the liner notes by Studs Terkel:

This was Big Bill's idea. Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee were in Chicago with “Cat On The Hot Tin Roof.” Bill's good friends, two blues artists among the few he considered authentic. "Let's get 'em up to the studio and do a program of blues as three different guys see it."

(It was the summer of 1957. Bill had just returned from a European tour with a bad feeling in his lungs. He had a hunch that time was running out. "That's why I come home so fast. I got that feeling." On these occasions, he spoke of life-values, true and false; of basic rights and wrongs as he saw them; of simple truths; of the one project he wanted to finish - the recording of as many blues as possible. With as many interpretations).

It was an early July morning, somewhere between midnight and 2:00 A.M. We assembled at the studios of WFMl', the Dupont Award winning station, whose facilities were always available to Bill.

His objective was immediately apparent: to reveal the uniqueness of each man's blues as a reflection of the uniqueness of each man's life. “No two human beings has the blues the same way. Blues is a natural fact. It's something a fellow lives. If you don't live it, you don't have it." (How did Charlie Parker say it? ''Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out in your horn.")

Big Bill is playing really well in this session. It is hard to believe that at this point he’s suffering from cancer, it’s the middle of the night, and he’s playing about 12 bpm faster than his earliest recording of the piece.

On that note, we should probably take a moment to discuss the genesis of “Shuffle Rag.” This composition is nearly the same as “House Rent Stomp”. Another recording very similar to “Shuffle Rag” titled “See See Rider” is included on the CD An Introduction to Big Bill Broonzy. I was not able to get a copy of the CD before writing and am not sure about the date of the recording. I assume it is close in time to “Shuffle Rag” since it has similar tempo and variations. The title is likely a misnomer, as “See See Rider” or “C.C. Rider” is a completely different song. I think it’s appropriate that all three recordings should be titled “House Rent Stomp,” but there is more research to be done on this end.

Broonzy is likely playing his 000-28 for the “Shuffle Rag” session. I was able to play this guitar once about 15 years ago. If memory serves me correctly it was a 1946 model. One thing that leads to a characteristic tone in Bill’s recordings is he sounds to be using a plain steel string for the 3rd G string (Mississippi John Hurt did the same thing as can be seen in the Rainbow Quest video).

As most of you probably know, Broonzy mostly used thumb and index finger in the right hand, but he didn’t adhere to this strictly. He occasionally would use his middle finger with the index finger to fill out a chord, and he would also use a flat pick. I think for “Shuffle Rag,” however, Broonzy is likely only using his thumb and index finger. It is in the key of C and Broonzy is using common chords in first position, C, C7, G, G7, F, and Fm. An important consideration when emulating Broony’s left hand is he was known to fret two strings with one finger, as evidenced by the way he plays the first position E with only first and second fingers in “Hey Hey.” I suspect he is doing the same for the F chord in “Shuffle Rag,” using the third finger to cover both the 5th and 4th string, though the 5th often comes out muted. I’m planning on recording a private video in the coming days to share here on Patreon where I will play through and discuss some of these finer details that are hard to capture on the printed page. For now, enjoy the new video and included transcription of “Shuffle Rag.” It will be live on youtube shortly here

The Patreon instructional lesson can be viewed here:
https://youtu.be/dumtnxc1R7w