Friday, May 29, 2009

Barbecue Bob - Chocolate to the Bone

This is not the cold haunting of Skip James. This is motherfucking Barbecue Bob, motherfuckers, and he too is a guitar freak. Chords are practically eliminated on many of these recordings, and we are instead treated with BBQ's slide trickery. Check out Mississippi Blues, where he mostly follows the vocal melody before concluding the phrase with his trademark VI V VI I (also prevalent in Chocolate to the Bone that reappears in Jacksonville Blues).

I love the idea of having a catchphrase-style lick: Michael Jackson's "hee hee hee", Unleashed's first bar of all of their mosh parts. What a cool thing - if you can think of more share that shit in the comments.

Atlanta Moan is another great example of this tangy bastard following his voice with his guitar and inserting sparse chording as a driving backbeat - then jumping quickly into leads to transition from chord to chord in the 12 bar structure. Super secret family recipe lookin-ass.

5 comments:

Stephen said...

"tangy bastard"

erik b and rakim said...

THE SAUCE IS THE BOSS

but yea came in here to comment on the tangy bastard bit

Todd said...

Both of you - less commenting more guest-posting.

icoulddietomorrow said...

i found this CD in my mom's collection when i was 14 and was blown away by it. awesome post!

-Adam

Todd said...

Adam, your mom rules. Send pics.