What Did You Miss This Week? (Week 233 #276)

16 Bar Blues!!! Joe was away this week and Shoji taught a fantastic class on the sixteen bar blues song structure. His handout showed chord changes for typical 16 bar songs and made clear how similar they are, starting withCareless Love which we all know and progressing through other traditional songs like This Train, When The Saints Go Marching In and even Amazing Grace and Camptown Races! These all follow the My Babe 16 bar form with minor variations and it's great to see the connection. Shoji also made the important observation that most of the variations happening in songs he talked about tend to occur in the first eight bars. When you isolate just the last eight bars and look at the form, it is the typical 8 bar song form. It was a great lesson, thanks Shoji! Here is the list of songs Shoji played for us: Careless Love (Lonnie Johnson) My Babe (Little Walter) One More Chance With You (Little Walter) It's Too Late Brother (Little Walter) Poor Boy (Howlin' Wolf) Diamonds At Your Feet (Muddy Waters) Help The Poor (BB KING) Love I Have For You (Eddy Clearwater) Very Good Condition (Eddy Clearwater) Truckin' My Blues Away (Blind Boy Fuller) Crazy About You (State Street Boys) Blue Moon Of Kentucky (Elvis) I Got a Woman (Ray Charles) I Had a Dream Last Night (Rob Stone) Something You Got (BB King) She Caught The Katy (Taj Mahal) Work Song (Nat Adderley) Mood Indigo (Duke Ellington) The Preacher (Horace Silver)

Gary Smith Songs!!! Gary Smith has been kind enough to let us run a few of his songs on our YouMissedMonday website. Go here and click play in the upper right box and you can familiarize yourself with his great playing!

Help Us Promote The Bash!!! Our posters are out and tickets are on sale! Thanks to our amazing graphic designer friend, Marianna Delinck Manley, for another awesome looking poster! If you know of an appropriate place to hang posters to help us promote the show, let Joe or Grant know! Get your tickets to the bash now before they sell out...and share this link with all your blues-loving friends. Let's pack the house! tickets: chicagobluesharpbash.com (or you can buy them from Joe in class) Also, we've created a Facebook Event for the Bash: Invitation. If you're on Facebook, please be sure to do two things: 1) click "attending" 2) "Share" this event with any and all your friends!

MS Blows!!! B1 friend Jimmy Gordon is a phenomenal harp player, instructor and customizer and he has just released a CD to raise funds for multiple sclerosis research. The lineup of harp players who have donated songs is impressive: Charlie McCoy, Jellyroll Johnson, PT Gazell, Kim Wilson, Rick Estrin and our own Chicago friends, James Conway and Joe Filisko. Get your copy now! In Jimmy's own words: "I am Jimmy Gordon and the harmonica is my life! I play, teach, build and study harmonicas. I've played with Bonnie Raitt, Jerry Lee Lewis, J.J. Cale, The Nighthawks and many more. I began to suffer the debilitating effects of MS or Multiple Sclerosis in 1997. MS is a serious chronic neurological condition affecting a half-million people in the US. With no cure research is ongoing. MS has affected my life and work as a harmonica player and teacher."

Class Notes Joe will be back next week and all classes run as normal! Old Town School take a break in August; no classes August 15 and 22. Classes resume August 29.

Andrew Diehl On The Air!!! Andrew Diehl and the Nightmen are playing an hour set on Hambone's Blues Party WDCB 90.9 FM, Thursday, August 4th from 10-11p. If you're outside of Chicagoland, you can listen to the show streaming from WDCB's website. Check it out, and congrats Andrew! - Grant Kessler, B1 Blues Crew