Big Road Blues - A Musical Journey Through The Years

Fans of Lucinda Williams may recognise the title 'Down the Big Road Blues' which featured as a bonus track on the Deluxe Edition of her breakthrough Grammy Award winning album 'Car Wheels on a Gravel Road'. The song is rightly credited to Mattie Delaney who unfortunately only had two known recordings released under her name. One was the aforementioned 'Down the Big Road Blues' while on the other side of the disc was 'Tallahatchie River Blues' a song about the flood of the river that occurred on 23 January 1930.

Both tracks were recorded in Memphis on 21 February 1930 and were released on the Vocalion record label. On both cuts Delaney sang and accompanied herself on guitar. Beyond the fact that she was still alive in 1930, nothing else is known about Delaney. She simply disappeared from public view..

Although she wrote 'Down the Big Road Blues' the song was a variation on 'Big Road Blues' which had been written by Tommy Johnson and was recorded by him also in Memphis on 3 February 1928. It was released on Victor Records coupled with 'Cool Drink of Water Blues' on a 10" 78 RPM record bearing the Victor label. On both tracks, Johnson sang and played guitar accompanied by second guitarist, Charlie McCoy.

Canned Heat who were to take their name from another Tommy Johnson song, 'Canned Heat Blues' included Johnson's 'Big Road Blues' on their self titled 1967 debut album. The following year they released the track 'On The Road Again' which paid homage to a 1953 song of the same name by Floyd Jones who had simply reworked his own haunting 1952 recording 'Dark Road Blues'. Listening to the latter, it should be obvious to anyone that it is very heavily influenced by Johnson's 'Big Road Blues'.

Then in 2003, Corey Harris who was not born until two years after Canned Heat's debut, released the album 'Mississippi to Mali' on which he fused his own blues with the music of Ali Farka Toure. One of the tracks included on the album was none other than Tommy Johnson's 'Big Road Blues' (though it was credited on the album as 'traditional').

Thus the thread that connects these diverse performances can clearly be seen stretching from Tommy Johnson in 1928 through Mattie Delaney (1930), Floyd Jones (1952), Canned Heat (1967), Lucinda Williams (1998) and eventually to Corey Harris in 2003. A total of 75 years. 

I hope that these examples provide one small glimpse into how the works of blues artists from the early part of the 20th century continue to influence contemporary artists today. It makes me wonder however, whether those contemporary acts will exert the same influence in another 75 years. One thing is for sure; I won't be here to find out.

Click the links below to listen to each of these fine tracks. I hope you enjoy them.

Tommy Johnson - Big Road Blues (1928)

Mattie Delaney - Down the Big Road Blues (1930)

Floyd Jones - Dark Road Blues (1952)

Canned Heat - Big Road Blues (1967)

Lucinda Williams - Down the Big Road Blues (1998) [live version]

Corey Harris - Big Road Blues (2003)