52 weeks of blues

‘Blind Man sit in the Way and Cried’ is one of a number of spirituals that John Hurt recorded for the Library of Congress in July 1963. This is the only known recording of the song by MJH, and the way it just peters out seems to suggests that it was an old song that he barely remembers how to play. The song itself is a traditional spiritual – versions of it have existed as “negro spirituals” and Christians songs for the last century usually under variations of “Blind Man Stood in the Road and Cried”. It’s unknown why the Library of Congress version has a different name.
John plays it – somewhat unusually for him – in a really low standard tuning, down around C#. Tune all your strings down 3 semi tones. He plays it with his trusty G chord, so that the pitch of the song is in E. The song is nearly all in G, with a bar of A thrown in. It’s probably more correct to say he uses an Em chord in bars 11 and 13, but since Em is the relative minor to G and with John only playing the D and A strings, in practical terms you can keep the G shape.
The song is a 16ish bar progression, with John adding an extra bar here and there. It’s a great little tune, with the highlight being John’s impeccable note choice. MJH’s style is all about the melody, and in this tune he plays the melody in the bass, with very little work on the treble stings. The melody is simple, he pretty much just plays around with the major tones – the 3rd and 6th, with the 2nd (9th) as a higher tension note – but the simplicity and note choice create a sound that is deep, mysterious and joyous all at the same time. Less is most definitely more.
The key to playing it is not to lose the beat. After every bar or two of melody is a more typical finger picked G chord with an alternating bass. This establishes the 1 2 3 4 and you need to keep strictly to that beat, even in bars where you aren’t playing on the beat. It’s one of those songs that is going to feel incredibly natural once you get it. John improvises the melody and picking each repetition of the progression, and its a perfect song to improvise over. Just remember to keep it simple, you can say a lot with just a hand full of notes.

Intro

G
Blind man sat on the road and cried
Blind man sat on the road and cried
A                        G
Cried, "Oh Lord, save my soul.
I wants to go to Heaven when I die."

Interlude

Oh, the blind man sat on the road and cried
Blind man sat on the road and cried
Cried, "Oh Lord, save my soul."
Blind man sat on the road ----

Interlude

Lord, Lord, save my soul
Lord, Lord, save my soul

Well, the blind man sat on the road and cried
Well, the blind mmmmmmmm
Mmmmmmmm

An extra bar here as John noodles around before firmly establishing the beat in bar 6. Keep the beat strong and use a relaxed shuffle rhythm.

The song features just the one progression played differently each time. I’ve tabbed out the first verse and the first interlude here, use these as a guide and and just go with the feel. He throws in an extra bar in the interlude, but I think it works better keeping to a 16 bar progression.
Interlude