52 weeks of blues

Alec Seward was a bluesman from the Piedmont region of the Eastern United States. He played in the traditional Piedmont style, and introduced more urban sounds into his playing throughout his career. He was an important part of the New York blues scene of the 30s and 40s, and achieved some fame with the blues revival of the 1960s, but was not a huge name and his life is sparsely documented. He was the first guitarist to adopt the moniker “Guitar Slim”.
Born in Newport News, next to Charles County, Virginia, on March 16 1901, Alec was one for 14 siblings. He began playing guitar as a teen, starting on his brother’s guitar and later being shown things by the itinerant potato pickers that would work seasonally around the Charles County and Norfolk areas. He began playing at local dances in the area. From the potato pickers he learnt that musicians had better chances for success in bigger cities, so he headed to New York in 1924 which became his home for the rest of his life.
Alec played in clubs and on the street in New York for many years, but struggled to find any success. In the 1940s a folk revival began, centred around the coffee houses of New York. During the 1930’s several leading blues artists – such as Lead Belly and Josh – relocated to New York, recording and performing around the city. Combined with ‘protest’ artists like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, an interest in traditional and roots music sparked. A 1937 Life magazine cover story on Lead Belly further promoted interest in traditional blues.
In 1942, Brownie McGhee, a leading Piedmont bluesman, also relocated to New York, reunited with his musical partner Sonny Terry. McGhee started a school for blues guitar and Alec Seward was his first student. Brownie’s school became a place of Piedmont musicians seeking big city success to meet and perform together. A guitar player from North Carolina, Louis Hayes, met Seward there, and the two became firm friends and musical partners.
They started performing together under a variety of names – “Guitar Slim and Jelly Belly”, “Blues Servant Boys”, “Slim Seward and Fat Boy Hayes” and the “Back Porch Boys” – around the coffee houses and quickly attracted an audience. They played traditional Piedmont style country blues, despite newer urban blues sounds being more popular. In 1947 they were recorded, and over the next few years released a variety of 78s under the various names they used live. Seward also recorded with Brownie McGhee, Lead Belly, Sonny Terry and Woodie Guthrie.
Alec continued to record into the 50’s, partnering Sonny Terry for a solo album in 1954 and releasing more tracks with Jelly Belly. He continued to perform around the city as a solo artist and part of many bands, not to mention his continued relationship with Hayes.
The blues revival of the 1960s gave Alec a bigger audience. In 1965 he recorded his one and only solo album titled “Creepin’ Blues”, accompanied by a young guitarist and harmonica player named Larry Johnson. The record was met with some success, and the 60 year old was a regular and welcome performer at concerts and folk festivals for the rest of the decade.
Alec Seward died of natural causes on May 11, 1972 and is buried in his adopted home of New York.

“Creepin’ Blues” is a loose quick change 12 bar played in standard tuning in the key of B. Alec plays a great guitar part and Larry Johnson wails away on the harmonica all throughout. The key of B, played in open positions, is somewhat unusual in blues.
The guitar work by itself is quite effective. Alec adds bars and subtracts beats and bars at will in the song, which is synonymous with a Delta style, but his finger work, especially the thumb, is the trade mark of the Piedmont style of blues.
Perhaps the most unusual aspect of this song is how Alec uses bass notes of the chords. For the I chord, B, Alec usually adds the 5th note, F#, as the bass note, making it a B7/F#. The B shape he uses is the 2nd fret based B7 without the high F# on the 2nd fret high E string. He plays around with the bass and the open B string, adding in the 7th note, A, on the 2nd fret G string. The IV chord, E, is standard, but for the V chord, F#, Alec plays a B chord with an F# bass, a B/F#. Instead of the B7 shape of the I chord, Alec plays an A shaped barre chord on the 2nd fret and adds the same F# bass note to it. Minimalistic, but works quite well.
Alec also goes from the I to IV or IV to I chords seemingly at will. He rarely plays them for a full bar, but uses the IV chord for half a bar before returning to the root. Indeed, the song is heavily rooted in the B/F# bass harmony, and almost only hints at the ‘standard’chord changes you’d expect from a 12 bar.
His thumb is constant on the beat, using a lot of additional shuffle notes with the thumb. This really is a fairly subtle piece, using both subtle bass notes played with the thumb to create momentum, and subtle changes in the tones of the bass to hint at chord changes. This is really evident with the use of the 7th note, A, with the F# in the bass in the last bar of the progression, which resolves to the B on the first bar of the next repetition.

B7/F#                               E                                 B7/F#
Mmm Lord, feel something cold creepin' round my bed
B7/F#               E              B7/F#               E              B7/F#
I cry 'Oh Lord', feel something cold creepin' round my bed
B/F#                                               E                                             B7/F#
You know it worry me so bad darling, till I'm talking all out of my head

It start creep at midnight, then it creepin' all day long
Yeah, creep at midnight darling, and it creep all day long
That's why you hear me singing, Lord, this lonesome song

Lord, Lord, Lord, this creepin' sure is worryin' me
Yeah Lord, Lord, Lord, this creepin' sure is worryin' me
Well if it don't stop creepin', Lord, what's going to happen to poor me

Solo

Lord, Lord, Lord, what can a poor man do?
Lord, Lord, Lord, what can a poor man do?
I'm in so much trouble, won't you please tell me what to do?

The intro starts with the main melodic riff of the song, then goes into the loose timing and chord changes of the piece. The turnaround is fairly simple yet very effective.

The main progression has a lot of neat tricks in it, all fairly subtle. The repeated use of the turnaround theme with subtle variations each time, the lack of a straight 4/4 time, the very subtle uses of the bass notes, the walking up to the B – this is a song played by someone in complete control and understanding of what they are doing. Alec improvises around similar themes each verse, here’s the first two verses to show some of his variations.
The piece is quite ‘informal’, relying on subtlety to hint at chord changes, and Alec uses really small changes in pitch to add momentum and movement to the piece.
Verse 1
Verse 2

Due to Alec’s informal approach to bars, not only does the solo run 13 bars but the last bar of the progression usually has a few extra beats. I’ve included the last beat of the previous bar as a lead in to the solo. Alec uses notes of the B blues scale over all the chords here, even the E. This creates a bit of a mixolydian modal feel – ie a scale based on the 5th note of the chord (in this case a B scale over an E chord) which adds a slightly disconnected, spooky feel to it. There’s nothing super tricky in here, but the timing is everything. He doesn’t shred like a maniac, he sets up short phrases and executes them perfectly.