52 weeks of blues

Corey Harris is one of the best modern day bluesmen, albeit not as well known as he should be. He is a socially conscious musician, promoting equality and recognition for minorities, while blending the blues with African and ‘world’ music. His guitar technique and song craft is firmly rooted in the bedrock of Delta and Piedmont blues.
He was born in Denver, Colorado, on February 21 1963, to music loving parents who encouraged him to take up music from a young age. He grew up listening to reggae and folk music and started on the trumpet at age 5. Around age 12 he discovered his mother’s Lightnin’ Hopkins records and took up the guitar, learning Lightnin’s licks by ear. He sang regularly with his local church and played in rock bands throughout high school.
After high school Corey studied at Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, majoring in anthropology and linguistics – taking his National resonator with him. He spent a year studying abroad splitting the time between France and Cameroon where he studied African language patterns. In Cameroon he became fascinated with the polyrhythmic Juju music of Cameroon and Nigeria and its relation to blues of the delta.
Graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in 1991, Corey relocated to Napoleonville, Louisiana, teaching French and English during the day through the Teach for America program, and playing the blues in local coffee houses and clubs at night with occasional trips to play street corners in New Orleans. He develop a reputation as a fine bluesman and attracted the attention of Alligator records.
He went into the studio with producer Larry Hoffman in 1994 and released his debut album ‘Between Midnight and Day’ the following year to rave reviews. The album is pure resonator blues – one man, one guitar and a slide with Corey’s rich voice over the top. It quickly raised his profile and by year’s end he was touring the west coast supporting Natalie Merchant.
He followed it up with ‘Fish ‘ain’t Bitin’ in 1997, where he added a brass section and delved into more funk inspired tunes. Playing various festivals and events Corey’s reputation continue to grow and he was invited to contribute to ‘Mermaid Avenue’ – a project by Billy Bragg and Wilco to combine unused Woodie Guthrie lyrics with new music.
‘Greens for the Garden’ was released in 1999 and continued Corey’s explorations of the funk of New Orleans and R&B. The following year saw a duet album with Corey’s guitar and the piano of Harry Butler titled ‘Vu-Du Menz’.
He left Alligator for Rounder records in the early 2000s and continue to release albums that explored his varying influences. ‘Downtown Sophisticate’ in 2002 shows African and Latin influences and ‘Mississippi to Mali’ further expands on the connection with blues and traditional African music. 2003 saw Corey feature in the Martin Scorcese series ‘The Blues’ on the episode ‘Feel Like Gong Home’, which explores the African roots of the blues.
In 2007 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, a grant for US citizens that show “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction”. His old college, Bates college, awarded him an honourary Doctorate in Music the same year. All the while he continue to record and release great music – currently he has over 15 albums under his name. He truly is at the forefront of continuing to develop the history of the blues in the modern age.
Note:
Corey provides a lot of guitar lessons of both his own songs and covers, and blues techniques. They are available at Sonic Junction and a search of ‘Corey Harris lesson’ on youtube will get you a bunch of great lessons from this master of the blues. Check it out, the guy is fantastic!

Honeysuckle is a beautiful song, played in the key of C in standard tuning. The original is played in a band setting, with piano and fiddle, but I love this version, recorded live with a single acoustic. A video of this performance is available on youtube.
The tune follows a great ragtime progression based on the standard 12 bar ‘quick change’. Corey substitutes a few chords and uses them to create great momentum in what is really a laid back song. A quick change 12 bar is where you go to the IV chord on bar 2 instead of staying on the I for the opening 4 bars, but Corey does half a bar of both the IV and V before resolving to the I in bar 3. He also goes to the V for the last half bar of bar 6 to extend the natural tension of the IV chord.In the turnaround, he replaces the IV chord in bar 10 altogether, using half a bar of the II and V – something you see in jazz and ragtime fairly often. In bars 11 and 12 he plays half a bar of I, IV, I and V before launching the next repetition of the progression,
The main feature of the tune is Corey’s amazing finger picking work carried out over the more complex chord structure of the piece. He plays a lead in note for almost every chord – reminiscent of Blind Blake – and injects melodic phrases whenever he wants. Most of the time the melody also leads into the next chord. Sometimes the lead in notes are played with the thumb, sometimes with the index finger. It’ll take a bit of practice to get the ‘groove’ of what he is doing, but once you get it you can apply it to every other song you can play.
The song uses open familiar open chords played in the usual way, but I would recommended using your thumb over the top to play the base G note of the G chord in bar 9. You need to be able to slide your ring finger from the 2nd to the 4th fret of the G string, I haven’t been able to do it without using my thumb over the top.
Theory wise the melody is built around the ‘extended’ blues scale – the normal blues scale with the major 6th add in – and the familiar open chord shapes on C, G, and F, and A7.
This is a great tune for later intermediate players. The more complex structure, the quicker changes, and his use of lead in notes is something that can really take your playing to another level.

C
Bought my baby a brand new 'Benzo
F                    G7              C
Bought my baby a diamond ring 
F        
Bought my baby a brand new 'Benzo
F                   G7                C               A7
Bought my baby a diamond ring 
G                             G7
She said if you ain't no honey-dripper
D7               G7
Brother don't mean a doggone thing
C7          F          C          G

Bought my baby a passenger train
She said papa don't waste your time
Bought my baby a passenger train
She said papa don't waste your time
Now meet me across the tracks
And don't forget my honeysuckle wine

Solo

When I first met you baby
I tried to play it cool
When I first met you baby
Woman I tried to play it cool
But after all your good lovin
I'll be glad to be your fool

Lay with me baby
Beneath the honeysuckle vine
Lay with me baby
'Neath the honeysuckle vine
For to suckle all this honey 
Take a great long time

Baby take a great long time

A bit of free time improvisation to start us off, then the rhythm and tempo for the rest of the song is established in bar 4. Notice that he doesn’t hit the bass notes on every beat in the intro, creating a very laid back feeling.

The progression follows the same structure every time, though Corey improvises licks and melodies over the top. I’ve included chord diagrams to give you the ‘rhythm’ chord used, but check the tab for the actual fingering. He improvises little runs in the progression, I’ve included the first 2 verses to give you an idea of what he does.
Verse 1
Verse 2

The solo starts off with some nice upstrumming of the chords, and uses the chord shapes of the normal progression. The slide in the G section in bar 9 is really tricky with the bass note – I suggest using your thumb over the top.

Nice little traditional delta outro.