Worried Man Blues: A Song History
The Traditional Ballad Index gives the author of “Worried Man Blues” as unknown, lists prison among its keywords and assigns it Roud number 4753.[1] One note in the Index, while recording that A. P. Carter copyrighted the song, doubts that he wrote it and raises the possibility that it reached him from an African American prison song.[1] A second note proposes a blues as another possible source, pointing to Charley Patton’s 1929 recording of “Down the Dirt Road Blues,” which it judges to be a different song despite much shared phrasing.[1] The Index also points readers to “Dink’s Blues” and “I’m a Stranger Here” for shared floating verses and to “Two Dollar Bill (Long Journey Home)” for the tune.[1] Finally, it cites a fragment printed by Dorothy Scarborough that may belong either to this song or to a related one,[1] in a collection she published in 1925.[2]
Detroit Publishing Co., The Levee from the bluff, Memphis, Tenn., glass negative, c. 1906. Memphis about a quarter-century before the Carter Family recorded the song there; shown for its setting.
The Carter Family recorded it for Victor in Memphis, Tennessee, on May 24, 1930, at a session supervised by Ralph Peer, with A. P. Carter singing bass, Sara Carter singing alto and playing autoharp, and Maybelle Carter singing soprano and playing guitar.[3] The second take was issued on Victor V-40317, and the same take also appeared on Bluebird and Montgomery Ward releases.[3] Victor reissued it in September 1941 on Victor 27497, part of an album titled Smoky Mountain Ballads.[4] The Victor label named A. P. Carter as composer, but the Discography of American Historical Recordings lists him as arranger and describes him as “possibly an adapter.”[3] In Smithsonian Folkways notes, Guy Logsdon and Jeff Place call the question of authorship “pure speculation” and list three separate copyright registrations: one by Joe McCoy in June 1930, one in October 1930 naming A. P. Carter and Southern Music as composer and publisher, and one by Walter Davis in January 1933.[5]
According to the same Folkways notes, Woody Guthrie learned the song by listening to the Carter Family, and its popularity may owe much to his influence among urban folk musicians.[5] He recorded it with Cisco Houston on April 19, 1944, a performance now issued on Muleskinner Blues: The Asch Recordings, Vol. 2.[5] Pete Seeger sang it on his 1960 Folkways album Pete Seeger at the Village Gate with Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon, and in its notes he said he had it from Guthrie and suggested the song might go back to the time of slavery.[6] Notes to the Smithsonian’s Woody at 100 collection give Guthrie’s version the credit for the song’s wide currency in the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, name the Kingston Trio among the groups who recorded it, and observe that it has found a place in bluegrass as well.[7] Jim Miller arranges it in DGD tuning in 15 Tunes In The Public Domain Recorded By The Carter Family, Volume 1, a 42-page book of solo mountain dulcimer arrangements with tablature, lyrics and chord symbols, published by Fingers Of Steel.[8]
Sources
- Traditional Ballad Index: "Worried Man Blues".
- Traditional Ballad Index: "Bibliography".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-59987. Worried man blues / Carter Family".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor 27497. Smoky Mountain ballads (Album P-79)".
- Smithsonian Folkways: "Woody Guthrie, Muleskinner Blues: The Asch Recordings, Vol. 2 (liner notes)".
- Smithsonian Folkways: "Pete Seeger at the Village Gate with Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon (liner notes, FA 2450)".
- Smithsonian Folkways: "Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection (liner notes)".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Jim Miller, 15 Tunes In The Public Domain Recorded By The Carter Family, Volume 1".
- Image: Detroit Publishing Co., The Levee from the bluff, Memphis, Tenn., glass negative, c. 1906. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.