Annotation:Joe Turner Blues

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 JOE TURNER BLUES. AKA - "Old Joe Turner Blues." AKA and see "Going Down the River for Long." Old-Time, Blues. USA, Texas. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. There are several songs and tunes that go by the title "Joe Turner." "Joe Turner Blues" was one of the tunes played by Bond's String Band, a late 1920's six to eight piece string band from Corbin, Kentucky, whose personnel was composed almost entirely of railroaders. The band specialized in playing blues tunes, but did not record (Wolfe, 1982). Big Bill Broonzy recorded a "Joe Turner Blues" in 1951 that he claimed was written in 1892; the Joe Turner figure in his song is helpful 'to white and black alike'. A different, more sinister Joe Turner was the subject of another blues song, as played by Mississippi John Hurt (1893-1966). His Joe Turner was based on one Joe Turney (also﻿ called Turner), brother of Pete Turney, a governor of Tennessee. Joe had the responsibility of taking Negro prisoners from Memphis to the penitentiary at Nashville, but sometimes impressed blacks to labor in plantations along the Mississippi. Blues composer W.C. Handy wrote a song called "Joe Turner Blues," copyrighted in 1915, however, the version printed by Christeson is a western swing tune.  Source for notated version: Red Williams (Dallas, Texas) [Christeson].  Printed sources: Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 1), 1973; p. 155.  Recorded sources: Bluebird B-5775 (78 RPM), Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies (1935)  See also listing at: Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources

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