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117-474: The stream headwaters are the North and West forks which merge just west of US Route 61 about three miles northwest of Troy at 39°01′02″N 90°59′34″W  /  39.01722°N 90.99278°W  / 39.01722; -90.99278 and an elevation of 470 feet. The stream flows east crossing under Route 61 and then turns southeast passing under Missouri Route 47 two miles east of Troy. The stream meanders to

234-495: A British usage of the 1600s referring to the "intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal". As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils and came to mean a state of agitation or depression. By the 1800s in the United States, the term "blues" was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase ' blue law ', which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday. In 1827, it

351-484: A banjo or guitar. Regional styles of country blues varied widely in the early 20th century. The (Mississippi) Delta blues was a rootsy sparse style with passionate vocals accompanied by slide guitar. The little-recorded Robert Johnson combined elements of urban and rural blues. In addition to Robert Johnson, influential performers of this style included his predecessors Charley Patton and Son House . Singers such as Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller performed in

468-415: A break; the harmony of this two-bar break, the turnaround, can be extremely complex, sometimes consisting of single notes that defy analysis in terms of chords. Much of the time, some or all of these chords are played in the harmonic seventh (7th) form. The use of the harmonic seventh interval is characteristic of blues and is popularly called the "blues seven". Blues seven chords add to the harmonic chord

585-567: A center for electric blues from 1948 on, when Muddy Waters recorded his first success, "I Can't Be Satisfied". Chicago blues is influenced to a large extent by Delta blues , because many performers had migrated from the Mississippi region. Howlin' Wolf , Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Jimmy Reed were all born in Mississippi and moved to Chicago during the Great Migration. Their style

702-399: A component of R&B. After World War II, new styles of electric blues became popular in cities such as Chicago , Memphis , Detroit and St. Louis . Electric blues used electric guitars , double bass (gradually replaced by bass guitar ), drums , and harmonica (or "blues harp") played through a microphone and a PA system or an overdriven guitar amplifier . Chicago became

819-521: A four-lane freeway bypass around Fort Madison . US 61 then turns northeast and meets US 34 in Burlington . The highway goes north and overlaps Iowa 92 from Grandview to Muscatine . At Muscatine, the highway turns east to go towards the Quad Cities . At Davenport , US 61 follows I-280 and I-80 around Davenport and meets Business 61. After I-80, the highway turns back north as

936-621: A freeway until De Witt , which is where it meets US 30 . It continues north from there to Dubuque as an expressway except for a freeway section in the Maquoketa area. The highway joins with US 151 about six miles (9.7 km) south of Dubuque . US 61 and US 151 are joined at the Southwest Arterial in Dubuque by US 52 , which separates in Key West . Also in Dubuque,

1053-610: A movement known as the Great Migration . The long boom following World War II induced another massive migration of the African-American population, the Second Great Migration , which was accompanied by a significant increase of the real income of the urban blacks. The new migrants constituted a new market for the music industry. The term race record , initially used by the music industry for African-American music,

1170-613: A new two-lane Mississippi River Bridge opened in La Crosse, creating a four-lane highway from downtown La Crosse to the Minnesota state line. The new bridge brings traffic into La Crosse, and is located just south of the old Cass Street Bridge which continues to be used by traffic heading towards Minnesota . The four-lane highway continues north to La Crescent . US 61 follows the Mississippi River through southeast Minnesota through

1287-456: A note with a frequency in a 7:4 ratio to the fundamental note. At a 7:4 ratio, it is not close to any interval on the conventional Western diatonic scale . For convenience or by necessity it is often approximated by a minor seventh interval or a dominant seventh chord . In melody , blues is distinguished by the use of the flattened third , fifth and seventh of the associated major scale . Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce

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1404-594: A part in early blues, citing Robert Johnson 's " Cross Road Blues " as a "thinly veiled reference to Eleggua , the orisha in charge of the crossroads". However, the Christian influence was far more obvious. The repertoires of many seminal blues artists, such as Charley Patton and Skip James , included religious songs or spirituals. Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Willie Johnson are examples of artists often categorized as blues musicians for their music, although their lyrics clearly belong to spirituals. The blues form

1521-569: A part of ragtime; Handy's signature work was the " Saint Louis Blues ". In the 1920s, the blues became a major element of African American and American popular music, also reaching white audiences via Handy's arrangements and the classic female blues performers. These female performers became perhaps the first African American "superstars", and their recording sales demonstrated "a huge appetite for records made by and for black people." The blues evolved from informal performances in bars to entertainment in theaters. Blues performances were organized by

1638-419: A recording career that began in 1926 and spanned forty years. These recordings were typically labeled " race records " to distinguish them from records sold to white audiences. Nonetheless, the recordings of some of the classic female blues singers were purchased by white buyers as well. These blueswomen's contributions to the genre included "increased improvisation on melodic lines, unusual phrasing which altered

1755-406: A separate genre arose during the black migration from the countryside to urban areas in the 1920s and the simultaneous development of the recording industry. Blues became a code word for a record designed to sell to black listeners. The origins of the blues are closely related to the religious music of Afro-American community, the spirituals . The origins of spirituals go back much further than

1872-576: A short connecting highway links US 61 and US 151 with US 20 . Together, US 61 and US 151 continue through Dubuque, where they cross the Mississippi River and enter Wisconsin via the Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge . A four-lane freeway bypass of Fort Madison was completed and opened to traffic in November 2011. A project to widen a five-mile (8.0 km) segment between

1989-494: A single line repeated four times. However, the most common structure of blues lyrics today was established in the first few decades of the 20th century, known as the "AAB" pattern. This structure consists of a line sung over the first four bars, its repetition over the next four, and a longer concluding line over the last bars. This pattern can be heard in some of the first published blues songs, such as " Dallas Blues " (1912) and " Saint Louis Blues " (1914). According to W.C. Handy ,

2106-463: A wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues rock developed, which blended blues styles with rock music . The term 'Blues' may have originated from "blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness. An early use of the term in this sense is in George Colman 's one-act farce Blue Devils (1798). The phrase 'blue devils' may also have been derived from

2223-449: Is a cyclic musical form in which a repeating progression of chords mirrors the call and response scheme commonly found in African and African-American music. During the first decades of the 20th century blues music was not clearly defined in terms of a particular chord progression. With the popularity of early performers, such as Bessie Smith , use of the twelve-bar blues spread across

2340-516: Is at an intersection with Interstate 35 (I-35). Until 1991, the highway extended north on what is now Minnesota State Highway 61 (MN 61) through Duluth to the Canada–U.S. border near Grand Portage , then continued to Thunder Bay, Canada, as Ontario Highway 61. Its southern terminus in New Orleans is at an intersection with U.S. Route 90 (US 90). The route was an important south–north connection in

2457-597: Is defined in Mississippi Code Annotated § 65-3-3. US 61 enters Memphis from Walls as South 3rd Street in South Memphis, continues north to E.H. Crump Boulevard, then turns west, joining US 64 , US 70 , and US 79 , then joins I-55 as they cross the Mississippi River to West Memphis , a distance of approximately 12 miles (19 km). US 61 runs through the state for 76 miles (122 km) from West Memphis to just north of Blytheville , near

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2574-516: Is four-laned from its southern terminus in New Orleans to the Mississippi state line, where the highway continues to Natchez as a four-lane highway. The section of US 61 from New Orleans to Baton Rouge is known as the Airline Highway . Although the road fronts the former terminal of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and passes near Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport ,

2691-569: Is mostly divided and four-lane; only short sections through Port Gibson are two lane. From Natchez to the Louisiana state line, US 61 is now divided and four lanes. The Mississippi Department of Transportation is now widening the highway between Vicksburg and Leland to four lanes, beginning with replacement of the Yazoo River bridge at Redwood in Warren County . The road is also known as

2808-540: Is now "County 61 / Old US 61" through Esko . I-35 has replaced the original US 61 descending Thompson Hill into West Duluth , from which most of the city of Duluth can be seen entering town, including the Aerial Lift Bridge and the waterfront. The original US 61 in the city of Duluth had previously followed Cody Street, Grand Avenue, Superior Street, Second Street, Third Street, and London Road. The original US 61 between Duluth and Canada

2925-574: Is officially designated the Disabled American Veterans Highway . The portion of US 61 north of Duluth is now part of the Minnesota State Highway system, bearing the designation MN 61 since 1991. Between the city of Wyoming and Duluth, the highway has been turned back to local jurisdiction or supplanted by I-35 . US 61 once ran 1,714 miles (2,758 km) from New Orleans through Duluth , Minnesota all

3042-709: Is often associated with solo piano, boogie-woogie was also used to accompany singers and, as a solo part, in bands and small combos. Boogie-woogie style was characterized by a regular bass figure, an ostinato or riff and shifts of level in the left hand, elaborating each chord and trills and decorations in the right hand. Boogie-woogie was pioneered by the Chicago-based Jimmy Yancey and the Boogie-Woogie Trio ( Albert Ammons , Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis ). Chicago boogie-woogie performers included Clarence "Pine Top" Smith and Earl Hines , who "linked

3159-491: Is often associated with the California blues style, performed a successful transition from the early urban blues à la Lonnie Johnson and Leroy Carr to the jump blues style and dominated the blues-jazz scene at Los Angeles during the 1940s. The transition from country blues to urban blues that began in the 1920s was driven by the successive waves of economic crisis and booms that led many rural blacks to move to urban areas, in

3276-410: Is present along the river, and it is thought to have been named after Baron Georges Cuvier , a French naturalist and paleontologist, who was first to do comparative anatomy and the classification of animals and fossils. When France acquired the territory west of the Mississippi River, Cuvier sent two of his students to America to get specimens of flora and fauna and to assess the climate and topography of

3393-406: Is ubiquitous in jazz , rhythm and blues , and rock and roll , and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale , and specific chord progressions , of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch , are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce

3510-475: The American South sometimes referred to as a jitterbug or a one-string in the early twentieth century) and the banjo are African-derived instruments that may have helped in the transfer of African performance techniques into the early blues instrumental vocabulary. The banjo seems to be directly imported from West African music. It is similar to the musical instrument that griots and other Africans such as

3627-590: The Count Basie Orchestra were also concentrating on the blues, with 12-bar blues instrumentals such as Basie's " One O'Clock Jump " and " Jumpin' at the Woodside " and boisterous " blues shouting " by Jimmy Rushing on songs such as "Going to Chicago" and " Sent for You Yesterday ". A well-known big band blues tune is Glenn Miller 's " In the Mood ". In the 1940s, the jump blues style developed. Jump blues grew up from

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3744-548: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 : Backwater rising, Southern peoples can't make no time I said, backwater rising, Southern peoples can't make no time And I can't get no hearing from that Memphis girl of mine Although the blues gained an association with misery and oppression, the lyrics could also be humorous and raunchy: Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me, Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me, It may be sending you baby, but it's worrying

3861-579: The Igbo played (called halam or akonting by African peoples such as the Wolof , Fula and Mandinka ). However, in the 1920s, when country blues began to be recorded, the use of the banjo in blues music was quite marginal and limited to individuals such as Papa Charlie Jackson and later Gus Cannon . Blues music also adopted elements from the "Ethiopian airs", minstrel shows and Negro spirituals , including instrumental and harmonic accompaniment. The style also

3978-569: The Mississippi River from the Wisconsin border through Hastings where it crosses the river and proceeds to St. Paul . North from the city of Wyoming, Old US 61 continues as "Forest Boulevard" in Chisago County , and then as "County 61" through Pine and Carlton counties before ending at MN 210 . The original US 61 had continued east along MN 210 to Carlton and north on present-day MN 45 to Scanlon before turning northeast on what

4095-514: The Missouri border. The route enters Arkansas in a concurrency with I-55 and US 64 , US 70 , and US 79 near West Memphis . The route skirts the northwest edge of the city, briefly meeting Interstate 40 before continuing north with I-55, US 63 and US 64. US 61 overlaps I-55 until an area near Turrell , when US 61 branches east but continues to run parallel to I-55. Southbound US 61 appears disconnected after

4212-741: The Theater Owners Booking Association in nightclubs such as the Cotton Club and juke joints such as the bars along Beale Street in Memphis. Several record companies, such as the American Record Corporation , Okeh Records , and Paramount Records , began to record African-American music. As the recording industry grew, country blues performers like Bo Carter , Jimmie Rodgers , Blind Lemon Jefferson , Lonnie Johnson , Tampa Red and Blind Blake became more popular in

4329-409: The degrees of the progression. For instance, for a blues in the key of C, C is the tonic chord (I) and F is the subdominant (IV). The last chord is the dominant (V) turnaround , marking the transition to the beginning of the next progression. The lyrics generally end on the last beat of the tenth bar or the first beat of the 11th bar, and the final two bars are given to the instrumentalist as

4446-468: The "AAB" pattern was adopted to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times. The lyrics are often sung in a rhythmic talk style rather than a melody, resembling a form of talking blues . Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative. African-American singers voiced their "personal woes in a world of harsh reality: a lost love, the cruelty of police officers, oppression at the hands of white folk, [and] hard times". This melancholy has led to

4563-438: The 1920s, among them "the big three"— Gertrude "Ma" Rainey , Bessie Smith , and Lucille Bogan . Mamie Smith , more a vaudeville performer than a blues artist, was the first African American to record a blues song, in 1920; her second record, "Crazy Blues", sold 75,000 copies in its first month. Ma Rainey, the "Mother of Blues", and Bessie Smith each "[sang] around center tones, perhaps in order to project her voice more easily to

4680-428: The 1920s, when the record industry created the marketing categories " race music " and " hillbilly music " to sell music by blacks for blacks and by whites for whites, respectively. At the time, there was no clear musical division between "blues" and "country", except for the ethnicity of the performer, and even that was sometimes documented incorrectly by record companies. Though musicologists can now attempt to define

4797-544: The 1930s. US Route 61 U.S. Route 61 or U.S. Highway 61 ( U.S. 61 ) is a major United States highway that extends 1,400 miles (2,300 km) between New Orleans , Louisiana and the city of Wyoming, Minnesota . The highway generally follows the course of the Mississippi River and is designated the Great River Road for much of its route. As of 2004, the highway's northern terminus in Wyoming, Minnesota,

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4914-451: The 9-bar progression in " Sitting on Top of the World ", by Walter Vinson . The basic 12-bar lyric framework of many blues compositions is reflected by a standard harmonic progression of 12 bars in a 4/4 time signature . The blues chords associated to a twelve-bar blues are typically a set of three different chords played over a 12-bar scheme. They are labeled by Roman numbers referring to

5031-601: The African American community. Kentucky-born Sylvester Weaver was in 1923 the first to record the slide guitar style, in which a guitar is fretted with a knife blade or the sawed-off neck of a bottle. The slide guitar became an important part of the Delta blues . The first blues recordings from the 1920s are categorized as a traditional, rural country blues and a more polished city or urban blues. Country blues performers often improvised, either without accompaniment or with only

5148-520: The African call-and-response tradition that transformed into an interplay of voice and guitar, the blues form itself bears no resemblance to the melodic styles of the West African griots . Additionally, there are theories that the four-beats-per-measure structure of the blues might have its origins in the Native American tradition of pow wow drumming. Some scholars identify strong influences on

5265-597: The Blues Highway because it runs through the Mississippi Delta country, which was an important source of blues music. Highway 61 has been referenced in music by various artists with roots in the region. The former junction of US 61 and U.S. 49 in Clarksdale (North State Street and Desoto Avenue) is designated as the famous crossroads where, according to legend, Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to

5382-584: The Devil in exchange for mastery of the blues . US 49 and US 61 are currently routed around the city on a freeway bypass. It was on this stretch of highway that blues singer Bessie Smith died as a result of a car crash on September 26, 1937. Like Route 66 in the Western U.S., the iconic US 61 sign is so strongly identified with the Clarksdale area that it is used to market different products and services. US 61

5499-672: The French colonial " Illinois Country ", which also included parts of present-day Missouri, early American settlers sometimes referred to it as the Illinois Road . It is also known as the Royal Road of the King's Domain in St.Charles County, Missouri. King's Highway or Kingshighway continues as street names in present-day St.Charles, St.Louis, Perryville , Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and New Madrid. When it

5616-474: The Iowa DOT. On the opposite bank of the Mississippi, US 61 and US 151 enter Grant County , with US 61 going north through Wisconsin about 120 miles (190 km) to La Crosse . US 151 separates from US 61 at Dickeyville , with US 61 proceeding through Lancaster , Fennimore , and Boscobel . At Readstown US 61 and US 14 join and proceed together to La Crosse. In 2004,

5733-636: The Louisa–Muscatine county line near Letts and the south junction of Iowa 92 near Grandview to a four-lane expressway was completed in December 2017. Construction on widening US-61 to a divided highway is under way between Burlington and Mediapolis . The remaining segments between Iowa 92 and Mediapolis, and between the northern end of the Keokuk bypass and the Missouri state line have not been programmed yet by

5850-399: The Mississippi River. The original Spanish name el camino real was conferred by Colonel George Morgan in honor of Charles IV of Spain , the reigning King of Spain (1788-1808). The government road was known as le Chemin du Roi or Rue Royale by the local French-speaking population and known as King's Highway or the old King's Trace by early American settlers. Because the road led to

5967-522: The Mississippi at Cuivre Slough which is part of the Mississippi River west of Cuiver Island. The confluence is at 38°56′00″N 90°41′13″W  /  38.93333°N 90.68694°W  / 38.93333; -90.68694 at an elevation of 423 feet. At Troy, the river has a mean annual discharge of 699 cubic feet per second. The Cuivre River received its name from French-speaking settlers in French Louisiana . The name means " copper ", though none

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6084-570: The St. Louis area in Ladue , where US 61 meets I-64 and US 40 . While in the St. Louis area, US 61 is on Lindbergh Boulevard , which goes by the name of Kirkwood Road while in that municipality. After meeting I-64 and US 40, US 61 turns west with them and its overlap with the Avenue of the Saints begins. At Wentzville , the overlap with I-64 and US 40 ends when it meets I-70 , with

6201-420: The back of a room". Smith would "sing a song in an unusual key, and her artistry in bending and stretching notes with her beautiful, powerful contralto to accommodate her own interpretation was unsurpassed". In 1920, the vaudeville singer Lucille Hegamin became the second black woman to record blues when she recorded "The Jazz Me Blues", and Victoria Spivey , sometimes called Queen Victoria or Za Zu Girl, had

6318-544: The beginning of the 20th century. They are now lost. Other recordings that are still available were made in 1924 by Lawrence Gellert . Later, several recordings were made by Robert W. Gordon , who became head of the Archive of American Folk Songs of the Library of Congress . Gordon's successor at the library was John Lomax . In the 1930s, Lomax and his son Alan made a large number of non-commercial blues recordings that testify to

6435-441: The blues are also closely related to the religious music of the African-American community, the spirituals . The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery , with the development of juke joints occurring later. It is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century. The first publication of blues sheet music

6552-647: The blues from the melodic structures of certain West African musical styles of the savanna and sahel. Lucy Durran finds similarities with the melodies of the Bambara people , and to a lesser degree, the Soninke people and Wolof people , but not as much of the Mandinka people . Gerard Kubik finds similarities to the melodic styles of both the west African savanna and central Africa, both of which were sources of enslaved people. No specific African musical form can be identified as

6669-518: The blues in the same year in Missouri ; and W.C. Handy , who first heard the blues in Tutwiler, Mississippi , in 1903. The first extensive research in the field was performed by Howard W. Odum , who published an anthology of folk songs from Lafayette County, Mississippi , and Newton County, Georgia , between 1905 and 1908. The first non-commercial recordings of blues music, termed proto-blues by Paul Oliver , were made by Odum for research purposes at

6786-460: The blues is usually dated after the Emancipation Act of 1863 , between 1860s and 1890s, a period that coincides with post- emancipation and later, the establishment of juke joints as places where African-Americans went to listen to music, dance, or gamble after a hard day's work. This period corresponds to the transition from slavery to sharecropping, small-scale agricultural production, and

6903-457: The blues narrowly in terms of certain chord structures and lyric forms thought to have originated in West Africa, audiences originally heard the music in a far more general way: it was simply the music of the rural south, notably the Mississippi Delta . Black and white musicians shared the same repertoire and thought of themselves as " songsters " rather than blues musicians. The notion of blues as

7020-411: The blues, usually dating back to the middle of the 18th century, when the slaves were Christianized and began to sing and play Christian hymns , in particular those of Isaac Watts , which were very popular. Before the blues gained its formal definition in terms of chord progressions, it was defined as the secular counterpart of spirituals. It was the low-down music played by rural blacks. Depending on

7137-479: The boogie-woogie wave and was strongly influenced by big band music. It uses saxophone or other brass instruments and the guitar in the rhythm section to create a jazzy, up-tempo sound with declamatory vocals. Jump blues tunes by Louis Jordan and Big Joe Turner , based in Kansas City, Missouri , influenced the development of later styles such as rock and roll and rhythm and blues. Dallas-born T-Bone Walker , who

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7254-479: The cities of Winona , Lake City , and Red Wing . It crosses the river at Hastings using the Hastings Bridge and joins US 10 before entering St. Paul. Within the city, the route follows I-94 for a short distance, and then follows Mounds Boulevard, East 7th Street, and Arcade Street through the east side of St. Paul. The 120 miles (190 km) section of US 61 from La Crescent to Cottage Grove

7371-474: The construction of the Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge , US 61 passed through a short distance through Jo Daviess County between Dubuque and Wisconsin, concurrent with US 151 . Now both highways cross the Mississippi on the Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge, which directly connects Wisconsin and Iowa, with neither US 61 nor US 151 passing through Illinois . US 61 follows the west bank of

7488-656: The days before the interstate highway system. The highway is often called the Blues Highway because of its long history in blues music ; part of the route lies on the Mississippi Blues Trail and is denoted by markers in Vicksburg and Tunica . It is also the subject of numerous musical works, and the route inspired the album Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan as well as the novel, Highway 61 , by rock n roll historian William McKeen. US 61 in Louisiana

7605-479: The emphasis and impact of the lyrics, and vocal dramatics using shouts, groans, moans, and wails. The blues women thus effected changes in other types of popular singing that had spin-offs in jazz, Broadway musicals , torch songs of the 1930s and 1940s, gospel , rhythm and blues , and eventually rock and roll ." Urban male performers included popular black musicians of the era, such as Tampa Red , Big Bill Broonzy and Leroy Carr . An important label of this era

7722-429: The expansion of railroads in the southern United States. Several scholars characterize the development of blues music in the early 1900s as a move from group performance to individualized performance. They argue that the development of the blues is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the enslaved people. According to Lawrence Levine, "there was a direct relationship between the national ideological emphasis upon

7839-408: The fall of 2011; the highway through Davenport was redesignated as "US 61 Business." A 7.5-mile (12.1 km) bypass around Muscatine was opened in 1984, but other changes on the stretch south of Davenport would not happen for another decade. The changes came as follows: The final stretch completed a continuous multi-laned link between Dickeyville , Wisconsin south to Grandview. Prior to

7956-408: The former ending at I-70. It continues in a general northwesterly route, meeting US 54 at Bowling Green and US 36 and I-72 at Hannibal , an intersection which is I-72's western terminus. Northwest of Hannibal, US 61 meets US 24 and the two overlap until they separate at Taylor . US 61 continues north until near Wayland , where the highway turns east at Route 27 and

8073-535: The former routing of US 61 through their respective counties. Blues music Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spirituals , work songs , field hollers , shouts , chants , and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture . The blues form

8190-410: The four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African-Americans. Many elements, such as the call-and-response format and the use of blue notes, can be traced back to the music of Africa . The origins of

8307-417: The genre took its shape from the idiosyncrasies of individual performers. However, there are some characteristics that were present long before the creation of the modern blues. Call-and-response shouts were an early form of blues-like music; they were a "functional expression ... style without accompaniment or harmony and unbounded by the formality of any particular musical structure". A form of this pre-blues

8424-751: The hell out of me. Hokum blues celebrated both comedic lyrical content and a boisterous, farcical performance style. Tampa Red and Georgia Tom 's " It's Tight Like That " (1928) is a sly wordplay with the double meaning of being " tight " with someone, coupled with a more salacious physical familiarity. Blues songs with sexually explicit lyrics were known as dirty blues . The lyrical content became slightly simpler in postwar blues, which tended to focus on relationship woes or sexual worries. Lyrical themes that frequently appeared in prewar blues, such as economic depression, farming, devils, gambling, magic, floods and drought, were less common in postwar blues. The writer Ed Morales claimed that Yoruba mythology played

8541-454: The huge variety of proto-blues styles, such as field hollers and ring shouts . A record of blues music as it existed before 1920 can also be found in the recordings of artists such as Lead Belly and Henry Thomas . All these sources show the existence of many different structures distinct from twelve- , eight- , or sixteen-bar . The social and economic reasons for the appearance of the blues are not fully known. The first appearance of

8658-434: The individual, the popularity of Booker T. Washington's teachings, and the rise of the blues." Levine stated that "psychologically, socially, and economically, African-Americans were being acculturated in a way that would have been impossible during slavery, and it is hardly surprising that their secular music reflected this as much as their religious music did." There are few characteristics common to all blues music, because

8775-533: The low rate of literacy among rural African Americans at the time. Reports of blues music in southern Texas and the Deep South were written at the dawn of the 20th century. Charles Peabody mentioned the appearance of blues music at Clarksdale, Mississippi , and Gate Thomas reported similar songs in southern Texas around 1901–1902. These observations coincide more or less with the recollections of Jelly Roll Morton , who said he first heard blues music in New Orleans in 1902; Ma Rainey , who remembered first hearing

8892-516: The music industry during the 1920s and 1930s. Other chord progressions, such as 8-bar forms, are still considered blues; examples include " How Long Blues ", " Trouble in Mind ", and Big Bill Broonzy 's " Key to the Highway ". There are also 16-bar blues , such as Ray Charles 's instrumental "Sweet 16 Bars" and Herbie Hancock 's " Watermelon Man ". Idiosyncratic numbers of bars are occasionally used, such as

9009-625: The name originally referred to the highway's straight route in contrast to that of the winding Jefferson Highway , which often paralleled the Mississippi River . Legend has it that former Louisiana Governor Huey Long advocated the construction of the "airline" highway to provide him with a quick means of access from the capitol building in Baton Rouge to the bars and other pleasure establishments in New Orleans. On Airline Highway in Jefferson Parish in 1987, Baton Rouge televangelist Jimmy Swaggart

9126-523: The new acquisition. When the young men reached the river in what is now the Lincoln County area, it was known to the local French as Rivière aux Boeufs because of the numerous bison roaming its banks. The two scientists decided a more impressive name for the stream would be "Cuvier", and labeled it such on their maps. When the English-speaking settlers arrived, the spelling was changed to "Cuivre" and

9243-450: The newly constructed Welcome Way until it merges with Harrison Street just north of 35th Street; northbound traffic use Brady Street (which had been a two-way, four-lane street). Other two-way stretches of the highway through Davenport have four (or more) lanes. In 2010, in large part due to a railroad bridge with a low clearance in downtown Davenport, US 61 through Davenport was moved to Interstates 80 and 280, with signing taking place in

9360-435: The old alignment is now Route 72 and US 67 . Prior to 1958, US 61 followed the route now known as Iowa 22 between Davenport and Muscatine . US 61 was then rerouted onto the old Iowa 22 which passed through Blue Grass . Starting in the early 1980s, US 61 between Davenport and Dubuque was rebuilt as a four-lane highway. The first link, a 19-mile (31 km) stretch between Davenport and De Witt ,

9477-491: The original course of the Spanish colonial road El Camino Real . In 1776, when the Spanish lieutenant governor recognized that the two principal communities of St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve needed an overland connection, he wrote his superior requesting permission. Construction then began, with parts of the Spanish road following old Indian trails. The road had been reportedly constructed by 1779, and then extended further south to

9594-780: The overlap with the Avenue of the Saints ends. Shortly before leaving Missouri, US 61 meets US 136 and the two overlap until entering Iowa . US 61 in Missouri was formerly known as Route 9. US 61 runs along the western side of the Mississippi River between Memphis, Tennessee , and Dubuque, Iowa , and therefore never enters the state of Illinois . US 61 enters Iowa overlapped with US 136 near Keokuk . They separate in Keokuk and US 61 turns north there and meets US 218 in northwestern Keokuk. They overlap for 6 miles (9.7 km), then US 218 turns northwest. US 61 goes north until crossing Iowa 2 and becomes

9711-558: The pronunciation anglicized to "Quiver". Variant names for the stream include Buffaloe River, Copper River, Cuvier River, La Quevr, Queevere River, Quiver River, Quivre River, Riviere au Boeuf, Riviere au Cuivre, Riviere aux Boeuf, and Riviere aux Cuivre. The Battle of the Sink Hole was fought near the mouth of the Cuivre at the end of the War of 1812 . The Cuivre River State Park was established in

9828-489: The propulsive left-hand rhythms of the ragtime pianists with melodic figures similar to those of Armstrong's trumpet in the right hand". The smooth Louisiana style of Professor Longhair and, more recently, Dr. John blends classic rhythm and blues with blues styles. Another development in this period was big band blues. The " territory bands " operating out of Kansas City , the Bennie Moten orchestra, Jay McShann , and

9945-465: The provincial posts at Cape Girardeau and New Madrid , and extended northwest to the post of St. Charles . The sole rationale for the Camino Real was a military road to connect the several district posts for defense and administrative purposes. Much of the road was a simple trace for horses and foot travelers, and by 1796 transport large enough to require the use of wagons was largely being moved up

10062-696: The reconstruction of the Interstate 555 /US 63 interchange in the early 2000s. The old alignment of US 61 between West Memphis and Turrell is currently signed as Arkansas Highway 77 . The route runs through many small towns in Mississippi County , and becomes a city street in Osceola . Continuing north, the route crosses over I-55, south of Blytheville. In the city, US 61 becomes South Division Street until crossing Main Street (AR 18) . The route runs north through

10179-458: The religious community a musician belonged to, it was more or less considered a sin to play this low-down music: blues was the devil's music. Musicians were therefore segregated into two categories: gospel singers and blues singers, guitar preachers and songsters. However, when rural black music began to be recorded in the 1920s, both categories of musicians used similar techniques: call-and-response patterns, blue notes, and slide guitars. Gospel music

10296-473: The rest of Blytheville and beyond until a junction with AR 150 near Yarbro . After this junction, the route continues due north to Missouri. US 61 enters Missouri south of Steele , passing under a concrete arch that was constructed by the Mississippi County , Arkansas highway department in 1924. The alignment of the highway is closely followed by I-55 between there and the St. Louis area, with portions of

10413-456: The savannah, are conspicuously absent. According to the historian Paul Oliver , "the roots of the blues were not to be found in the coastal and forest regions of Africa. Rather... the blues was rooted in ... the savanna hinterland, from Senegambia through Mali, Burkina Faso, Northern Ghana, Niger, and northern Nigeria". Additionally, ethnomusicologist John Storm Roberts has argued that "The parallels between African savanna-belt string-playing and

10530-510: The single direct ancestor of the blues. However the call-and-response format can be traced back to the music of Africa . That blue notes predate their use in blues and have an African origin is attested to by "A Negro Love Song", by the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor , from his African Suite for Piano , written in 1898, which contains blue third and seventh notes . The Diddley bow (a homemade one-stringed instrument found in parts of

10647-446: The songs "can't be sung without a full heart and a troubled spirit", conditions that have inspired countless blues songs. Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, when Hart Wand 's " Dallas Blues " became the first copyrighted blues composition. In lyrics, the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood. Early traditional blues verses often consisted of

10764-496: The southeast passing under Missouri Route C just east of Moscow Mills . The stream continues to the southeast until reaching the Lincoln-St. Charles county line where it gains the major tributary of Big Creek . The stream turns east and forms the Lincoln-St. Charles county line. The stream flows northeast passing south of Chain of Rocks and crosses under Missouri Route 79 southwest of Old Monroe . The stream meanders east to meet

10881-406: The southeastern "delicate and lyrical" Piedmont blues tradition, which used an elaborate ragtime-based fingerpicking guitar technique. Georgia also had an early slide tradition, with Curley Weaver , Tampa Red , "Barbecue Bob" Hicks and James "Kokomo" Arnold as representatives of this style. The lively Memphis blues style, which developed in the 1920s and 1930s near Memphis, Tennessee ,

10998-515: The state, in concert with expanding suburban development from Memphis into Mississippi. The resulting boom in casino development in Tunica County , coupled with dramatic population and development growth in DeSoto County south of Memphis has led to relocating most of the highway and expanding to a divided four-lane highway. The present-day course of US 61 south of St. Louis largely follows

11115-528: The suggestion of an Igbo origin for blues, because of the reputation the Igbo had throughout plantations in the Americas for their melancholic music and outlook on life when they were enslaved. Other historians have argued that there is little evidence of Sub-Sahelian influence in the blues as "elaborate polyrhythm, percussion on African drums (as opposed to European drums), [and] collective participation" which are characteristic of West-Central African music below

11232-507: The techniques of many blues guitarists are remarkable. The big kora of Senegal and Guinea are played in a rhythmic-melodic style that uses constantly changing rhythms, often providing a ground bass overlaid with complex treble patterns, while vocal supplies a third rhythmic layer. Similar techniques can be found in hundreds of blues records". The lyrics often relate troubles experienced within African American society. For instance Blind Lemon Jefferson 's "Rising High Water Blues" (1927) tells of

11349-446: The trance-like rhythm and call-and-response, and they form a repetitive effect called a groove . Characteristic of the blues since its Afro-American origins, the shuffles played a central role in swing music . The simplest shuffles, which were the clearest signature of the R&;B wave that started in the mid-1940s, were a three-note riff on the bass strings of the guitar. When this riff

11466-444: The trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove . Blues music is characterized by its lyrics , bass lines , and instrumentation . Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the AAB pattern , consisting of a line sung over

11583-449: The two highways overlapping. Between Howardville and Sikeston , US 61 overlaps with US 62 . At Sikeston, US 61 also meets US 60 . Crossing Route 32 at "one of the oldest French Colonial settlements west of the Mississippi River (1735)", Ste. Genevieve , the road continues through Ste. Genevieve County. The highway then turns northwest and meets US 67 at Festus . The two highways overlap until separating in

11700-569: The way to the Canada–US border . The road has been shortened to 1,400 miles (2,300 km) ending now in the city of Wyoming , Minnesota at an intersection with I-35 . The northern section of US 61 in Minnesota was separated when I-35 was constructed, and decommissioned in 1991. The section of US 61 in northwestern Mississippi , between the state line and Clarksdale , has received numerous changes since 1990, when casinos were legalized by

11817-532: Was a formally trained musician, composer and arranger who helped to popularize the blues by transcribing and orchestrating blues in an almost symphonic style, with bands and singers. He became a popular and prolific composer, and billed himself as the "Father of the Blues"; however, his compositions can be described as a fusion of blues with ragtime and jazz, a merger facilitated using the Cuban habanera rhythm that had long been

11934-504: Was a free-born black woman from Pennsylvania who was working as a schoolteacher in South Carolina, instructing both slaves and freedmen, and wrote that she "came home with the blues" because she felt lonesome and pitied herself. She overcame her depression and later noted a number of songs, such as "Poor Rosy", that were popular among the slaves. Although she admitted being unable to describe the manner of singing she heard, Forten wrote that

12051-399: Was closely related to ragtime , which developed at about the same time, though the blues better preserved "the original melodic patterns of African music". The musical forms and styles that are now considered the blues as well as modern country music arose in the same regions of the southern United States during the 19th century. Recorded blues and country music can be found as far back as

12168-674: Was confronted by rival preacher Marvin Gorman as Swaggart exited the Travel Inn after seeing a prostitute . This incident increased the area's reputation as a locale of "seedy motels". Partly because of that reputation, the section in Jefferson Parish was later renamed Airline Drive. US 61 is divided from the Tennessee state line to U.S. 82 in Leland . The highway south of Vicksburg to Natchez

12285-600: Was designated as MN 61 in 1991. MN 61, part of the Lake Superior Circle Tour route, follows the North Shore of Lake Superior , where it becomes Ontario Highway 61 upon entering Canada. Highway 61 continues to the city of Thunder Bay , where it ends at an intersection with the Trans-Canada Highway . Starting in 2012 Chisago , Carlton and Pine Counties began placing "OLD US 61" markers along

12402-429: Was designated in 1926, US 61 replaced most of Route 9 , which had been established in 1922 between Arkansas and Iowa. The only part that did not become part of US 61 was north of Wayland , where US 61 turned east on Route 4 , and Route 9 became Route 4B (now Route 81 ) to the state line. Since then, US 61 has been moved to a shorter route between Jackson and Festus , replacing much of Route 25 ;

12519-444: Was finished in 1982; a bypass around De Witt, which overlapped US 30, was in use starting in November 1975. Subsequent links were completed to Maquoketa (in 1996) and finally to Dubuque in 1999. When the final link was completed, Dubuque finally had a direct four-lane connection to Interstate 80 . In 1983, two multi-lane one-way routes were designated through Davenport starting at the northern city limits. Southbound traffic used

12636-457: Was heard in slave ring shouts and field hollers , expanded into "simple solo songs laden with emotional content". Blues has evolved from the unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves imported from West Africa and rural blacks into a wide variety of styles and subgenres, with regional variations across the United States. Although blues (as it is now known) can be seen as a musical style based on both European harmonic structure and

12753-416: Was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a wide variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues , Delta blues and Piedmont blues , as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues and West Coast blues . World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to

12870-440: Was in the sense of a sad state of mind that John James Audubon wrote to his wife that he "had the blues". In Henry David Thoreau 's book Walden , he mentions "the blues" in the chapter reflecting on his time in solitude. He wrote his account of his personal quest in 1845, although it was not published until 1854. The phrase "the blues" was written by Charlotte Forten , then aged 25, in her diary on December 14, 1862. She

12987-567: Was influenced by jug bands such as the Memphis Jug Band or the Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers . Performers such as Frank Stokes , Sleepy John Estes , Robert Wilkins , Kansas Joe McCoy , Casey Bill Weldon and Memphis Minnie used a variety of unusual instruments such as washboard , fiddle , kazoo or mandolin . Memphis Minnie was famous for her virtuoso guitar style. Pianist Memphis Slim began his career in Memphis, but his distinct style

13104-659: Was nevertheless using musical forms that were compatible with Christian hymns and therefore less marked by the blues form than its secular counterpart. The American sheet music publishing industry produced a great deal of ragtime music. By 1912, the sheet music industry had published three popular blues-like compositions, precipitating the Tin Pan Alley adoption of blues elements: "Baby Seals' Blues", by Baby Franklin Seals (arranged by Artie Matthews ); "Dallas Blues", by Hart Wand ; and " The Memphis Blues ", by W.C. Handy . Handy

13221-420: Was played over the bass and the drums, the groove "feel" was created. Shuffle rhythm is often vocalized as " dow , da dow , da dow , da" or " dump , da dump , da dump , da": it consists of uneven, or "swung", eighth notes. On a guitar this may be played as a simple steady bass or it may add to that stepwise quarter note motion from the fifth to the sixth of the chord and back. Hart Wand 's " Dallas Blues "

13338-430: Was published in 1912; W.C. Handy 's " The Memphis Blues " followed in the same year. The first recording by an African American singer was Mamie Smith 's 1920 rendition of Perry Bradford 's " Crazy Blues ". But the origins of the blues were some decades earlier, probably around 1890. This music is poorly documented, partly because of racial discrimination in U.S. society, including academic circles, and partly because of

13455-507: Was replaced by the term rhythm and blues . This rapidly evolving market was mirrored by Billboard magazine's Rhythm & Blues chart . This marketing strategy reinforced trends in urban blues music such as the use of electric instruments and amplification and the generalization of the blues beat, the blues shuffle , which became ubiquitous in rhythm and blues (R&B). This commercial stream had important consequences for blues music, which, together with jazz and gospel music , became

13572-444: Was smoother and had some swing elements. Many blues musicians based in Memphis moved to Chicago in the late 1930s or early 1940s and became part of the urban blues movement. City or urban blues styles were more codified and elaborate, as a performer was no longer within their local, immediate community, and had to adapt to a larger, more varied audience's aesthetic. Classic female urban and vaudeville blues singers were popular in

13689-536: Was the Chicago-based Bluebird Records . Before World War II, Tampa Red was sometimes referred to as "the Guitar Wizard". Carr accompanied himself on the piano with Scrapper Blackwell on guitar, a format that continued well into the 1950s with artists such as Charles Brown and even Nat "King" Cole . Boogie-woogie was another important style of 1930s and early 1940s urban blues. While the style

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