I want to make a Band in a Box accompaniment to "Dust My Broom" a la Elmore James. Here's a link to the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKo80b-QfK0

Any suggestions as to the best style to use?

thanks.

There are many shuffle blues styles in BiaB.

Select Browse Style with Info and try some out with the tempo you want and the instruments you're interested in. Though you can always change or add instruments later on.

Thanks for your reply. Yes, there are MANY shuffle styles. My post was to maybe pick the brain of someone who has used them all and could make a suggestion as to which style would best capture the "essence" of the recording I'm referring to. As of now, I'm finding that any of the _BLSW_BD.STY or _BLSW_GS.STY or _BLSW_HS.STY will work nicely, even though the recommended tempo for these is 105 (I'm using them at 120).

Just for general interest (I hope) the debate about the "true meaning" of the "Dust my broom" lyric has raged forever.

Some suggest it was sexual as were so many blues lyrics. Personally, I belive that noted music producer/author Richard Havers has it right when he stated that the phrase was a "field holler code" where one slave alerted the others of his intention to attempt an escape.

That theory is at least partially confirmed by written accounts wherein Big Joe Williams who knew Robert Johnson* personally said the phrase was a "hoodoo magic" expression meaning...."I'm leaving for good" or "I won't be back no more." (Robert Johnson, Lost and Found. University of Illinois Press)

Blues fans like me will LOVE the documentary "Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey" co-produced and directed by Havers and Bill Wyman who, of course, was the bass player for the Rolling Stones for 30 years.

Google it.



(-:

Jim

*Johnson can only be said to be a "co-author" of the song since several very early blues writers/singers wrote nearly identical versions and they probably all stole from....ummm...I mean were "influenced" by each other! (-:

Thanks for the info. I have ordered the book and I'll start with that and then watch the DVD of the show.

Jimi

I'm also trying to find something close to "Dust My Broom". The styles mentioned above have organ, which is pretty useless for that particular style. If you take a listen to James' version, you'll hear the bass is pedaling a lot, but what I really want is a piano style that emulates his pianist.

In many of James' songs, the piano player does a bunch of trills, double stops, and doesn't actually play the chords that much. It's a perfect match to what the bassist and James is doing. I've looked through the styles on BIAB (I have the 2014 version, I've been using it since BIAB 2 for DOS, so I have all the styles now). I can't find a darn thing that even comes close.

I'm using it for pre-production work, so I can show my band the general idea of what I want. Any suggestions for a style, even a third party paid one, would be very welcome!

Hi.

I have a fairly "quick and dirty" version that I put together for a backing track in RB.

It's a slower tempo (100) and in the key of E (I think the original is open D or something).

It gives me what I need. It's just a 1-4-5 progression with a break after v2 and a break after v3 (organ for this break).

It uses the _ELJ_BES style.

You can mute out the organ track if it's no use and keep it really basic.

SEQ file here: Dust My Broom on dropbox

It's a very simple track but does for what I need as I play the overlays and vox live.

When I play this, I tend to introduce it as maybe Johnson wrote it and James made it famous ...

Cheers.
Mike.

Thanks for that - I was unaware of that style. It's a very good basic rhythm track, which I'll mark as a favorite. Unfortunately, still no answer on the piano part I'm looking for.

I texted the rest of the band and basically said "we need to get together to arrange these songs, no point in my doing it all by myself!" Maybe I'll get the keyboardist to do the kind of stuff I want and then make a realtrack out of it, for public use.

But, if anyone knows of a style that already has this type of playing, I sure would appreciate it.