Sample Set List

Here's a list of blues songs that get played regularly. It's being added to all the time. It's not definitive and new material is always welcome. We've included the key's its normally done in and we'll post snippets when we can so you can get some idea of the style its played in - but again that's not fixed and suggestions and variations are always welcome.  We try and avoid a 12 bar blues jam scenario and a lot of the songs below have a slight twist or unusual structure.

As you might expect, Robert Johnson looms large:

  • Me and the Devil - A, If I had possession over judgement day - G (open G slide guitar - can be done in A with a capo),
  • Milkcow's Calf Blues - A,
  • From Four until late - C,
  • Sweet Home Chicago - E (check out Freddie King's Version on "Stayin at Home with the Blues")

There's a slide version of" Way Down in the Hole" in G - this is a gospel blues song by Tom Waits from 1987 and was famously covered by the Blind Boys of Alabama.  It's capable of a multitude of interpretations as anyone who watched all the series of The Wire will know. The version that often gets played follows the Blind Boys rather than Waits'.

Big Bill Broonzy/Charlie Seagar get a look in with a version of Key to the Highway - A, derived from Broonzy's famous interpretation. The I-V-IV structure makes it interesting to play.

One Kind Favor - E (aka Please see that my grave is kept clean) is a "funeral blues" which has been covered by everyone.  The version that usually gets aired is an E E B E A E B structure.

T-Bone Walker -the man who basically invented electric blues playing as we know it - is represented with Stormy Monday Blues - G. This is a 12/8 quick change blues that became a standard almost as soon as it was written.  It became a major live feature for the Allman Brothers Band.

Elvis is perhaps not most associated with the blues but a lot of what he did had at least part of its roots in the blues. A Mess of Blues (A) is at the crossroads of the blues and rock and roll and has a slightly different variation of the classic blues chord progression - starting with  A A D D  E

Others that are being worked on or proposed include:

  • Travellin Riverside Blues (A)
  • Nobody Knows You When Your Down and Out (C - or with a capo D or E )
  • Farther on up the road – G
  • Sleeping in the ground - E
  • See See Rider - G