Statesboro Blues

By Willie McTell -

$3.99

or 1 Pro Credit

Includes 1 print + interactive copy with lifetime access in our free apps. Each additional print is $2.99

Add a high-res PDF download in the original published key for just $3!

Scoring:	Leadsheet
Instruments:	Guitar Voice
Range:	Voice:
Pro Credit Eligible:	Yes
Interactive:	Yes
Pages:	3
Product #:	MN0045156
Lyrics:	Contains complete lyrics

Home
Willie McTell
Statesboro Blues
Statesboro Blues – Leadsheet

Willie's recording career began in late 1927 with two sessions for Victor records, eight sides including "Statesboro Blues." McTell's earliest sides were superb examples of storytelling in music, coupled with dazzling guitar work. All of McTell's music showed extraordinary power, some of it delightfully raucous ragtime, other examples evoking darker, lonelier sides of the blues, all of it displaying astonishingly rich guitar work. McTell was born in Thomson, Georgia, near Augusta, and raised near Statesboro. Willie was probably born blind, although early in his life he could perceive light in one eye. His blindness never became a major impediment, however, and it was said that his sense of hearing and touch were extraordinary. His first instruments were the harmonica and the accordion, but as soon as he was big enough he took up the guitar and showed immediate aptitude on the new instrument. He played a standard six-string acoustic until the mid-'20s, and never entirely abandoned the instrument, but from the beginning of his recording career, he used a 12-string acoustic in the studio almost exclusively. Willie's technique on the 12-string instrument was unique. Unlike virtually every other bluesman who used one, he relied not on its resonances as a rhythm instrument, but, instead, displayed a nimble, elegant slide and finger-picking style that made it sound like more than one guitar at any given moment. He studied at a number of schools for the blind, in Georgia, New York, and Michigan, during the early '20s, and probably picked up some formal musical knowledge. He worked medicine shows, carnivals, and other outdoor venues, and was a popular attraction, owing to his sheer dexterity and a nasal singing voice that could sound either pleasant or mournful, and incorporated some of the characteristics normally associated with White hillbilly singers.

Contains complete lyrics

Leadsheets typically only contain the lyrics, chord symbols and melody line of a song and are rarely more than one page in length. Musicians will often use these skeletons to improvise their own arrangements. Leadsheets often do not contain complete lyrics to the song.

Song:	Statesboro Blues
By:	Willie McTell
Instruments:	Guitar Voice
Scoring:	Leadsheet
Original Published Key:	F Major
Product Type:		Musicnotes
Product #:	MN0045156
Price:	$3.99 Includes 1 print + interactive copy with lifetime access in our free apps. Each additional print is $2.99
Pages:	3
Lyrics Begin:	Wake up, Mama, turn your lamp down low
Appears On:	Crossroads: Music of the American South Definitive Blind Willie McTell 1920s

Arrangement Details gives you detailed information about this particular arrangement of Statesboro Blues - not necessarily the song. Not the arrangement you were looking for? View All Arrangements

By:	Willie McTell
Additional Performers:	The Allman Brothers Band Taj Mahal
Pages:	3
Form:	Song
Instruments:	Guitar Voice
Scoring:	Leadsheet
Original Published Key:	F Major
Product Type:		Musicnotes
Product #:	MN0045156
Tempo:	Slowly
Metronome:	q = 124
Genres:	Country Blues East Coast Blues Piedmont Blues Prewar Country Blues Acoustic Blues

Song Details gives you detailed information about this song, Statesboro Blues

Composer:	Willie McTell
Lyricist:	Willie McTell
Date:	1929
Publisher:	Peer International Corporation
Product Type:		Musicnotes
Product #:	MN0045156
Lyrics Begin:	Wake up, Mama, turn your lamp down low
From the Albums:	Crossroads: Music of the American South Definitive Blind Willie McTell

Related Products shows you other products that you may also like, if you like Statesboro Blues

By:	Willie McTell
You May Also Like:	Wasted Words (Ray Price) Midnight Rider (The Allman Brothers Band) Sway (¿Quién será?) (Pablo Beltran Ruiz)
Product Type:		Musicnotes
Product #:	MN0045156
More Songs From the Albums:	Crossroads: Music of the American South Definitive Blind Willie McTell