IESS Music · Y6 · The Season

BORN IN
THE FIELDS

Episode 2 · v.35 · Blues Roots
Where the blues was born

Today's call sheet

0-3Cold open: the Crossroads trailer · Watch
3-22The fields + call-and-response lab · Watch / Sing
22-26⚡ Break 1 · water, move
26-45Instruments from nothing · Story / Listen
45-49⚡ Break 2 · groove walk · Move
49-62The legends: Johnson, Waters, King · Story
62-67One take: class call-and-response · Sing
67-70Cliffhanger & clean up · Talk

BY THE END you can perform call-and-response and explain where the blues was born.

Cold open

That man is three episodes away. Before we meet him, you need to know where his music came from. It wasn't the devil.

Mississippi · 1800s

THE FIELDS.

No instruments. No freedom. Only voices.

The oldest conversation

I CALL.
YOU ANSWER.

Leader calls, everyone answers. Then YOU lead.

BREAK

Water. Move. Back on the clap.

Instruments from nothing

STRINGS
MADE OF GUTS.

Pig intestines. Cleaned, twisted, dried. Hay-baling wire. A broom. A cigar box.

Built from garbage and genius

Cigar-box guitar
Cigar-box guitar
Diddley bow
Diddley bow
Washboard drums
Washboard drums

Listen

WHAT IS IT MADE OF?

One man. One guitar. What do you actually hear?

Early Delta blues guitarist

FEEL THE BLUES

Slow-motion groove walk. Then sit.

Mississippi · 1911-1938

ROBERT
JOHNSON

Sold his soul at the crossroads? Dead at 27. Never famous while alive.

Robert Johnson

1941 · a plantation porch

Muddy Waters

MUDDY
WATERS

Heard his own voice on tape for the first time. Decided he was good enough. Went north and plugged in.

1925-2015

B.B.
KING

Born on a cotton plantation. His guitar has a name. Next week you find out why.

B.B. King

Showcase

ONE TAKE.

Your call. Their answer. One line about school life.

Next episode · v.36

A pattern hiding inside a thousand songs. Twelve bars long.

AND A GUITAR
NAMED AFTER A FIRE.