Quiz 'A'
1. Who or what is 'Black Betty' ?
2. Where did the blues originate ?
3. Why would you want the 'Midnight
Special' to shine on you ?
4. Which hand did Albert King play
the strings of his guitar with ?
5. What is a 'mojo hand' ?
6. What is Muddy Waters real name ?
7. Who is 'John the Congeroo' ?
8. Who was known as Blues Boy ?
9. What is a 'black cat bone' ?
10. How does legend say Robert
Johnson died ?
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Quiz 'B'
1. What year was the first blues sheet music published, and what was the song ?
2. What year was the first recording of a blues song by an African American singer, and who was the singer ?
3. Blues was heard for the first time in 1902, in which City ?
4. Which of the following is not a blues singer ?
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Blind Blake
Blind Boy Fuller
Blind Man Mitchell
Blind Willie McTell
Blind Old Tom Anderson
5. Bessie Smith's recording 'Crazy Blues' sold how many copies in the first month ?
10,000
25,000
45,000
55,000
75,000
6. Who is described as "The guiding light of the modern blues school" ?
7. Who was the pioneer of the 'West Side Sound' ?
8. Which region did 'Swamp blues' originate ?
9. Who sold their soul to the Devil so they could play the blues better ?
10. What were 'Hollers and Calls' ?
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Quiz 'C'
1. What is a blues saxophone or harp ?
2. How was Bessie Smith better known ?
3. When playing blues guitar, what does the term 'Vestapol' mean ?
4. What instrument did 'Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown' play ?
5. What was Goofer dust ?
6. What type of song is 'Go Down Moses' ?
7. The banjo is a modern version of which African instrument ?
8. What were the first venues for African American blues music ?
9. The blues song 'Willie the Weeper' refers to who ?
10. Who was Aunt Caroline Dye ?
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Answers 'A'
1. Black betty is a whip used in prisons in the southern sates in the U.S.A.
2. Mainly Mississippi.
3. If you were a prisoner in the Sugarland Prison Farm in Texas, you could hear the 'Midnight Special' train running throughthe night on its way from Houston to California. The legend was that if the light from the train shone on your prison cell, you would soon be free.
4. Albert King was left handed.
5. A Mojo hand is a black bag in which you keep your magic charms, prayer slips and the like.
6. Muddy Waters real name was McKinley Morganfield.
7. John Congeroo is a plant root. It is meant to have magical powers and as such was used as a magic charm. You would carry it in your mojo hand. It would certainly make your enemies run, as it is most well known as a laxative.
8. B.B. King was Blues Boy King.
9. A black cat bone is just what it says, a bone from a black cat. If you put it under your tongue, it is meant to make you invisible as long as it has been prepared in the right way.
10. Robert Jonhson was said to have been poisoned.
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Answers 'B'
1. The fisrt blues sheet music was published in 1912 - Memphis Blues was the song.
2. The first blues recording was in 1920 - and was by Mamie Smith.
3. In 1902 blues was heard for the first time in New Orleans.
4. Blind Man Mitchell was not a blues singer.
5. Bessie Smith's recording 'Crazy Blues' sold 75,000 copies in the first month.
6. Muddy Waters is described as "The guiding light of the modern blues school"
7. Otis Rush was the pioneer of the 'West Side Sound.
8. Baton Rouge was the region where swamp blues originated.
9. Robert Johnson is reputed to have sold his soul to the devil in a Faustian pact for his music skills.
10. Hollers and Calls were the original style of singing by black workers in the southern states of the U.S.A. on which blues was built.
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Answers 'C'
1. A blues saxophone or harp is a reference to a harmonica (mouth organ).
2. Bessie Smith was known as the 'Empress of the blues'.
3. Vestapol is open 'E' tuning (E B E G# B E).
4. Clarence Gatemouth Brown played the violin.
5. Goofer dust is a drug used for dream divination.
6. Go Down Moses is a jubliee song.
7. The banjo is a modern version of the banhjour.
8. African American blues first appeared at Medicine shows.
9. Willie the Weeper was a drug using chimney sweep.
10. Aunt Caroline Dye was probably the best known Hoodoo woman of the 1930's.
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