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“Blues in All Flavors”

Gaye's Children's Blues CD

Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner for Music

For many years, Gaye has been wanting to create music for children. When bullying events became highlighted in the news, that gave Gaye the impetus she needed. So it is that this CD addresses bullying, health issues, kindness, the environment, etc. — topics important to children and . . . ALL “G” RATED.

Each song is written and performed in a different blues “flavor” or style. From Piedmont to Delta to Chicago-style, jump to doo-wop, funk to rock, Gaye introduces young listeners and allows them to have a taste of many delicious blues forms. The CD also includes a 16 page booklet of lyrics.

Video for "Blues for the Greens"

Video created by Bill Green

Gaye Talks About Her Children's CD

Video credit: Melvin Brown

THE FLAVORS

For each song you can:

  • Listen to a sample
  • Download lyrics & guitar chords
  • Download learning activities
  • Find a definition of that song’s blues “flavor”
  1. The Sunshine Shake – DC Go-Go
  2. Blues for the Greens – Piedmont Blues then Blues Rock
  3. The Cleanest Kid – Jump Blues with Boogie-Woogie
  4. Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah – Rock & Roll
  5. Please, Please, Please, Please – Doo-Wop
  6. The Thank You Song – Delta-Style Slide
  7. Grandma & Grandpa’s House – Piedmont Blues
  8. Stop That Bully – Rock & Roll
  9. It Hurts (The Picked Last Song) – Chicago Blues with Stop Time
  10. The Kindness Song – Funk (in James Brown style)
  11. Don’t-Be-Moody-Do-Yo’-Duty Song – Bo Diddley Beat
  12. Hand Jivin’ – Street Rhythm
  13. The Recycle Song – New Orleans Blues
  14. What A Wonderful World – Reggae Rhythm

Song #1: THE SUNSHINE SHAKE
Written by: Gaye Adegbalola

Flavor: DC Go-Go

DC Go-Go is a blending of Funk, Hip-Hop, and Rhythm & Blues. It originated in the Washington, DC, area during the 1960s and 70s. It is percussion based with a unique syncopated rhythm.

Song #2: BLUES FOR THE GREENS
Written by: Gaye Adegbalola

Flavor: Piedmont Blues to Blues Rock

Piedmont Blues (also known as East Coast Blues) mainly refers to a finger-picking guitar style mainly characterized by an alternating thumb bass string of the picking hand. Sometimes a melody is picked by the other fingers and it might sound like ragtime.

Blues Rock is mainly created by the electric guitar being amplified in such a way to make it sound distorted. This sound led to Hard Rock.

Song #3: THE CLEANEST KID
Written by: Gaye Adegbalola

Flavor: Jump Blues with Boogie Woogie

Jump Blues is usually up-tempo and often features horns (although none are on this recording). Big bands of the 1940s (usually 16 pieces) evolved into smaller groups (usually featuring a tenor saxophone) that could still make you want to “jump” (dance). In this song, there is a “call and response” at the opening that is repeated throughout the song. This is often found in jump songs and in gospel songs.

Boogie-Woogie is “eight to the bar” (8 – eighth notes to a measure in 4/4 time). This style was often piano-based, but was also played in big bands and in jump bands. It is mainly associated with dancing. The piano player on this song is playing boogie-woogie with his left hand.

Song #4: ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH
Written by: Gaye Adegbalola

Flavor: Rock & Roll

Rock & Roll mainly evolved from the blues with a distinctive backbeat usually from the snare drum. In 4/4 time, for example, the backbeat is a syncopated emphasis on the two and four beats: one, TWO, three, FOUR.

Song #5: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE
Written by: James Brown & Johnny Terry with new lyrics by Gaye Adegbalola

Flavor: Doo – Wop

Doo-wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm & blues music that was popular in the 1950s and 60s. Its main feature is vocal harmony of many parts with a lead singer and a backing group. Often nonsense syllables are used in the background. For example, doooooo wop, doo wop — thus, the name of this flavor.

Song #6: THE THANK YOU SONG
Written by: Gaye Adegbalola

Flavor: Delta-Style Slide

Delta Blues grew out of the geographic delta area in the state of Mississippi. It was usually played by one person on guitar with slide or “bottleneck” guitar being a defining characteristic. When playing slide, instead of pressing or picking the strings of a guitar, you slide against the strings. The slide itself can be made of different materials including the neck of a glass bottle (hence, bottleneck). Sometimes a second person plays harmonica.

Song #7: GRANDMA & GRANDPA’S HOUSE
Written by: Gaye Adegbalola

Flavor: Piedmont Blues

Piedmont Blues (also known as East Coast Blues) mainly refers to a finger-picking guitar style mainly characterized by an alternating thumb bass string of the picking hand. Sometimes a melody is picked by the other fingers and it might sound like ragtime.

Song #8: STOP THAT BULLY
Written by: Domingo Samudio with new lyrics by Gaye Adegbalola

Flavor: Rock & Roll

Rock & Roll mainly evolved from the blues with a distinctive backbeat usually from the snare drum. In 4/4 time, for example, the backbeat is a syncopated emphasis on the two and four beats: one, TWO, three, FOUR.

Song #9: IT HURTS (THE PICKED LAST SONG)
Written by: Gaye Adegbalola

Flavor: Chicago Blues with Stop Time

As Delta-style blues moved up the Mississippi River to Chicago, amplifiers and microphones were added to the instruments. The electrically amplified guitar becomes the featured instrument. Now electrified, the strings can easily bend allowing it to wail and cry and mimic the human voice even more.

Stop-time changes or interrupts the usual rhythm of a song. In this song, the lead guitar embellishments stop and the beat just pulses without instrumental melody while the vocal continues on top.

Song #10: THE KINDNESS SONG
Written by: Gaye Adegbalola

Flavor: Funk (on the one beat), in James Brown Style

Rhythm & Blues and Rock & Roll emphasize the backbeat as in one, TWO, three, FOUR. Much of James Brown’s music has a heavy emphasis on the “downbeat,” or the first beat of a measure: ONE, two, three, four to give its distinctive funk flavor.

Song #11: DON’T-BE-MOODY-DO-YO’-DUTY SONG
Written by: Domingo Samudio with new lyrics by Gaye Adegbalola

Flavor: Bo Diddley Beat

Bo Diddley, mainly a Rhythm & Blues artist, helped to make the transition from Blues to Rock & Roll. He developed hard driving rhythms and used trembling effects or tremolo guitar in his songs. His song, “Bo Diddley,” used the African “hambone” beat. He enhanced the rhythm with maracas and drums and it became known as the Bo Diddley Beat.

Song #12: HAND JIVIN’
Arranged by: Gaye Adegbalola (based on 1950s Street Games)

Flavor: Street Rhythm

In the summertime in the 1950s, hand games and chants were often created and played outside. This is a typical hand game and it has the following rhythm pattern: one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and. It becomes intricate in that you clap your own hands together on the one, the two, the three-and. You clap your partner’s hands on the and of one, the and of two, and four-and. (How to create this rhythm is fully explained in the learning activities for this song.) Clapping patterns often changed and some were much more intricate. For this recording, however, the same pattern is used for several different chants.

Song #13: THE RECYCLE SONG
Written by: Gaye Adegbalola

Flavor: New Orleans Blues

New Orleans is generally known as the birthplace of jazz, but it also has a very distinctive form of blues music. Its rhythms often have Caribbean influences (e.g., rhumba rhythm) and the piano is usually the dominant instrument often incorporating jazz riffs. Many songs have the I chord to the V chord as the first chord progression instead of the I chord to the IV chord progression that many blues songs use.

Song #14: WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD
Written by: Bob Thiele, George Douglas, George David Weiss

Flavor: Reggae Rhythm

This song is not purely reggae, but is reggae inspired. Reggae originated in Jamaica and combines African, Caribbean and Rhythm & Blues styles with an emphasized syncopated backbeat on the two and the four. The bass often feels like the lead. Some reggae rhythms are called “one drop” which means there is a four-four beat where the snare and bass drums emphasize the third beat of every measure, but not the one — it is dropped. Beat one is usually empty except for a closed high hat cymbal that is commonly used. Here the banjo plays the accented rhythm and the upstroke to give the flavor of reggae.