How to play ‘Trust My Baby’
December 19, 2010
This news has only been about 20 years in coming. I have finally learnt how to play the harmonica solos from Sonny Boy Williamson’s Trust My Baby.
Of course, this is the second Sonny Boy that we’re talking about here (‘Rice Miller’ to the cognoscenti). Both Sonny Boys achieved great things, but the second took a markedly melodic and, from time to time, lateral approach to the blues. Such was the case with ‘Trust My Baby’, a strikingly mournful tune in G major, wherin the harp takes on a unique cello-like quality.
Over the years, I have wondered about the basic position that Sonny Boy uses on this tune. The deep bends suggest standard cross-harp (i.e.playing a fourth below the key of the harp), but the scales almost seem to have a minor tonality. There again, the lines aren’t truly minor, ruling out both third and fourth position. (Anyway, the recorded evidence suggests that Sonny Boy lacked Little Walter’s brilliance in Third). Recently, I found the solution to this problem, via a You Tube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT4iHClowTs
This woman has the whole thing off. Three things are noticeable immediately. 1. She’s using a standard ten hole harp – and only the one (there is no switching between positions). 2. She’s mainly playing at the low end of the harmonica (this confirms it’s not in Third). 3.The start of the solo is played up high, in a way that recalls Jimmy Reed. The last observation is important.
It turns out that this Sonny Boy played this tune in First position – or ‘straight harp’. This is so named, because you play the harmonica – straight – in the key that it’s tuned in. This idea is favoured mainly by people who like to puff in and out in the Bob Dylan manner (oh yes and also by five year old children). Of course, Sonny Boy thinks differently. In effect, he is anchoring his riffs around the 3 Draw reed. Naturally, the key note is still to be found at 4 Blow, but all of the significant moments hang on that 3 draw.
Given this understanding, ‘Trust My Baby’ becomes one of those rare things in life – something that really is ‘simple when you know how’. Characteristically, Sonny Boy includes some tricky deep bends on the 3 Draw reed (a la ‘All My Love in Vain’), but it’s otherwise quite easy to emulate.
… But there is catch. Those runs around the 2,3 and 4 reeds (draw and blow) sound smart as anything, but this use of straight harp offers up a pretty limited vocabulary. This point is proved if you listen closely to the record. Sonny Boy begins unaccompanied because, otherwise, the starting/pivotal note (an F#) would be out of tune with the band. Later on, he has to start the solo in the upper register because the options are relatively limited lower down.
These observations are supported if you listen/watch another You Tube clip. This shows Sonny Boy himself performing a solo version of ‘Lonesome Cabin’, in Copenhagen in 1963/4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNzEXJTPS0U
Of course, the solos are drawn from ‘Trust My Baby’ and they show that, on this occasion, Sonny Boy wrote himself a pretty tight script.
