Originally written, August, 20th, 2019.
After the rainy year of 2018, I am suffering from a serious case of the “rainy day blues.” This should come as no surprise, as it rained for over 260 days in the southwest corner of the country last year. To top it off, our basement flooded late in the year, causing significant damage. Today is the First Day of Summer, and the weather is beautiful, but the spring has been wet. It is therefore quite fitting that the first song I learned to play on the guitar in the new year is a “rainy day blues.”
The lyrics to the song Deep River Blues tell of a man’s despair due to a nearby river flooding after a period of heavy rain and the troubles caused by the rising waters. I was curious to know when the song was written and what inspired it. I can’t say I found entirely conclusive information. At first, I read that the spark was the catastrophic flooding of the Mississippi River in 1927. During those floods, levees broke and the river overflowed across 60,000 square kilometers. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes, and over 250 people perished. The Delmore Brothers recorded the song in 1933 under the title “Big River Blues.” They claimed to have written it, though there is some debate as to whether that is true. It is quite possible the song was influenced by the Mississippi flood disaster. However, the lyrics reference the town of Muscle Shoals, which sits on the Tennessee River. Therefore, I find it more likely that the Tennessee River was the original inspiration.
I stumbled upon the song in the December 2011 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine. It featured an arrangement by Doc Watson, which he released in 1964. In an interview, Watson said he first heard the song performed by the Delmore Brothers and loved it. However, he couldn’t get the song to sound right on a single guitar—not until he discovered “Travis picking” by hearing Merle play, where the thumb constantly hops between bass notes. Watson claimed he practiced this for ten years before adding the melody. He is undoubtedly exaggerating there. Watson plays the song using his thumb and one finger, though he points out that it is more sensible to use all the fingers. He also recommends muting the bass strings. I don’t do that, as I would have to practice for ten years just to make it sound halfway decent.
You can find plenty of videos online of various guitarists tackling the song, as it is immensely fun to play. One of them is the Australian guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel. His version is featured below the video of me playing the Doc Watson arrangement.
