Well, there’s always Alice’s Restaurant :-) (It is a slight variant though)

Blind Boy Fuller used that progression dozens of times. Lemon did too.

There’s a Sonny Rollins tune that uses it as well, though I can’t quite recall the name at the moment.

The Fuller side is a classic rag blues progression but by no means the only one. Basically a 16 bar (or 18 with the reprise), something like:

C E7 A7 D7 G7 C
C E7 A7 D7 G7
C C7 F Fm7-
C E7 A7 D7 G7 C (A7 D7 G7 C G)

It thrives on variation, eg. for C E7 A7, try C G/B A A7. The really characteristic bit is the middle part C C7 F Fm7- (last chord varies but usually a sub-dominant diminished of some type).

Blake’s “That’ll Never Happen No More” is a bit different overall but has the classic middle part. Fuller’s 1936 song “Truckin’ My Blues Away” is near identical to the posted one. His “Piccolo Rag” is in the same groove but at top speed with lots of flourish.

In between Blake and Fuller were two now forgotten but then very influential rag guitarists, Buddy Moss and Josh White. Moss’s great 1933 effort “Daddy Don’t Care” is firmly in this style.

Rare examples of this pattern by non-East Coast players include Robert Johnson’s “They’re Red Hot” (1936) and Memphis Minnie “Ain’t No Use Trying To Tell On Me” (1933).

Sorry to be so long winded but this is one of my favourite rag patterns, and easily allows lots of variation. For totally different rags check out Gary Davis, Willie Walker, Barber Bill Moore, etc. – plus the whole of Blind Blake of course!

Steve

I’d forgotten about They’re Red Hot!!

This is such a guitaristic progression.

A fabulous song in this style is Sippie Wallace’s “Woman be Wise”