How Long, How Long Blues

In the summer of 1928, a young bootlegger and pianist named Leroy Carr sat down in an Indianapolis studio alongside his sharp-picking guitarist, Scrapper Blackwell. Together, they helped define "urban blues." On "How Long, How Long Blues," Carr sang with a wistful, crooning, almost conversational intimacy, perfectly complemented by Blackwell's elegant, single-string guitar lines. The record was an immediate, staggering commercial success, instantly smoothing out the genre's rough edges and setting the template for sophisticated city blues for the next decade.