This sort of switching of forms in the middle of a rendition was not nearly as uncommon as you might think it to be, especially in the early years of the recorded blues. He starts the song as a 12-bar blues, but switches to a 16-bar form for his second solo, maintaining the 16-bar form for his final two verses and switching back to a 12-bar form for his concluding solo. One peculiarity of his playing is that he goes almost the entire length of the song without striking his open sixth string, very unusual for someone playing out of E. Two of the four songs he recorded were instrumentals, with 'Jamestown Exhibition' a raggy tune played out of C in standard tuning, and 'Frisco Blues' a slide number in Vestapol that sounds as though Rose had been listening to Furry Lewis songs like 'Falling Down Blues' and 'Judge Harsh Blues'.īayless Rose backed his 'Original Blues' out of E position in standard tuning, and his playing has a lot of nifty and unusual touches.

Little or nothing is known of him in the biographical sense, and his race is not known for certain, though it seems most listeners feel he was a white musician. Bayless Rose, one of the Country Blues' 'mystery men', had but one day in the studio, in Richmond, Indiana on June 7, 1930.

Gamble for a rose tab