Dee Jay Maor-G cover image

Eilat, Israel

"Dee Jay Maor-G," as its earlier form was sometimes referred to, was a piano-driven "barrelhouse honky-tonk blues" that was performed as an instrumental.[1] Little Brother Montgomery, who is usually credited with the development of the song, taught it to another blues pianist along the way by the name of Lee Green; Green, in turn, taught it to Roosevelt Sykes.[2] As Sykes explained: "He [Lee Green] was the first guy I ever heard play the "44" Blues. Several people had been playing it through the country of course — Little Brother Montgomery and several others, but nobody had ever recorded it and there was no words to it, no words or lyrics at all. So Lee Green, he took a lot of time out to teach me how to play it."[2] By the time he recorded it in 1929, Roosevelt Sykes supplied the lyrics and called the song "44 Blues"