Tuesday, August 16, 2011

8/15/11 - Slide Guitar and Hawaiian Steel Guitar Blues!

James Wilson and Group - Walk Down, Devils - Virginia and the Piedmont: Minstrelsy, Work Songs, and Blues

Slide Guitar Blues: One CD out of Roll and Tumble Blues: History of Slide Guitar


What is slide guitar?
Today's show is very slide guitar based. Slide Guitar refers to the motion of the slide on the strings of a guitar. This varies the strings' vibrating length and pitch. The slide can be moved across the strings without lifitng and creates continuous transitioning in pitch.

Barbeque Bob - Atlanta Moan
Black Ace - Black Ace
Blind Willie Mctell - Mama,'Tain't Long Fo' Day
Kokomo Arnold - Old Original Kokomo Blues

Born James Arnold in Georgia,  Kokomo Arnold learned guitar from his cousin and moved to Buffalo New York to be farmhand, then a steelworker, and then went into bootlegging during the Prohibition. He was actually pushed into becoming a musician as a career because prohibition ended, and recorded for Decca records.. Milk Cow Blues was covered by Elvis.  


Bo Weavil Jackson - You Can't Keep No Brown

Recorded for Paramount and Vocalion, at times under the name Sam Butler.

Bukka White - Bukka's Jitterbug Swing

Blind Willie Johnson - Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)

The legendary depression era gospel singer. He is famous for playing bottleneck or slide guitar.  When he was a kid, he knew he wanted to be a preacher and then made a cigar box guitar

Tampa Red - Denver Blues

Born Hudson Woodbridge. He is known for playing a singel string slide guitar as well as bottlenecking, which ais a style he took with him to Chicago. He was born in Georgia, but when his parents died at a young age, he moved to Tampa Florida to live with his aunt and uncle. During his career, he collaborated with Ma Rainey, a famous female blues singer and Georgia Tom, also known as Tom Dorsey, Sonny Boy Williamosn, and Memphis Minnie.

Sylvester Weaver - Guitar Rag

Muddy Waters - I Be's Troubled
Blind Boy Fuller - I'm a Stranger Here
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Jack O'Diamond Blues

Oscar Woods - Lone Wolf Blues
Leadbelly - Packin' Trunk Blues
Robert Johnson - Terraplane Blues

Son House - Walking Blues
Son House, Eddie James Son Jr, did not learn guitar until his twenties. He was going to become a baptist preacher but then he associted himself with Delta mUsicians such as Charley Patton and Willie Brown, usually as a sideman on stage.. ONce your'e friend with them, who would want to go back? He recorded for Paramount with the other musicians, but surprisingly, those songs weren't a commercial success, and he didn't record again for 30 years. He was later recoreded by John and Alan Lomax, the famous field reserachers and archivers for the blues.
Casey Bill Weldon - he played slide guitar, but more upbeat songs, including genres of hokum and country blues. He was also part of the famous memphis jug band and married to memphis minnie!

Furry Lewis - Falling Down Blues

Furry Lewis, born Walter Lewis,  was born in Tennessee and started music young. He met many people such as blind lemon jefferson and texas alexander, and bessie smith, and Frank STokes. AFter eaching a certain age, he decided to tak ea stable job in Memphis, yet continued to be part of the music scene until he retired.
Before he died, Lewis opened twice for The Rolling Stones, played on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, and had a part in a Burt Reynolds movie, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), and had a profile in Playboy magazine

Hambone Willie Newbern - Roll and Tumble Blues
Ramblin' Thomas - So Lonesome
Willard Thomas was born in Mississippi. His father played the fiddle, and eventually he and his brother Jesse became musicians.
Charley Patton - Spoonful Blues

Hawaiian Steel Guitar: a style of playing in which the guitar is held horizontally and the strings are played with a steel slide. It originated in Hawaii around the 19th and 20th century, reportedly due to immigrant presence in the area.

Hula Blues: Vintage Steel Guitar of the 30's and 40's
You can find it on amazon.

Andy Sanella - Blues of the Guitar

Jim and Bob and the Genial Hawaiians - Chimes
Sol Hoopie - Farewell Blues 

Roy Smeck - Hilo March 
Hawaiian Serenaders - Honololulu Stomp
Lemuel Turner - Jake Bottle Blues 
 Roy Smeck - Kalima Waltz
Biltmore Orchestra - Kaui Kahio
Jim and Bob and the Genila Hawaiians - Song of the Range

1 comment:

  1. Guitar has been my life for many years now and I can say that this is my best friend. Without this, my life will be boring.

    how to play a guitar

    ReplyDelete