[-=FreeBird=-]

DADFAD, I was wondering if you could maybe name some of your favorite acoustic blues tunes, I'd like to become more hip to old blues music, but I'd like an expert to point me in the direction of some songs that really show the blues at their best...

[rayvon87]

Great question. I'm really getting into acoustic blues as well. I'd love to see the reply.

[dadfad]

There really are so very many. Generally I tend to prefer tunes that have more fingerstyle work in them... like the Piedmont and East-Coast traditions over the usually less complex Delta-style. (Many times the artist didn't necessarily even come from that area originally but played in that style.) Like I said, it's hard to name a few because there are just so many, but I'll name a few that are a little less well known than say Robert Johnson or Big Bill Broonzy, etc.

Tommy Johnson did some nice stuff (they used his name in the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou" but used Skip James' tunes!). His "Canned Heat Blues" is really nice. So is his version of "Big Road Blues."

Bo Carter did some good ones. "Arrangement For Me Blues" is a good tune. Lonnie Johnson did some great stuff, usually a bit more "sophisticated" than most. He was known as "The King of Dropped-D" because he favored that tuning and did a lot of complex fingerstyle work in it.

Blind Boy Fuller is a perfect example of the Piedmont style. A lot of good tunes. Generally "snappier" tunes with nice alternating-bass work, like "The Rag Mama Rag," "Mama Let Me Lay It On You" or "The Black and Tan." Blind Lemon Jefferson did literally hundreds of tunes, most of them very good. His "Match Box Blues," "Soul Train Blues" and "Shuckin' Sugar Blues" are among my favorites by him. Of course my mentor John Jackson did a lot of great ones. Here are some links to bytes of a few of his tunes:

John Jackson 1

John Jackson 2

John Jackson 3

John Jackson 4

John Jackson 5

John Jackson 6



One guy I'd like to mention is Robert Pete Williams. Robert Pete is very unlike most old bluesmen. Most of his stuff is not terribly difficult technically, but his sense of timing and just pure "blueness" are extremely hard to duplicate. I mention him more just for the listening to than the learning and playing of his tunes. There are a couple of notable exceptions in his body of work. His tune "High As I Want To Be" is a virtuoso-guitar tune. I spent a month trying to figure out the probable tuning he used (Dropped-F#) (?) and even longer (much longer) learning to play it (in my own inimmitable mediocre way). His tune "Ugly" is also very good (hell, they ALL are...). He was a very unusual person and his guitar-work is pretty unique. I mentioned him in my web-page on my card and he was also recently mentioned in this Topic.

So there are a few of them anyway. Just a very few out of the hundreds (and hundreds) I'd like to list. It's hard to just go out and buy a zillion records and have a good collection right off. The compilation CDs you see around are one way to start. You might hear something you like and get into that guy a little further (conversely, you might hear something you DON'T like, but it's not a good representation of most of that artist's work, so never dismiss a guy out of hand from one tune.) I generally think more in terms of artists rather than specific tunes. I'll like a guy's style or work generally, and so approach him and his work in terms of learning how to play in his style, and then apply it to one of his tunes (or another tune even) after that.

Another good way to get a handle on some good old artists is to listen to some of the more modern artists who play in a very authentic way. For example Paul Geremia. Paul has been playing for fifty years. Years ago he sought out and studied from many of the best who were still alive. Almost everyone I've ever met, plus a lot more. And he was already very skilled when he found them (as opposed to me who was a relative novice in country-blues back then. I learned a little, he learned A LOT.). John Jackson once mentioned to me in conversation about twenty-five years ago (before I had ever met or even heard of Paul Geremia) that Paul could probably play his style as good or better than he could himself! He's probably the finest traditional fingerstyle blues guitarist alive at this time. If you had one of his albums you'd be exposed to a wide variety of blues he covers (excellently) and then might follow up further on some of them. And there are others similar to Paul. (Roy Bookbinder for example.)

A lot of these old tunes have been re-recorded with very poor sound quality, often from one of only a few remaining worn out 78s left. Sometimes you really have to listen to hear the intricacies and complexity of the guitar-work in what might, at first-listen, seem to be just another scratchy muffled old-time blues-tune. It might require a lot of listening and work to break something down from the original recording, but well worth it when you're finished.


Anyway, there are a few suggestions. Thanks for asking my opinion.

[-=FreeBird=-]

Dadfad I appreciate the post, I checked out some of the bluesmen you mentioned, I particularly liked Lonnie "dropped-D" Johnson's work I think I'll look in the music store for a CD of him. I also listened to some of Blind lemon Jefferson's stuff, It was pretty good too, the recording quality was pretty poor though but it was recorded almost 75 years ago! I couldn't believe they have no idea how he died, it's all speculation, that is messed up... anyway I apprecaite your post. I'll be sure to check out some of the others you mentioned in the next few days...

[dadfad]

Dadfad I appreciate the post, I checked out some of the bluesmen you mentioned, I particularly liked Lonnie "dropped-D" Johnson's work I think I'll look in the music store for a CD of him. I also listened to some of Blind lemon Jefferson's stuff, It was pretty good too, the recording quality was pretty poor though but it was recorded almost 75 years ago! I couldn't believe they have no idea how he died, it's all speculation, that is messed up... anyway I apprecaite your post. I'll be sure to check out some of the others you mentioned in the next few days...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

(The circumstances of Lemon Jefferson's death have been updated a bit in the last few years. Previously he was reported to have possibly been killed when run over by a car in NYC, buried in an unknown pauper's grave, etc.. Several stories. He probably died of freezing to death when he became lost in a snowstorm in Chicago in December of 1929. Normally Jefferson (who had become pretty successful for a Black bluesman) (he'd even recorded for Whites under another "white" pseudonym) had a leader-boy/chauffeur so the details aren't perfect how that happened. His grave is actually in southeastern Texas near a town called Wortham. He now has a headstone which was bought by several musicians in the late 90's. His epitaph reads "Lord, it's only one kind favor I'll ask of you... See that my grave is kept clean." from his tune "One Kind Favor.") (Another good one I should have mentioned.)