Early Blues

The African-American people who sang and played early blues carried an ancestral heritage and were subject to a wide range of musical idioms. Music functioned directly in almost every facet of life, from work to dances and the church. Blues is a coalescence of indefinable elements. The lack of documented material means that its development has been the source of extensive conjecture. In terms of the guitar, however, the songster tradition may be the core of early styles. Although early blues is often described generally as “country blues,” the music was in fact just as closely associated with small towns and cities as with the farms and cotton plantations of rural agricultural areas. Cheap, mass-produced guitars became available throughout the United States in the late 19th century. They were taken up by singers, who used them to accompany their songs, and occasionally they were integrated into small groups. Early guitar styles probably used both standard fretted fingerstyles as well as open tunings based on a chord, with a slide object moved along the strings for basic harmonies, and notes that have an expressive, microtonal nuance. An early reference to a blues guitarist dates from 1902—03, when musician W.C. Handy passed through a southern railroad station and saw a singer playing slide guitar with a knife, producing what he termed “the weirdest music he had ever heard.” Sylvester Weaver (1897-1960) from Kentucky is one of the first clearly identifiable guitarists. He was recording backing for singer Sara Martin in October 1923, and the following month, in New York, he recorded two solo instrumental with a smooth, warm sound using slide and an open E-major tuning. “Guitar Blues” is reflective, with simple phrases and chords, and “Guitar Rag” is rhythmic with a jaunty melody.

Charley Patton

Considered to be one of the seminal figures of the genre, Charley Patton (c. 1887-1934) was born in Mississippi. His “Pony Blues” (1929) was the commercial success that made him well known. Patton recorded ragtime, country songs, and spirituals as well as blues. His characteristic fingerstyle and open-tuning slide accompaniment often has a loose, unstructured approach with irregular bars, uneven timing, and unusual accents; and his music conveys a rough, repetitive, basic earthiness with a strong, physical, rhythmic feel. His phrases, played with a lyrical subtlety, often mirror or answer his voice, and he uses slide end to end. Patton’s approach incorporates additional sounds and techniques, including snapping strings against the fingerboard and drumming on the instrument. His guitar was tuned higher than normal to give a bright, penetrating sound. Among his well-known compositions are “A Spoonful Blues,” showing distinctive melodic slide playing, and “Moon Going Down.” By the time he died in 1934, Patton had become a legendary early figure establishing Mississippi Delta blues.

Son House (1902-88), an influential figure, has a rhythmic slide style that can be heard on “Walking Blues.”

Other outstanding musicians of the early years included Booker T. Washington “Bukka” White (1906-77), Nehemiah Curtis “Skip” James (1902-69), and “Mississippi” John Hurt (1892—1966), but they languished in relative obscurity. Leadbelly was recorded while in a Louisiana Penitentiary in 1933.

Blind lemon Jefferson

Texas, specifically the great city of Dallas, was one of the major regions in which early guitar-playing developed. It was here that Blind Lemon Jefferson (1897—1929) started recording in 1926. He was one of the first popular blues recording artists and his exceptional technique combines blues with ragtime virtuosity, using harmonic sequences that function as an ingenious counterpart to his vocals.

His exuberant and intricate fingerstyle is full of imaginative lines, with arpeggiation emphasizing melodies, and suggesting countermelodies woven with dancing and infectious rhythmic propulsion. Jefferson also uses the guitar in a call and response style. “Black Snake Moan,” for example, mixes single lines, strumming, and independent bass in relation to upper chord voicings. “Rabbit Foot Blues” starts with a boogie and becomes a piece full of unexpected invention. Jefferson was astonishingly versatile, from the slide of “Jack O’ Diamond Blues” to the percussive ragtime of “Hot Dog.” He showed how the guitar could create a high level of instrumental content and supersede, rather than just accompany, vocals; “Matchbox Blues” became a popular vehicle for musical developments by later generations.

Gospel

From the 1920s, “Gospel” became the term for songs with an overtly religious content. Gospel guitar playing in the early period is essentially similar to blues, with fingerstyle, slide, and a tendency toward occasional pieces with less rhythmic emphasis. One of the greatest individuals to express a feeling of human yearning and salvation was Blind Willie Johnson (1902-49), who began recording in 1927. His melodious, iridescent slide flows seamlessly around his intense voice and has its own peculiar singing quality, with a shaking, fast vibrato at stressed points. There is a brooding presence in “Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground” with its haunting depth and spine-tingling spirituality. Floating in time with searching slide and an eerie, percussive punctuation, the guitar is no longer a familiar instrument but a vehicle for otherworldly transcendent power.