Hi all,
I recently transcribed Geechie Wiley's "Last Kind Words Blues" for a lesson and was struck again by the impression that the entire song accompaniment consists of two guitarists playing the same part in unison. You can especially hear that it is two guitars playing in unison on the slides to unisons at the fifth fret of the second string and the open first string and the fourth fret of the third string and the open second string, mostly because the unisons are not perfectly matched in their timing. I know that the other cuts on which Geeshie Wiley and Elvie Thomas were paired tend to have guitar parts which are right on top of each other--in "Motherless Child Blues", for example, it is really hard to separate out the two parts. I was wondering after listening to "Last Kind Words" though, if anyone knew of any other country blues recordings on which the same part was played in unison by two players. It's a pretty bold duet concept, since it becomes so clear when the two parts diverge from each other, and it's kind of a precursor of the Be-bop approach to playing instrumental heads, in which the trumpet and saxophone play the melody in unison. It sure makes for a striking sound in "Last Kind Words Blues".
All best,
Johnm
