We used to go to different people's houses, you know. In those days I mean they could hear music and - if somebody could play an instrument, man, they would get up at night, from one o'clock; and they'd fix food and they'd have drinks and they'd stay up till five, six o'clock in the morning and give you money. It wasn't a dance but a serenade; we'd go from house to house. In those days there wasn't too much things like juke boxes, high fidelity sound, wasn't nothing like that then; and whenever somebody could play and could play well, he was considered as somebody; he could go anywhere and he had it made, you know? - Baby Doo Caston, on playing music in Natchez in the 1920s, interview with Jeff Todd Titon
Hi all, Here is a place to list players who specialized and were notably accomplished and original in their approach to playing in Spanish tuning, whether conventionally fretting or using a slide. Once again, I'll start with two such players, and if you limit yourself to two players per post, more people can contribute:
Here are some guitar stylists in Spanish tuning: * Blind Roosevelt Graves * Peg Leg Howell
Tommy Johnson. he recorded only one song in spanish (but he recorded it twice) but maggie campbell featutred in the repertoires of many admirers. Or Willie Brown
I know what you mean about the ending, Chris--not that many of these songs end on a II7 chord!
Does anyone think this could have been a mistake? Like maybe the red light came on unexpectedly and he just ended abruptly? Although I don't have everything Skip recorded in the '60s, I don't think I have ever heard him end Special Rider this way in later years.
No, I'm sure it was intentional, both because all of his '30s recordings on guitar were set pieces, but also because the song doesn't go to that chord anywhere else, and if he was intending to start the form again and got the "end it" sign from the engineer/a&r person, he would have had no reason to be there at that time.
I am always impressed by Bo Weavil Jackson's 'You can't keep no brown' - the slide guitar song on the Yazoo record Country Blues Bottleneck Guitar Classics 1926-1937. My vinyl player is not currently working, so I don't know if he does other songs in Open G.