Topic: Slide playing

[Richard]

A very good point.
 
Possibly Cliff Carlisle comes over best in 78 aural quality although the choice of some of his material now seems a bit odd! Ash Can Blues is probably more to a blues taste although if I'm remember correctly he also played on some of Jimmy Rogers more blusey gems such as "Waiting for a train".

Frank Hutchison I only have a couple of tracks of and Darby & Tarlton I have a scratchy LP which does not help matters as they sound like Paramounts to begin with!

As for Hawaiian Wizard King Benny Nawahii I have nothing whatsover but intend to remedy that shortly 

[Richard]

Just thought what a dreadful mistake I made  due to ingrained UK spelling - I should of course have put Jimmie Rodgers and not Jimmy Rogers, naughty me.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I've been listening a lot to Sam Collins lately, and I really like his slide playing.  It is kind of raw and exciting but has a lot of finesse, too.  Of course the fact that he could sing the way he did didn't hurt the over-all sound!  It's good to check out these old threads.
All best,
Johnm

[uncle bud]

Hi John,

I've been listening to Sam Collins lately as well. I really enjoy him and am surprised we don't hear more about him from CB fans. His slide playing is nice and free, and you can hear that he and King Solomon Hill hung out. His singing is wonderful, I agree, and even though he can't quite tune his guitar there's something compelling about his music. Slow Mama Slow, Devil In the Lion's Den, It Won't Be Long are great. As I'd mentioned to you I'm working on Riverside Blues, not a slide piece but one I really like.

[thehook]

Long Live 'Mississippi' Fred Mcdowell!

 

thank you , couldn't believe I got this far in the thread without someone mentioning him. Long live indeed!

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I have really come to a greater appreciation of Furry Lewis's slide playing through repeated listenings to the CD he shares with Bukka White on Arcola.  I think Furry's musicianship in general is not accorded the respect it deserves, maybe because he was so fond of clowning and stunts when he played.  On the CD I mentioned, he plays with tremendous finesse and nuance and some particularly nifty control of his slide coming on and off the first string after he's made his attack.  It is really great playing.
Another guy who has not been mentioned up to this point in this thread, I think, is Charley Patton.  He's a hard guy to forget, with "Mississippi Boweavil", "Spoonful", and my particular favorites, "High Sheriff" and "Tom Rushen".  The last two shared one of the most beautiful melodies in all of the Blues, I think.
All best,
Johnm

[uncle bud]

John, I agree wholeheartedly about Patton. He is highly underrated as slide player IMO. I have worked on to varying degrees Tom Rushen and It Won't Be Long, and while these tunes sound simple, I find it hard to get them to sound good. Patton has a touch and groove that is relaxed and rhythmically sophisticated which so far eludes me in my attempts.

[boots]

Thanks for the nudge Johnm. I have just requested High Sheriff and I agree with UB that it is incredibly relaxed.

Boots

[bnemerov]

Hello all--
not to detour; just side-track the topic: I recall years ago hearing a cut "Voice of the Blues" , circa 1930, female singer, maybe Irene Scruggs? And there was --- as my notoriously unreliable memory has it --- a sublime slide guitar acc.

Anybody know who the guitarist was?

thanks,.
bruce nemerov

[dj]

According to Goodrich, Dixon, and Rye, the guitar player on that session is unknown.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I was listening to the early recordings of Furry Lewis the day before yesterday and was noticing "Creeper's Blues", in particular.  It was the last of his early pieces to be recorded, and falls into the E, standard tuning tuned low family, sharing its accompaniment, in the general sense, with Furry's "Jelly Roll", "Mean Old Bedbug Blues", and "Mistreatin' Mama".  What particularly caught my ear on "Creeper's Blues" is that at one point, Furry plays a fill with a slide, and I know he was in standard tuning on the song.  Nowadays, it is not uncommon for people to play slide in standard tuning, but can anyone think of another country blues recording from this early era on which a player uses a slide in standard tuning?  I can't think of any.
All best,
Johnm

[outfidel]

I really like the slide playing of Mance Lipscomb. His version of Jack of Diamonds is one of my favorite recordings. I also like his take on Blind Willie Johnson's Nobody's Fault But Mine & Motherless Children.

[Bunker Hill]

Hello all--
not to detour; just side-track the topic: I recall years ago hearing a cut "Voice of the Blues" , circa 1930, female singer, maybe Irene Scruggs? And there was --- as my notoriously unreliable memory has it --- a sublime slide guitar acc.
Anybody know who the guitarist was?

The famous, oft cited, "unknown".?? However, the 1969 second edition of B&GR gave it as "poss Willie James". Don't know where that theory originated. Something obviously made the compilers change their minds because by the 1982 edition this had become "unk". Possibly due to the 1975 first microgroove reissue of it on Yazoo LP 1046 which took its title from that song. Stephen Calt in his liner note comments:
"An unknown guitarist accompanies St. Louis vaudeville singer Irene Scruggs on Voice Of The Blues. Playing in the absolute key of C he executes a capable accompaniment in the style of My Back To The Wall (Yazoo 1026)."
LP 1026, for anybody interested, was the 1971 Country Blues Bottleneck Guitar Classics 1926-1927. (refer Stefan Wirz's Yazoo page)
Guess someone is now wishing he'd never asked!

[dj]

Don't know where that theory originated.

When the Gennett recording ledgers were obtained, they showed that a session occurred on August 30, 1930, where Sam Tarpley, Willie James, Willie "Scarecrow" Owens, Lena Matlock, and Irene Scruggs were recorded.  It's not known if this Willie James is the same as Willie B. James, and, if not, whether he played the guitar.  But on the assumption that he was the lone guitarist on the date, I guess all the guitar playing was ascribed to him.  The mystery is why the guitar on the Irene Scruggs session was changed to "unknown" while the guitar on the Willie James and Sam Tarpley songs remained "prob. Willie James".

[Richard]

Been absent for a while, but they've me out again now.....  

"Hello all--
not to detour; just side-track the topic: I recall years ago hearing a cut "Voice of the Blues" , circa 1930, female singer, maybe Irene Scruggs? And there was --- as my notoriously unreliable memory has it --- a sublime slide guitar acc.

Anybody know who the guitarist was?

thanks,.
bruce nemerov"

This is for the anoracks!

From "Rust" the jazz equivalent of G&D, Willie James is the name that comes up in my research.

Now, back to the very last post and also from Rust it shows Scruggs accompanied by "J Norman Ebron piano and/or Willie James" and underneath for the same date it lists 4 matrices as being by "the Scarce Crow (Willie Owens)" and the another 2 matrices by Sam Tapley.

So far so good, and just to conclude the saga on looking up Owens it describes him as "The Scare Crow - Billy McOwens" and he also recorded at Gennett  with Gene Hills Chicago Rhythm Boys - note McOwens has now become Scotish!!!.