Topic: Slide playing

[frankie]

Blind Mamie's singing on "Honey In the Rock" just broke my heart.  It's about as beautiful as I have ever heard.

It's a very internal performance - even the word 'performance' seems weird as a description of it, since it's almost (to me, anyway) as if I'm being let in on a very private moment.  If that isn't a musical prayer, I don't know what is.

[Bunker Hill]

I agree with you, Frank, about A.C. Forehand's playing and the overall effect.? Blind Mamie's singing on "Honey In the Rock" just broke my heart.? It's about as beautiful as I have ever heard.
All best,
Johnm

What I also find remarkable is that the song, written in 1895 by F. A Graves (a white composer of gospel) has metamorphed into something so personal and affecting. When Origin first reissued it on a gospel compilation in the mid-60s Gayle Dean Wardlow speculated that Mamie "was a blues singer before becoming a minister. Mamie may have come from Mississippi, She is reproted to have died in Memphis in the late 30s or early 40s". Interestingly (for me anyway) is that the song was chosen for the volume of Religious Music in the 15 LP set issued in 1976 to mark the Bicentennial. If the series were done today I suspect we'd have Blind Willie Johnson rather than the Forehands....

[Gingergeezer]

How about Muddy Waters, there's some nice playing on his Library of Congress recordings. A good starting point for anybody learning to play slide. Also Bukka White, "Special Steamilne" or one of it's variations.