Hi all, I thought it might be interesting to create lists of "guitar stylists" for different playing positions/tunings--players who particularly specialized in one these tunings, recorded many pieces in it and showed originality and a distinctive personal sound in it. As a difference from the "Adventures In" threads, let's not exclude players who specialized in slide playing in the tuning from these lists. I'll start off by naming two players, and you can add to the list. If you limit yourself to no more than two players per post, more folks will be able to participate.
For Vestapol tuning, I'll select: * Josh White * Blind Willie Johnson
Hi all, * Jesse Thomas--only two titles in Vestapol, but one alone, "Another Friend Like Me" would qualify him as one of the greatest guitar stylists in Vestapol, ever.
Hi Old Man Ned and Eric, Yup, that's a pretty fantastic track. I described Jesse Thomas elsewhere on this site a number of years ago as "constantly on the verge of being discovered". For what it's worth, I teach "Another Friend Like Me" on my 2-DVD lesson, "Country Blues Guitar in Spanish and Vestapol Tunings", available in hard copy or downloadable versions from Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop. All best, Johnm
Hi all, * Willard "Ramblin' Thomas, Jesse Thomas's older brother played all of his slide pieces in Vestapol, and just checking his songs in Weeniepedia now I was surprised to see that the great majority of them were played in Vestapol, playing lap-style slide like Black Ace and probably Oscar Woods. And the Vestapol pieces comprise the largest portion of Thomas' recorded repertoire, too.
Hi all, Willie Flowers was recorded by the Library of Congress in Florida, accompanying harmonica players Booker T. Sapps and Roger Matthews on five or six songs. He played all of them in Vestapol, both with a slide and without, and was pretty spectacular. Dennis McMillon had only one title in Vestapol, "Woke Up This Morning", but it's one of my favorite tracks in that tuning. All best, Johnm
Jody Williams, who tuned in open E, told a great story about riffing on B.B. King licks in a studio where some guy kept watching him intently. Wanting to protect his stolen style from being purloined, Williams kept turning his guitar away from the guy. Then Howlin' Wolf introduced them. The guy was B.B., trying to figure out Williams' tuning.