Topic: Country Blues Instrumentals

[SpikeDriver]

Because of my limited singing, I was thinking of working up a list of instrumentals.

Here are a few that came to mind.

Blind Arthur's Breakdown - Blake
Old Country Rock - W.Moore
Guitar Rag - Sylvester Weaver
Dark was the Night - BWJ
So. Carolina Rag - Willie Walker

Of course there are plenty more, just wondering if anyone had some real favorites.

Thanks

[Pan]

Big Bill Broonzy:

-House Rent Stomp
-Guitar Shuffle.

Broonzy also arranged fine instrumental choruses with the melodies on many of his songs, so you could easily treat them as instrumentals if you wished, for example "I Gets the Blues when it Rains" or "Glory of Love".

Cheers

Pan

Edited to add: I have absolutely fantastic live solo guitar arrangements of both House Rent Stomp and Guitar Shuffle on an old blues guitar double-LP compilation by the French Vogue label. I believe the Vogue recordings are now also available in CD, and are in fact discussed here: http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?amp;Itemid=88&topic=1530.0.

By the way, has anyone heard the Amsterdam recordings yet? A review would be brilliant!

[GerryC]

Hi Spike.
From Broonzy again - Saturday Night Rub and Pig Meat Strut (which deserve outings for their titles alone!); Rev Davis' - and others' - version of Cincinatti Flow Rag/Slow Drag. For slide, I too play the splendid Guitar Rag by Sylvester Weaver, but I couple it with an arrangement of Vestapol, which I also play (partially) with a slide. You can hear an mp3 of this whole arrangement on my website www.gerrycoopermusic.co.uk  I also like Grossman's Slow Blues in C, which pulls together a lot of Blind Blake licks,and Steve James' arrangement of Buddy Bolden's Blues, which is related to the rather more complicated St Louis Tickle. William Brown's Mississippi Blues also makes for a great instrumental, especially if you can persuade someone else to 'second' on another guitar.

Cheerily,

Gerry C

[tenderfoot84]

One of my favourite blues guitar instrumentals is "Spanish Blues" by Lewis Black. It's a very rough round the edges recording and Black's moaning "vocal" is supreme.

[Parlor Picker]

... and speaking of "moaning vocals", there's always the superb "Dark Was the Night..." from Blind Willie Johnson.

[outfidel]

I love Bayless Rose's "Jamestown Exhibition", which you'll find on American Primitive Vol. II. It's one of those C-A7-D7-G7 pieces with lots of neat variations.

Another favorite is all the variations of "Buckdancer's Choice" by Sam McGee, Mississippi John Hurt, Merle Travis, et al.

[GerryC]

And one that I forgot: Spanish Fandango. There are many variations on this tune (and title!) but it's nice to have something in 3/4 (or 6/8, depending on the version) to drop into a set where four-time is predominant. Steve James has a great version of this tune - plus an interesting history - in his Roots and Blues book/CD combo, available from the Acoustic Guitar magazine website. (Stef Jam's book is full of other goodies too.)

Cheerily,

Gerry C

[dave stott]

one of my favorites right now, while it wasn't originally an instrumental.

Is Ernie Hawkins version of Cocaine off of his Blues Advice CD....

[GhostRider]

Howdy:

Possibly the most influencial CB instrumental of all time, and my favorite, "West Coast Blues" by Blind Blake.

Swing your partner,
Alex

[Blue in VT]

Howdy all,

I'm looking for a few suggestions of tunes to work on in the future.  As I've been playing for a couple of years now things are starting to come a bit faster for me and I would like to have a few things lines up to work on over the coming months.  That said...I'm not much of a singer....yet....I hope... and so I've really enjoyed learning instrumental pieces or songs where the guitar can stand alone if nec.  So I would love to hear what you all consider to be your favorite instrumental blues.  And if there is learning material out there for the tunes a reference would be very beneficial.  Time period doesn't matter nor does region.  Though I'm starting to mess around with slide tunes...they are no my strong point yet...so lets stick to non-slide tunes for now.

Thanks all!!!

Cheers,

Blue

[daddystovepipe]

Lonnie Johnson has some great instrumentals.
My favorite is "Away Down in the Alley Blues" or "Blues in my Fingers".
They are both transcribed in this Stefan Grossman book about Lonnie's playing.
http://guitarvideos.com/books/F3346.htm
Even the solo's and fills of his songs with vocals are very usable to construct instrumental pieces.
Cheers,
Carl

[uncle bud]

Well, dang, Blue, I was just going to suggest slide tunes. One thing's for sure: there will be a whole lot more to choose from. Might be a good time to make it a stronger point.

Not slide:

Stocktime (Buck Dance) - Mississippi John Hurt (he does sing a couple sort-of verses at the end of the version on The Immortal Mississippi John Hurt, but other versions are instrumental). This is a nifty, simple little instrumental IMO, that nobody plays.

Etta Baker - Check out the CD One Dime Blues. Lots of instrumentals, somewhat in the Piedmont style, with rags, blues, instrumental versions of classics like John Henry, Bully of the Town. Laid back guitar picking. There's also a DVD lesson from Homespun Tapes which I haven't seen. There's also a CD of duets with Taj Mahal.

Many of my favourite instrumentals are either slide tunes (Tampa Red, Sylvester Weaver) or by Rev. Gary Davis. Those are probably not what you're looking for.

[uncle bud]

Thought of a couple others.

Bayless Rose - on the Document Ragtime Guitar CD: Jamestown Exhibition.

Jamestown is actually available in a slightly better remaster on the CD Old-Time Mountain Guitar, which is a great CD, leaning towards the hillbilly side of things. It's a CD with a bunch of great instrumentals: Sam McGee's Buck Dancer's Choice, David Miller's Jailhouse Rag. Though a number of the others are duets, and involve slide. 

[CF]

'Jackson Stomp' by the Mississippi Mud Steppers is really good . . .
Bill Monroe's 'Tennessee Blues' is a monster . . . 

[Blue in VT]

Great suggestions so far...I love all the differnt versions of Buck Dance ThatI have come across and MJH's is one of my all time Favs.

I guess I wouldn't mind slide tunes as well...that way its a more universal list of instrumntals and not just ones I'm intersted in at the moment.

Thanks ya'll keep'em coming!

Blue