Topic: Hillbilly Fingerstyle Blues Guitar

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I wanted to let you know that I just took delivery on my new book, "Hillbilly Fingerstyle Blues Guitar", that Stefan Grossman put out. It was exciting working on the various tunes and transcriptions and text, and Stefan pulled a real coup in getting Tony Russell, the author of "Country Music Records--A Discography, 1921--1942", to write an introductory piece describing the context in which Hillbilly Blues were first recorded as well as supplying biographical sketches of the various musicians whose songs are featured in the book. As with my recent East Coast Blues, Texas Blues and Mississippi Blues books, I've tried to include a mix of well-known musicians in the style and considerably less well-known ones who were undeserving of their obscurity. Here are the songs and musicians featured in the book:
Sam McGee: Knoxville Blues, Easy Rider, Railroad Blues, Sally Long, Riley Puckett: Fuzzy Rag, Frank Hutchison: Worried Blues, Train That Carried The Girl From Town, The Miner's Blues, Lester McFarland: K. C. Whistle, The Carter Family: John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man, Clarence Greene: Johnson City Blues, Dick Justice: Brown Skin Blues, Cocaine Blues, Emry Arthur: She Lied To Me, David McCarn: Everyday Dirt, Take Them For A Ride, David Miller: Jailhouse Rag, Larry Hensley: Match Box Blues, Lake Howard: New Chattanooga Mama, Debs Mays: Soapbox Blues, Rabbit Blues, Hobart Smith: Graveyard Blues, Railroad Bill, K. C. Moan, Roscoe Holcomb: Mississippi Heavy Water Blues, Fields Ward: Riley And Spencer, E. C. Ball: Raggin' The Wires, Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down

All of the songs are transcribed in standard notation and TAB, and each transcription is preceded by playing tips which describe fingerings and provide information on how to prepare movement in the fretting hand so that the pieces become playable in musical time. The book also provides a link to downloadable .mp3s of all of the original performances from which the transcriptions were made.

You can purchase a signed copy of the book from me while my initial supply lasts for $25.00, postpaid, within the U.S. ( the book lists for $24.95) by making a deposit for that amount to my account at www.paypal.com. My account at PayPal is: john@johnmillerguitar.com . For you Weenies who are not U. S. residents, and perhaps especially those who live in Europe, Stefan Grossman is making the downloadable version of the book available for $19.95, which gets around the exorbitant cost of international postage. Go to guitarvideos.com to take advantage of that offer. Thanks for your time and thanks to Stefan for giving me the opportunity to write this book.

All best,
Johnm       

[RobBob]

I got my copy a few days ago. It is fun to look through John's arrangements to songs I've played for decades in some cases. The biographical information on the artists is valuable too. There are even a couple of folks I had not encountered before. Each guitar player brings the sum of their experience ot their playing and John is not exception. I'd put this up there with the Mike Seeger DVD "Early Southern Guitar Styles" for its value.  Nice book with lots of great information. Thanks John for doing this work.

[Johnm]

Hi Bob,
Thanks for the good words. Just to be clear though, what is in the book are not my arrangements of the songs. They are transcriptions of the original recordings. There is nothing in there of my own playing. Everything in there is taken from the source recordings.
All best,
Johnm

[RobBob]

I understand what you are saying that the arrangements are based on how you hear the pieces. I did not mean to imply that they are not accurate but there is more than one way to skin a cat and I have used some subtle means to get the same end that perhaps differ from your tab.  One reason I bought your book was to gain insight into how you would implement your knowledge of guitar to reach the sonic results that replicate the original performance. I do believe you address that in this book that due to physical limitations or preferences there can be subtle differences to achieve the same end. That is all I was attempting to convey.  It is a valuable resource in my library and I thank you sir for making it available.

[Johnm]

Well, you're welcome, Bob, and I'm sorry I misinterpreted your previous post.
All best,
Johnm

[Rockdale]

John,

    Is it still possible to get a signed copy from you?

[Johnm]

Yes it is, Kenny.
All best,
Johnm