Topic: The Guitar Stylists--Vestapol Tuning

[Johnm]

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

Any more out there?

All best,
Johnm 

[Blues Vintage]

Bo Carter

[lindy]

Blind Connie Williams

[Prof Scratchy]

Kokomo Arnold

[David Kaatz]

Tampa Red

[harriet]

Fred McDowell
Ramblin Thomas

[blueshome]

Sam Montgomery

[blueshome]

King Solomon Hill,  Sam Collins

[Old Man Ned]

Tampa Red

[Johnm]

Hi all,
A couple more:

   * Peg Leg Howell (slide only)
   * Dan Pickett

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

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.



All best,
Johnm

[Old Man Ned]

Wow! This Jesse Thomas track is amazing. I've never heard him before. Thanks for posting John.

[eric]

Nice find, John.  I did not realize that Jesse had such an extensive discography.  He was apparently still recording in 1995!

https://www.wirz.de/music/thomasje.htm

[Johnm]

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

[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.

All best,
Johnm