Topic: Country Blues Guitar--Favorite Bends

[MTJ3]

Scrapper's bends in the intro to "Springtime Blues" are typical for him, but those bends in conjunction with the bass are really something.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I ran into some more "sick" bends yesterday, in Tommy Johnson's "Canned Heat Blues".  They're in the coda, where he's walking a little two-note shape down the first and second strings and bending the second string.  They have a real "acid reflux" quality to them.
All best,
Johnm

[btasoundsradio]

george torey
BAM

[Johnm]

Hi all,
A favorite sick bend:  Bob Campbell's bend of the third fret of the third string in "Starvation Farm Blues"--and he keeps coming back to it!
All best,
Johnm

[lindy]

I don't know if this example is sick or fit, but I've been spending a lot of time lately working on Garfield Aker's take on Rollin' and Tumblin' -- "Dough Roller Blues."

The bends are short but ... but ... what's a good word to use here ... forceful? noticeable? Words fail me, but the bends make the song.

Lindy

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I thought of another practitioner of "sick" bends yesterday--Rev. Gary Davis. Especially on his F tunes, like "I Decided To Go Down", he loved to bend the fourth fret of the second string. Unbent, that fret sounds the bVII of F, and bent it tends toward, but does not quite reach the major VII. As such, it has a notably queasy sound. He bends at the same fret in some of his C tunes, too, like "Great Change Since I Been Born", to a sort of digestive discomfort effect.
All best,
Johnm

[waxwing]

I don't know about "sick"? I never met a bend I didn't like.

But in the I chord response (bars 3-4) of every verse of James Alley Blues, Richard Rabbit Brown uses a repeating bend to  help create a 3 eighth note phrasing, which, repeated without a rest, 'seems' to change the time signature in a somewhat disorienting way. But then he is right back on the down beat of the IV chord

Wax

[Johnm]

I've met many a bend I don't like-not necessarily the sick ones, but the ones that don't go far enough or go too far--including the ones I've done over the years where the execution didn't match the intent.

[Forgetful Jones]

I love the bends in Santa Fe Blues by Smith Casey- the notes be bends as he sings the verses as well as the big booming bend he works into his solos.

[Thomas8]

Henry Townsend always had some great bends when playing with Big Joe Williams.

[Forgetful Jones]

Josh White’s “Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed” has some stellar bends. A few bend into sick territory.