Hi all,
I've been listening a lot lately to religious singers of the Country Blues era and have noticed how many of them chose to accompany themselves with slide guitar; there certainly seems to be a higher percentage of sacred songs accompanied by slide guitar than are secular songs. I suppose there could be a number of reasons for this--perhaps the ability of a slide to capture a vocal quality in its phrasing of melody was the driving force behind the choice to play slide, or maybe it was felt that it projected more in a busking context. Whatever the reason, there were so many performers of religious material who chose to use a slide for some or all of their repertoire.
I thought it might be interesting to make a list of as many of these performers/performances as we could come up with. Just to get the ball rolling, I'll name a couple, and if when the list is added to, people confine themselves to one or two names apiece, more folks can get involved.
* Blind Willie Johnson--the most obvious choice, I suppose, just because he was so spectacular a slide player. All of his slide playing was in Vestapol, I believe, and he is reputed to have used a pocket knife in his slide playing.
* Rev. Edward Clayborn--Everything he played was in Spanish tuning. He's not nearly as well known nowadays as Blind Willie Johnson, but he was a very clean player with a beautiful tone and perfect intonation.
* Connie Williams--The "Philadephia Street Singer" did all of his slide playing, and indeed, all of his playing out of Vestapol. He was exceptional in the sophistication of the non-slide portion of his accompaniments and had a chordal vocabulary in Vestapol that was unrivaled among traditional players. His use of slide was pretty much confined to his soloing. I don't know that he ever played slide from beginning to end on a piece.
Anyone have any other religious performers who used slide or religious performances with slide accompaniment to add to the list?
All best,
Johnm
I've been listening a lot lately to religious singers of the Country Blues era and have noticed how many of them chose to accompany themselves with slide guitar; there certainly seems to be a higher percentage of sacred songs accompanied by slide guitar than are secular songs. I suppose there could be a number of reasons for this--perhaps the ability of a slide to capture a vocal quality in its phrasing of melody was the driving force behind the choice to play slide, or maybe it was felt that it projected more in a busking context. Whatever the reason, there were so many performers of religious material who chose to use a slide for some or all of their repertoire.
I thought it might be interesting to make a list of as many of these performers/performances as we could come up with. Just to get the ball rolling, I'll name a couple, and if when the list is added to, people confine themselves to one or two names apiece, more folks can get involved.
* Blind Willie Johnson--the most obvious choice, I suppose, just because he was so spectacular a slide player. All of his slide playing was in Vestapol, I believe, and he is reputed to have used a pocket knife in his slide playing.
* Rev. Edward Clayborn--Everything he played was in Spanish tuning. He's not nearly as well known nowadays as Blind Willie Johnson, but he was a very clean player with a beautiful tone and perfect intonation.
* Connie Williams--The "Philadephia Street Singer" did all of his slide playing, and indeed, all of his playing out of Vestapol. He was exceptional in the sophistication of the non-slide portion of his accompaniments and had a chordal vocabulary in Vestapol that was unrivaled among traditional players. His use of slide was pretty much confined to his soloing. I don't know that he ever played slide from beginning to end on a piece.
Anyone have any other religious performers who used slide or religious performances with slide accompaniment to add to the list?
All best,
Johnm