For those interested this youtube channel has been posting recording, some of which are not on cd as noted in the comment section on the clip below, some are from his collection. There may be, but I did not see footage with the audio on any I looked at.

There's currently 9 by Fred Mcdowell, including Highway61 on a resonator,. There are recordings from alot more artists including Furry Lewis, Mance Lipsccomb, Peg Leg Sam, Baby Tate,Lightning Hopkins, Sonny Terry and Brownie MCGhee, Cecil Barfield, Henry Rule Johnson, Pink Anderson, Bukka White among others.

Thanks for posting this. It was new to me.
I remember coming across a thread here about Pre-Blues music styles by John Miller. I tried searching for it, but there were 150 pages of results! I went through many pages (and went off on many reading tangents along the way) but couldn't find it. Any help finding that post would be greatly appreciated.
Take care

Hi all,
I wanted to let you know that the Song of the Month lesson for July, 2020 at my website is Frank Hovington's "90 Going North", a terrific instrumental which he played in dropped-D tuning.  Frank Hovington lived much of his adult life in downstate Delaware, and was discovered there by John Fahey in the early '50s, when Fahey, who was on a fishing trip, saw Hovington playing guitar on his front porch and stopped by to hear him play.  Fahey was inspired to play guitar after hearing him, and after you hear this tune, I think you'll know why.  Here it is:



I have transcribed Frank Hovington's first three passes through his form, though the form is extremely variable in length, with the first pass fairly short and the second and third passes much longer.  For the month of July only, I am offering a lesson on "90 Gong North" which includes a TAB transcription and very thorough talk-throughs of the three passes on the transcription.  For more information or to order the lesson, go to my website, www.johnmillerguitar.com , in the Teaching section.

Thanks for your time, and I hope you are staying careful, safe and healthy in our current situation.

All best,
Johnm

Thanks very much for that information, Chris.  It sounds to me like a guitar playing boom-chang and the ukulele playing all the lead and treble chordal work.  I definitely do not think that the lead lines and sophisticated chordal work are being played on a guitar--the timbre doesn't sound right for a guitar.
All best,
Johnm

I tried Stealin' again (in G) on a combination of G and C harps. While it's undoubtedly easier to play the first line of the verse on a G harp, the savings of effort is more than cancelled out on the second line, which in my opinion is harder on a G harp than the first line is on a C harp. In other words, the G harp is easier for one line, but the C harp is easier overall.

I don't think he switches from G to C after the first line, because he often plays the last note of the first line right up until the first note of the second line, or puts a leading note there, leaving no time to switch.

He does miss a couple notes in the second line of the last instrumental on the verse chords, which could be a sign that he's playing the whole verse part on the G harp, where the second line is harder.

But I'd say since all the notes are available on the C harp, and he doesn't play a G harp on any other song, the simplest conclusion is that he played the whole song on a C harp.