Guitar of Blind Lemon Jefferson
SKU: MB.30792M
ISBN 9781513462981. 8.75 x 11.75 inches.
The East Coast, from Florida up to Virginia, gave birth to a vibrant fingerstyle blues tradition, documented on recordings from the mid-1920s up into the 1970s and 1980s. In East Coast Fingerstyle Blues Guitar, author John Miller has selected some of the most interesting and exciting recorded performances from that period to present to you, with transcriptions of the performances in TAB and standard notation, lyrics to the songs provided, playing tips that will help you get the songs up and running as soon as possible, and links to the original recorded performances, so that your own playing can be informed by the playing of the masters.
A particular focus of the book is the repertoire of three of the strongest practitioners of East Coast Bluesâ??Buddy Moss, Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller. Youâ??ll also find two songs each by Luke Jordan and William Moore, a Blind Blake tune and a host of songs from artists who qualify for the designation talent deserving of wider recognition: Peg Leg Howell, Carl Martin, Floyd Council, Virgil Childers, Sonny Jones, Gabriel Brown, Ralph Willis, Willie Trice and Henry Johnson, many of whose songs are being made available for the first time.
If youâ??re looking for fingerstyle guitar pieces with a great range of feeling, musical variety and depth of expression, you need look no further than East Coast Fingertyle Blues Guitar. It will give you the information and background you need for a total immersion in this exciting music. Includes access to online audio.
SKU: MB.31008M
ISBN 9781513467016. 8.75x11.75 inches.
Blind Lemon Jefferson was a trail blazer, both as a singer and guitarist, but also as a commercial phenomenon, for he was the first blues musician to establish the tremendous appeal that blues, as played and sung by rural African American folk, had for the record-buying public. It is no exaggeration to say that the sales of Lemon’s records paved the way for a host of other solo rural blues musicians to record in his wake and made the record companies more willing to give other musicians a chance, in the hopes of achieving similar success. Lemon’s record sales weren’t what made him a great musician, though - that could only be attributed to his startlingly virtuosic guitar - playing and soulful singing, developed over years of busking, building on his natural gifts with a great deal of practice and work. In the Guitar of Blind Lemon Jefferson author John Miller presents transcriptions, in standard notation and tablature, of 22 of Lemon’s greatest performances, with an additional essay examining Lemon’s senses of time and phrasing and his picking techniques. Also included is a download link to all the original recordings. To present a picture of Lemon the man, noted blues researchers Alan Governar and Kip Lornell have contributed an essay focusing on Lemon’s early life, the origins of his music, and his time spent in a musical partnership with Lead Belly. Links are provided to downloadable performances of the songs in the book from which the transcriptions were made, so that you can have Lemon’s sound in your head as you learn to play his songs.Blind Lemon Jefferson was remarkable, even in a style that abounded in great musicians, and some measure of his influence can be seen in the fact that musicians recorded in the 1960s, more than thirty years after his death, were still covering his songs and stealing guitar licks from him. The Guitar of Blind Lemon Jefferson gives you the resources needed to learn what was so special about Lemon’s music, and to experience his musical excellence from inside the music itself.Titles include: One Dime Blues, Got The Blues, Dry Southern Blues, Big Night Blues, Rabbit Foot Blues, Shuckin' Sugar Blues, Where Shall I Be, Wartime Blues, Black Horse Blues, Prison Cell Blues, Piney Woods Money Mama, See That My Grave Is Kept Clean, He Arose From The Dead, Beggin' Back, Broke And Hungry, Bad Luck Blues, Matchbox Blues, Lemon's Worried Blues, That Crawlin' Baby Blues, Easy Rider Blues, Stocking Feet Blues and Right of Way BluesLevel 2/3 • 160 pages • Direct download link to audio files.Â
