Acoustic Blues Guitar
About a hundred years ago, people began noticing Acoustic blues guitar players. Of course, acoustic was the only type of guitar at that time. Players like Robert Johnaon, Vig Bill Broonzy, and the Reverend Gary Davis were fingerpicking acoustic blues. Fingerpicking means using the thumb and the first and second finger to pluck the strings. Some players, like Rev. Gary Davis only used their thumb and index finger. The thumb played the bass and the fingers played the melody.
LIghtnin’ Hopkins was another acouswtic blues player. Hopkins had a more eccentric style of playing in which he played bass and rhythm with his thumb and the melody with his index finger. He would then accent the music with slpas on the guitar. I had a frined that saw him in Houston, Texas as he played in a club he owned. He ran the club from the stage while he played, sang and told stories.
For people interested in playing acoustic blues guitar, you couldn’t go wrong by listening to Mississippi John Hurt. Songs like “My Creole Bell” and “Make Me a Pallet on the Floor” are excellent songs to listen to and learn.
Travis style guitar playing is a fingerstyle of guitar that evolved out of the Kentucky coal mining districts. It is named after Merle Travis who made the style popular. Chet Atkins used the Travis style as a model to develp his personal style of playing There are a number of player that carry this style on Eddie Pennington and Travis’s son Thom Bresh are excellent examples. The people who play Travis stule play a lot of blues and the blues influence is evident when you listen to the playing.
Acoustic blues guitar is still alive and well with plauers like Keb Mo, Catfish Keith and Eric Claptons acoustic blues playing. In the future there will be new players with new ideas but acoustic blues will continue to live on.
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