Blues Rock Guitar history
Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
TfXNueKV-w0
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- NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
hey Mr.P,
how familiar are you with 19th century parlor guitar music?
If we are talking about blues based guitar-- this is maybe where it starts.
The parlor guitar stuff somehow reached the deep south where it's open G/D tunings and song structures are all over the Delta Blues.
The early bluesmen apparently called D tuning "Vetapol" tuning. Which would be nonsense until you link with the popular 1855 Liverpool penned "Sebastopol" for parlor guitar in honor of the Crimean War.
Same thing with G, or "Spanish tuning"-- the Spanish Fandango...same Liverpool author, by the by.
Here's John Hurt playing it in 1963 (as far as I can find) roughly a century after it's initial popularity:
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And here's Mike Seeger's Smithsonian Recording of Early Southern Guitar Styles
Nsbq0gkHR0w
Who knows about the accuracy but this is probably close to what Hurt would've heard as a boy in the 1890s.
how familiar are you with 19th century parlor guitar music?
If we are talking about blues based guitar-- this is maybe where it starts.
The parlor guitar stuff somehow reached the deep south where it's open G/D tunings and song structures are all over the Delta Blues.
The early bluesmen apparently called D tuning "Vetapol" tuning. Which would be nonsense until you link with the popular 1855 Liverpool penned "Sebastopol" for parlor guitar in honor of the Crimean War.
Same thing with G, or "Spanish tuning"-- the Spanish Fandango...same Liverpool author, by the by.
Here's John Hurt playing it in 1963 (as far as I can find) roughly a century after it's initial popularity:
5DVPgRjF_CE
And here's Mike Seeger's Smithsonian Recording of Early Southern Guitar Styles
Nsbq0gkHR0w
Who knows about the accuracy but this is probably close to what Hurt would've heard as a boy in the 1890s.
- NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
Here's a re-enactment of a 1890s parlor concert with the Siege of Sebastopol:
rN4Jk5zHB7g
rN4Jk5zHB7g
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
I'm not familiar at all. Looking forward to digging in.
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
You can see the bros cave in this video.
HtZQk0omWio
HtZQk0omWio
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
This is quite incredible. A+.NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:Here's a re-enactment of a 1890s parlor concert with the Siege of Sebastopol:
rN4Jk5zHB7g
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- Nonc Hilaire
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
From Stefan Grossman's "Book on Guitar Tunings"
“Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks among His people to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses His creation.”
Teresa of Ávila
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
“Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks among His people to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses His creation.”
Teresa of Ávila
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
“Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks among His people to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses His creation.”
Teresa of Ávila
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
“Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks among His people to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses His creation.”
Teresa of Ávila
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
Total joy.
This is the best guitar thread I've ever been in.
This is the best guitar thread I've ever been in.
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
I was quite ignorant of all the parlor guitar side of things - I knew blues had grown around "various folk traditions" from europe and africa but never looked into the specific ones.
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
My understanding was that Robert Johnson blues came from the negro spirituals, but that doesn't explain his guitar arrangements. The parlor guitar sure does. That is a miracle. That guitar would explode if properly miced up.
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- NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
Here is a sample of a handwritten copy of Sebastopol from Worrall himself:
I have somewhere around here Sebastopol from a late 19th century manuscript- if I find it, I'll post it 'cause I'm curious to compare it to the above as well as the 'Vestapol' Nonc posted.
I have somewhere around here Sebastopol from a late 19th century manuscript- if I find it, I'll post it 'cause I'm curious to compare it to the above as well as the 'Vestapol' Nonc posted.
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
Worrall is ground zero for American guitar music of the 20th century.
There are other pieces besides Spanish Fandango and Sebastopol that point to pre-blues...but also pre-country, bluegrass/cowboy western stuff and you can definitely hear that Celtic sound, too.
There are other pieces besides Spanish Fandango and Sebastopol that point to pre-blues...but also pre-country, bluegrass/cowboy western stuff and you can definitely hear that Celtic sound, too.
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- NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
Worrall was born in Liverpool and his family moved to New York City when he was around 10 years old and then Ohio sometime after that.
He taught guitar at a Women's College in Ohio for a period of time; then he and his wife moved to Topeka, Kansas around 1868 where he continued to teach privately. Worrall is probably more famous for being an illustrator [among other things-- this guy did a lot in his life].
That is probably the inflection point into the south. What made it really take off in popularity is that the Peters Bros. of Cincinnati and Ditson in Boston published his sheet music, as they were two of the biggest music publishing houses in America.
It also helped that Worrall was also an organist, and extensively documented his pieces as well as writing in clean notation. My limited understandinf is that this was unusual for "guitarists" at the time and sort of made him the only game in town. According to the Kansas Historical Society, almost immediately after his death (around 1900) the guitar "lapsed again into being thought of as solely a folk instrument".
He taught guitar at a Women's College in Ohio for a period of time; then he and his wife moved to Topeka, Kansas around 1868 where he continued to teach privately. Worrall is probably more famous for being an illustrator [among other things-- this guy did a lot in his life].
That is probably the inflection point into the south. What made it really take off in popularity is that the Peters Bros. of Cincinnati and Ditson in Boston published his sheet music, as they were two of the biggest music publishing houses in America.
It also helped that Worrall was also an organist, and extensively documented his pieces as well as writing in clean notation. My limited understandinf is that this was unusual for "guitarists" at the time and sort of made him the only game in town. According to the Kansas Historical Society, almost immediately after his death (around 1900) the guitar "lapsed again into being thought of as solely a folk instrument".
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
Now, Parlor Guitar was an upperclass/upper-middle class hobby; one thought genteel enough for women.
It peaked among high-society and middle class women in the 1890s.
Or, another way of looking at it, it would've peaked around the time all these very early blues (and country) musicians born in the South were children, and would have probably heard or been aware of it as part of the cultural atmosphere.
Take the arrangements of tunings and apply it to Negro spirituals and the already developing folkways, and I think we have a key source in tracing the formation of blues based guitar.
It peaked among high-society and middle class women in the 1890s.
Or, another way of looking at it, it would've peaked around the time all these very early blues (and country) musicians born in the South were children, and would have probably heard or been aware of it as part of the cultural atmosphere.
Take the arrangements of tunings and apply it to Negro spirituals and the already developing folkways, and I think we have a key source in tracing the formation of blues based guitar.
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
Alan Lomax traced cowboy songs back to the Cajuns and French folksong roots. I'm not sure the sound you are hearing is Celtic.NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:Worrall is ground zero for American guitar music of the 20th century.
There are other pieces besides Spanish Fandango and Sebastopol that point to pre-blues...but also pre-country, bluegrass/cowboy western stuff and you can definitely hear that Celtic sound, too.
The early western musical frontier was Montreal moving south and Acadia moving north along the river towards Missouri.
“Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks among His people to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses His creation.”
Teresa of Ávila
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
In the parlor guitar pieces? I definitely hear it in some of these songs, with 6/8& 9/8 passages- they're practically jigging.Nonc Hilaire wrote:I'm not sure the sound you are hearing is Celtic.
Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
I have to throw in this gem. It's an authorized live version but man it shows he was tapped into something not of this earth. Dropped down a whole step.
I also think this was the authentic 68-69' Marshall Plexi sound. It roars.
cJunCsrhJjg
I also think this was the authentic 68-69' Marshall Plexi sound. It roars.
cJunCsrhJjg
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Re: Blues Rock Guitar history
the list of plexi guitarists is quite notable for being some of the best guitar tones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_1959
neck pickup strat or bridge pickup humbucker with the treble rolled back to make it a mid range monster , run through an overloaded plexi is rock guitar heaven.
the thing I really like bout most of them, from that 70's era , is the ultra dry sound (hendrix excepted) in which you can hear every finger movement, every bit of fret noise and pick attack, the modern guitar thing which starts with compressors and slapback as defaults really sucks alot of the raw vitality from the sound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_1959
(some outright wallies on that list aswell)John Frusciante
Angus Young[15]
Eddie Van Halen[16]
Billie Joe Armstrong
Jason White
Jimi Hendrix
Graham Coxon
Jimmy Page
Johnny Ramone
Pete Townshend
Ace Frehley
Billy Gibbons
J Mascis
Matt Bellamy
Randy Rhoads
Yngwie Malmsteen
George Lynch
Uli Jon Roth
Richie Kotzen
Slash
Richie Blackmore
neck pickup strat or bridge pickup humbucker with the treble rolled back to make it a mid range monster , run through an overloaded plexi is rock guitar heaven.
the thing I really like bout most of them, from that 70's era , is the ultra dry sound (hendrix excepted) in which you can hear every finger movement, every bit of fret noise and pick attack, the modern guitar thing which starts with compressors and slapback as defaults really sucks alot of the raw vitality from the sound.
ultracrepidarian