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Mandatory Blues Song of the Week: "I Want to Live So God Can Use Me" by Son House.
Listen to "I Want to Live So God Can Use Me" by Son House. Song starts around 1:50, after his shy monologue ( Read more... ) -
Guitar adventure, day 5 and 6
Day 5 - got smoother at blues scale, got better at changing between ADE, practiced rhythm riff of Johnny B Good w/out pick (got blister on picking thumb ( Read more... ) -
Guitar, Day 4
1) Finished memorizing A, D, and E chords. Still can't transition between them well ( Read more... ) -
Guitar Adventure, Day 3
Fingers are pretty sore, but I'm icing them and using Dit Da Jow on them. Trying to avoid getting a blister, as I was told that slows everything down quite a bit ( Read more... ) -
Mandatory Blues Song of the Week: Leadbelly "The Gallis Pole"
Listen to Leadbelly's "Gallis Pole" here.
No blues education would be complete without mention of Leadbelly, who is often considered as much a folk singer as a blues singer, due to his use of traditional songs. Huddie Ledbetter (his real name) and his counterpart Blind Lemon Jefferson are key influences in the Texas-style Blues that developed later ( Read more... ) -
The Crit and the Crucible
David Isaak has a series of posts on "Crucible" problems for Protagonists and Antagonists. Basically, the crucible is what "traps" the characters into acting the way they do instead of any other way. What makes the Protag/Antag butt heads. Why they don't just walk away ( Read more... ) -
Possible chance to borrow a guitar
Talked to my buddy Mark at work. He has a guitar he's not using that he'll lend me for a while, at least until I can figure out if I'm really going to stick with learning the guitar ( Read more... ) -
Mandatory Blues Song of the Week: Sweet Home Chicago, by Robert Johnson.
Listen to it here. Robert Johnson is one of the most influential eary Delta Bluesmen. The legends of him selling his soul to the devil at "the crossroads" have appeared over and over again in fiction, everywhere from the movie Crossroads (aka the "Ralph Maccio movie") to the TV Series Supernatual ( Read more... ) -
Mandatory Blues Song of the Week: Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark was the Night (Cold was the Ground)"
If you haven't heard Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark was the Night (Cold was the Ground)", then do it now. (Link to song is fixed!)
This song is especially important for SFF writers, because it was on the golden record on Voyager.Blind Willie Johnson is an interesting guy himself, reputedly blinded by his step mother to get revenge on her husband ( Read more... ) -
Stackolee/Stagger Lee Myth
If you've ever hard "Billy Lyons and Stackolee" or "Staggerlee" (same myth, similar tune, two different songs) by Mississippi John Hurt, turns out it was a real incident. But Stag Lee shot Lyons because he took his hat and wouldn't give it back, not because he lost money at a dice game. blues, research