Ron,
It was not just a matter of staying in tune. Many of those guitars were
pretty cheaply made. Few of the old timers could afford a Gibson, Martin or
other quality instruments. The ones they got often had warped necks and
unequal fretting. They were tough to finger at best (when one could afford
new strings) and at worst impossible to get accurate notes on. This also
explains all the open tunings they used. I have a list of about 15 open
tunings that were fairy common.
I remember reading Brownie McGee's raving about the new instrument he had
been given by the cast of Tennessee Williams, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".
Brownie and his long time associate Sonny Terry were part of the Broadway
cast of that show from 1955 to 1958 and he was so popular that the cast
members chipped in and bought him a new guitar - a Gibson if I remember
correctly.
In late 1962 I got to visit for a couple of hours with "Mississippi" John
Hurt in the back room of the old Gas Light Cafe in the village. He had just
been given a brand new Guild by John Hammond and you'd have sworn it was
made of gold the way he treated it!! Of course Hurt never really played
much bottle neck but I fell in love with finger style blues thanks to him.
Still love it and play a lot of it today.
McGee passed in 1996. We lost Hurt four years after I met him in 1966. Last
year I visited Hurt's grave near Avalon, MS and played a few of his songs
over his grave and on the porch of his cabin. A very humbling experience.
More than anyone really wanted to know about this, but once the memories
start flooding my mind......
Cheers!!
Jim
On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 7:01 AM, Ron Soave <soavero@yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- On Mon, 2/8/10, DAVID GROPPER <kk7ss@verizon.net> wrote:
> > Went to the crossroads.
> > Came back home.
> > Line was too long.
> > Serves me right !
> >
> > Dave G.
>
> These days the Crossroads are closed due to an accident involving an SUV
> driver who was texting and didn't see the light change...
>
> I was listening to OLD Muddy Waters stuff yesterday, and it struck me that
> the old blues players used the slide so much because their homemmade guitars
> didn't seem to stay in tune long enough to pull off a song end-to-end in a
> one-take seesion without it.
>
> Ron
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