Texas Blues Guitar

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Texas Blues Guitar Mississippi may be ‘the home state of the blues’ in most minds, but Texas gives the Magnolia State a brisk ru ...

Texans, of course, aren’t alone in playing that way but it’s notable that exceptions to this rule were so rare. Before look- ing ...

and the instrument. An apparent reaction to Walker’s urbanity came from the likes of Lightnin’ Hopkins, who experienced surprisi ...

Albert Collins (1932-1993) “A lot of people ask me what’s the difference between Chicago blues and Texas blues. We didn’t have h ...

Photo by Tom Copi ...

John Lee Hooker’s 1949 hit, “Boogie Chillen,” was the first tune Collins learned to play. Later he would be influenced by T-Bone ...

not claimed him in 1993, Collins would no doubt still be making music as powerful as that heard in this video. “That tone,” ex- ...

Freddie King (1934-1976) “I used to listen to Freddie King a lot then, and that drive he had in his early days stayed on my mind ...

`Don’t you ever sleep?’” King got his first electric guitar at age seventeen, and in 1956 he began accompanying harmonica player ...

entertaining, King seemed primed for something akin to Albert Collins’ 1980s success. But on Christmas 1976, Freddie King played ...

Lightnin’ Hopkins (1912-1982) “Lightnin’, in his way, is a magnificent figure. He is one of the last of his kind, a lonely, bitt ...

Wanderlust hit him early: “Left there when I was eight years old,” he told Les Blank. “I went back when I was 12; leave again. J ...

and Lightnin’ would have entered the obscurity common to many bluesmen of his generation had Sam Charters not inter- vened. Char ...

Photo by David Gahr ...

Mance Lipscomb (1895-1976) “Now when I get to playin’ I go out of the bounds of reason because when I start, I don’t like to sto ...

streets around the time of World War I. His arrangement of Johnson's “God Moves On the Water” closely follows the origi- nal 192 ...

The Lone Star State boasts many cultural riches, and its gifts to the blues tradition are among its most exemplary trea- sures. ...