Texas Blues Guitar

Mississippi may be ‘the home state of the blues’ in most minds,
but Texas gives the Magnolia State a brisk run for the money
in terms of the number of influential blues artists who have
called it home. A sample roll call – Texas Alexander, Blind
Lemon Jefferson, Sippie Wallace, T-Bone Walker, Amos Milburn,
Charles Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, Larry Davis, Eddie
‘Cleanhead’ Vinson – serves to make the point. The four men
seen and heard in this video exemplify different aspects and
eras of Texas blues tradition: Mance Lipscomb is very near the
work-song source, while Lightnin’ Hopkins delivers music evok-
ing both country dances and a ‘street smart’ farm-to-ghetto
sensibility. Freddie King took urban Texas blues into the funk
era without missing a beat, and Albert Collins seemingly met
him there. There is a stylistic
diversity here which spans
decades of development. Yet
for all the dissimilarity of
approach and purpose of
these artists (Mance
couldn’t be less of a
showman, while Freddie
King lived for the spot-
light), there is one unifying
element among all these
performers: all ‘pick’ with
the thumb and index finger,
a characteristic so universal one
might call it the Texas pinch.’