Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
When the first blues song was composed remains a matter of dispute. By the 1920s, however, the blues is in full swing beyond any shadow of a doubt. Thus, the present decade marks 100 years of the blues. I have tried in the twenty pieces of this collection to capture the spirit and feeling of acoustic guitar blues in various styles from the 1920s and 30s.
These pieces are illustrated by my pen-and-ink portraits of some of my favorite blues players from this period, though the selection is somewhat arbitrary, limited to twenty by the number of compositions, and dependent in part upon the availability of useable photographs. Arbitrary also is the pairing of songs and pictures in that a given song does not necessarily represent the style of the player depicted. Among those whom I would have liked to include but didn’t are Black Ace, Ed Bell, Barbecue Bob, Ted Bogan, Son Bonds, Ishman Bracey, Willie Brown, Blind Blues Darby, Little Buddy Doyle, Sleepy John Estes, Peg Leg Howell, Jim Jackson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Charlie Patton, Dan Sane, Alec Seward, J. D. Short, Frank Stokes, Johnny Temple, Henry Thomas, Willie Trice, Walter Vinson, Curley Weaver, Josh White, and above all Lightnin’ Hopkins, whom I, at least, consider more an electric guitarist. Perhaps some of these shall appear in a future collection.
If you enjoy these pieces, please see my acoustic guitar playlist here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg2GtsZ0EeLthUd9deoL9xLoJdnl8we7V.
If you play guitar and would like to try some of these pieces, standard notation and tablature are available free of charge on the acoustic guitar page of my website: verseandsong.com/song/acoustic-guitar/.
The pieces are as follows:
00:00 Blues in Open E
02:04 Blues in Open C
03:42 Blues in A
05:55 Blues in Open G
07:34 Blues in “Celtic” Tuning D
09:12 Blues in Open Ab
10:50 Blues in E
12:20 Blues in Drop D
14:00 Blues in C
15:39 Blues in E
17:42 Blues in A
19:31 Blues in Open D Minor
21:12 Blues in G
22:59 Blues in A
24:34 Blues in E
26:45 Blues in Open G
28:26 Blues in Open Ab
30:18 Blues in Open Eb
32:00 Blues in C
33:28 Blues in Open F
When the first blues song was composed remains a matter of dispute. By the 1920s, however, the blues is in full swing beyond any shadow of a doubt. Thus, the present decade marks 100 years of the blues. I have tried in the twenty pieces of this collection to capture the spirit and feeling of acoustic guitar blues in various styles from the 1920s and 30s.
These pieces are illustrated by my pen-and-ink portraits of some of my favorite blues players from this period, though the selection is somewhat arbitrary, limited to twenty by the number of compositions, and dependent in part upon the availability of useable photographs. Arbitrary also is the pairing of songs and pictures in that a given song does not necessarily represent the style of the player depicted. Among those whom I would have liked to include but didn’t are Black Ace, Ed Bell, Barbecue Bob, Ted Bogan, Son Bonds, Ishman Bracey, Willie Brown, Blind Blues Darby, Little Buddy Doyle, Sleepy John Estes, Peg Leg Howell, Jim Jackson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Charlie Patton, Dan Sane, Alec Seward, J. D. Short, Frank Stokes, Johnny Temple, Henry Thomas, Willie Trice, Walter Vinson, Curley Weaver, Josh White, and above all Lightnin’ Hopkins, whom I, at least, consider more an electric guitarist. Perhaps some of these shall appear in a future collection.
If you enjoy these pieces, please see my acoustic guitar playlist here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg2GtsZ0EeLthUd9deoL9xLoJdnl8we7V.
If you play guitar and would like to try some of these pieces, standard notation and tablature are available free of charge on the acoustic guitar page of my website: verseandsong.com/song/acoustic-guitar/.
The pieces are as follows:
00:00 Blues in Open E
02:04 Blues in Open C
03:42 Blues in A
05:55 Blues in Open G
07:34 Blues in “Celtic” Tuning D
09:12 Blues in Open Ab
10:50 Blues in E
12:20 Blues in Drop D
14:00 Blues in C
15:39 Blues in E
17:42 Blues in A
19:31 Blues in Open D Minor
21:12 Blues in G
22:59 Blues in A
24:34 Blues in E
26:45 Blues in Open G
28:26 Blues in Open Ab
30:18 Blues in Open Eb
32:00 Blues in C
33:28 Blues in Open F
