Stefan Grossman explores traditional playing styles through transcriptions of 22 tunes by master Texas blues guitar players.

Explores traditional playing styles through transcriptions and analysis of master players - Rev. Gary Davis, Big Bill Broonzy and many others.

There are many intellectual curiosities about the blues. It has always seemed a phenomenon that the guitar styles that came out of the South during the twenties and thirties could be differentiated by their regional characteristics. On hearing a strange new artist, one can almost pinpoint his city of origin through his guitar technique. The Mississippi Delta produced a sound distinct from that of Texas. Atlanta had a very popular style that seems to have been confined to that city. The music of Louisiana has a weird voodoo texture, while the Carolinas produced another totally different sound. Music is quite a powerful tool. Words of explanation can never express the impact of a musical experience. I am going to attempt to teach the music of some great guitar bluesmen. It is not going to be isolated and picked apart, but presented with its historical value as well as personal and emotional value. Words will not be my tools for this venture; instead I will incorporate photographs and interview to describe these feelings.

This comprehensive book has 260 pages and over 50 fingerpicking guitar solos in notation and tablature in country blues, Delta blues, ragtime blues, Texas blues and bottleneck styles. An extremely comprehensive blues solo collection.Includes access to online audio

The blues have been a major focus of music in Texas, from the earliest days of commercial recordings right up to the present. And there has been an impressive lineage of great Texas fingerstyle blues guitarists, from Blind Lemon Jefferson, the first country blues recording star, to the impassioned singing and unearthly slide guitar of Blind Willie Johnson, on up to the genre-defining sound of Lightnin' Hopkins and the late-in-life instrumental mastery of Mance Lipscomb. With such a dazzling array of Texas Blues players to choose from, a book devoted to Texas fingerstyle blues guitarists was a natural project to undertake. The artist featured in this book are: Blind Lemon Jefferson, Willie Reed, Blind Willie Johnson, Little Hat Jones, J. T. "Funny Papa" Smith, Smith Casey, Wallace Chains, Willie Lane, Lightnin' Hopkins, Lil' Son Jackson, Frankie Lee Sims and Mance Lipscomb.

The Early Masters of American Blues series provides the unique opportunity to study the true roots of modern blues. Stefan Grossman, noted roots-blues guitarist and musicologist, has compiled this fascinating collection of 14 songs, transcribed exactly as performed by legendary blues masters Rev. Gary Davis, Lonnie Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller, and Mississippi John Hurt. In addition to Stefan's expert transcriptions, the book includes a recording containing the original artist recordings so you can hear the music as they performed it.

Contains piano accompaniment and guitar chords