THEIR AMPED-UP ELECTRIFIED cousins may garner the lion's share of modern limelight, but acoustic guitars and slides have gone hand and hand throughout the history of the blues, and they always will. As I researched last month's column on open roots tunings with the knowledge that this one would focus on slide, it was a challenge to find prime historic examples where the artist didn't incorporate at least some bottleneck. Here are a few that do, and a few a more contemporary ones too.
SLIDE BLUES TUNES
In Ben Harper's August 2018 Frets feature, he said, “Blind Willie Johnson is the mojo hand for steel guitar. Start with 'Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground,' tuned to open D. Low to high, it goes D A D F# A D. You can also take that tuning up or down a step, and it's sometimes called Vestapol tuning."
This story is from the January 2022 edition of Guitar Player.
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This story is from the January 2022 edition of Guitar Player.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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