BLUES GUITAR ~ ITS HISTORY & HEROS

There's nothing like 'playing the Blues' — It's so emotionally-charged and deeply expressive ... and so soulful, especially when played by a great guitarist like BB King. If you haven't already been hooked, just listen to BB play a vibrato-filled, string-bending solo on Lucille (his guitar) and, chances are, you'll soon be convinced of the genre's infinite appeal.

It was around 1914, in the Mississippi Delta, when African-American musicians first began picking and strumming the guitar to accompany their songs. Guitar players like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Huddie Ledbetter and Son House helped to enhance the simple but powerful harmonic patterns and melodic sequences, which form the basis of the 12-bar Blues — as we know it today. One "bluesman" in particular, an itinerant musician from Hazlehurst, Mississippi called Robert Johnson, played a very important role in the development of the genre with his landmark recordings of 1936-1937, which included the dark and terrifying 'Hellhound On My Trail'.

Johnson's seminal recordings would go on to inspire generations of guitarists — from T-Bone Walker to Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. More recently, guitar virtuosos like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan have made an immense contribution to the genre — a genre which originated in the deep South almost 150 years ago.

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