Blues Slide

This compilation provides an interesting survey of 9 blues slide guitar players. Collected from various independent record labels and recorded over the period 1960 through 1993, all of these tracks have been previously released albeit on hard to find albums and CDs. It is great to have these tracks collected in one place.

From the very start, blues guitarists forged an irresistible partnership with the slide, the sound of which epitomizes the very essence of the genre. This Rough Guide highlights the revolutionary players who pioneered this most captivating of styles during the early recorded heyday of the blues.

This 2CD set contains the A and B side of every 78 and 45 released in the period 1952 to 1962. It features original releases from Trumpet, Meteor, Flair, Checker, Modern, Chief, Vee Jay, Fire and Enjoy. The recordings were produced mainly in Chicago and New York with others made in Mississippi, New Orleans and Los Angeles and constitutes as formidable a body of work as could be found anywhere in blues history.

Slide guitar blues is produced when a player uses some kind of tubular finger covering (usually made of metal or glass, like a bottleneck) to depress the strings of a guitar over the frets so that the strings are stretched and bent, producing a wavering tone. Traditionally slide guitar blues was played on resonator guitars, but a variety of acoustic and electric guitars have also been used. Blues slide guitar originated in the Mississippi Delta region where it was popularized by a number of blues players, including Robert Johnson. Electric slide guitar blues developed along with other electric blues styles with the migration of African-Americans north to Chicago in the 1940s.

Blues on the South Side is probably the best album slide guitarist Homesick James ever laid down (originally for Prestige in 1964). The stylistic similarities to his cousin, the great Elmore James, are obvious, but Homesick deviates repeatedly from the form. Tough as nails with a bottleneck, he goes for the jugular on "Goin' Down Swingin'", "Johnny Mae", and "Gotta Move", supported by pianist Lafayette Leake, guitarist Eddie Taylor, and drummer Clifton James.