It was time to put up some straight blues slide playing here. This is a tune by Tampa Red that many many people have done. Hopefully once again I brought something to the party on this one.
As with all old blues tunes this one evolved from others passed around back in the days of Juke joints and house parties. What is also interesting is how the dancing evolved too. Being passed down and embellished just like the music. As I understand it the Boogie Woogie dance evolved from a dance called the Black Bottom. That dance folklore has it started with kids mimicking cows stuck in the mud down in the southern United States. Passed around it migrated north with a lot of the old bluesmen. Of course the white population started to imitate it. Just like they did later with the blues. Eventually the whole Boogie Woogie/Jitterbug dance thing evolved into a prevalent trend in the 1950’s. Of course the music was right there along with it. Gangnam style has nothing on these folks!
Tampa Red was a significant force in the whole blues scene starting back in the 1930’s. Playing on recordings of many others and eventually having his own solo career. He bought one of the first National Steel resonators, and then when electric guitars surfaced he picked up on that to. In the 1930’s he helped initiate the whole jump blues trend leading the way for rock and roll. Unfortunately, later in life he did not fare well. He died in obscurity in 1991. It is sad that this happens to so many. Making a living off of the arts has always been hard.
For the technical folks out there. I am playing this on my 1994 Continental Tricone. These were built in Germany before the new National Resophonic guitars came out. It is a Style 3 so it has all the beautiful Lilly of the Valley engraving on it. This tune is played in open D tuning.
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