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[mucksblues]

[mucksblues]

[mucksblues]

[mucksblues]

The venerable Oscar Schmidt Company manufactured an immensely popular line of guitars in the first half of the 20th Century.   By 1939, the company was sold and would have slipped into obscurity but for the rising popularity of old country blues music beginning in the 1960’s, and another obscure object from the early 20th Century, the 78 rpm record.  It just so happened that writers on the early blues reported that the Stella brand guitar was favored and used by many of the musicians on the early 78 recordings, some claim for their sound, and some because they were cheap and available (many Schmidt instruments were sold through mail order catalogs, or in local general stores).  

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History and Origin of the Slide Guitar in the Blues

There have been many claims to the origin of the slide guitar. Its haunting sound can be heard across the whole spectrum of musical styles, through blues, rock, country, Hawaiian and even jazz. 

A sound so haunting, that as fans of Robert Johnson might believe, was born from the devil himself. However, there are a few more `earthly signposts` that musicologists have followed, to try and pin down the birth of the slide sound.  Throughout the world musicians have created sounds by dragging objects across stringed instruments, for either effect or as an integral part of its sound. An example of this was discovered in W.Africa in the form of a musical bow. Still used today, this one stringed instrument was attached to a gourd resonator and held to the abdomen, while the player plucked the string and used a bone or metal to vary the pitch. Investigators into the popular form of slide playing associated with the blues, determined that this was probably why a more contemporary version of the bow called the Jitterbug came to be used by the Negro musicians around the southern states of America at the turn of the century.  With the influx of slaves, years before, came a rich culture of music, and although the slaves were bereft of possessions, a musical bow would be a simple instrument to make. The Jitterbug, like the bow, had one string, but this time simply attached to the floor or side of a shack. When plucked, an object would be dragged along the string to accompany simple songs. The sound, which could wail and moan like the human voice, became an ideal backing to the early blues and perhaps forerunner to the guitar`s role in the slide style.  But why the guitar? In the early part of the 20th century, the guitar was becoming increasingly popular, as a cheaper alternative to the piano. Along with the banjo, it was more portable and could be ordered by catalogue in the many rural backwaters. It is a safe bet to say, that knives, bones and glass, would have been used on the guitar as an extension to the Jitterbug.  The guitar became more widely used with the slide, after a young Hawaiian guitarist called Joseph Kekeku made a recording using this style. It was a flashy, eerie kind of tune, that became popular in the U.S, and gave the already established Negro style more impetus. The Hawaiian influence on slide playing cannot be overlooked.  The speed at which the music spread into the American culture at the turn of the century was evident in the increased production of guitars and lap steels.  All the main makers were turning them out: National, Rickenbacker and Gibson. In fact, the Hawaiian style lap steel, far out sold Spanish style guitars. Since the early Kekeku recordings, the use of the slide began to seep into all styles of music, from the early blues, right into the mountain Hillbilly music of early folk and country.  The Hawaiians have always laid claim to the invention of the slide guitar, but it is fairer to say, that it was a development rather than an invention. Anyway, the young J.K could easily have got the idea by listening to an American Negro sailor, whose ship had docked in Honolulu!  Whatever the worldly origins of the slide guitar, this form of playing is best known for it`s partnership with the blues. The slide playing of Robert Johnson, Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, to name a few, has reached almost classical status. It is a style that has captivated, amazed and baffled guitarists of all kinds, and to my mind has become the most enchanting. Thanks to Rick Payne - December 02, 2000

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The definition and most important extra-musical meaning of “blues” refers to a state of mind. But “the blues” did not enter popular American usage until after the Civil War as a description of music that expressed such a mental state among African Americans. It is generally understood that a blues performer sings or plays to rid himself of “the blues."  As the blues was created largely by illiterate musicians, scarcely any of whom could read music, improvisation, both verbal and musical, was an essential part of it, though not to the extent that it was in jazz. To facilitate improvisation, a number of patterns evolved, of which the most familiar is the 12-bar blues, Apparently, this form crystallized in the first decade of the 20th century as a three-line stanza in which the blues singer sings two lines of the same lyrics. While singing these two lines, the singer must come up with the last line of the verse to coordinate with the other two. The simplicity of blues lyrics gave the blues singer freedom to express emotion while improvising. This structure was supported by a fixed harmonic progression, which all blues performers knew and which they played almost automatically.