Country and Electric Blues and Hawaiian Slide Guitar Styles & Techniques
Recorded in 1976, this was Sam Mitchell’s first solo album and it presents his mastery of the slide guitar in both an acoustic and electric setting. Sam has transcribed many of his arrangements and these can be found in the PDF booklet. This is a great listening CD as well as a tutorial for guitar players wanting to delve in to the evocative sound of bottleneck/slide guitar.
Tunes marked with * have been transcribed and included in a pdf tab/music booklet on the CD.
Track Listing: (click on tracks for mp3 sound samples)
1. Ambidextrous March*
2. Roll and Tumble*
3. Laguna Luna*
4. Paddlin' Madeline*
5. Hambone*
6. Earl Blues
7. Pile Driver*
8. Dark Was The Night Cold Was the Ground
9. Crossroad Blues
10. Livingston Blues
11. Let Me Play It First Before I Aloha*
12. Come On In My Kitchen
13. Tribute to Elmore
14. Sunshine in Houston*
15. Two Step Swing Thing*
Bonus Tracks:
16. Nobody's Fault But Mine*
17. Jubilee Jamboree*
18. Motherless Children*
19. Rainy Day Blues*
Review: Sam Mitchell stood out in a crowd. He was the English chap with a cigarette permanently dangling from his lip and a hulking slide welded around his finger. The image was perfectly compatible with someone who collected assorted bottleneck moves like others do coins or cars. In fact, so impressive was his steel on-steel stockpile that significant others took notice. For example, those are Mitchell's glisses gliding through Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells A Story and then coloring The Harmonica According To Charlie Musselwhite. But back in 1976, the now late guitarist recorded this clinic on BottlenecklSlide Guitar to showcase his stylistic repertoire. He worked mostly alone, sang a little, and cooked on acoustics, electrics and a razor-tongued dobro. That instrumental prowess is what zapped the bippity boppity into Kokomo Arnold's "Paddlin', Madeline," hula'd out "Laguna Luna," vocalized "Nobody's Fault But Mine," and diced up "Pile Driver" with slices so sharp as if the work of a Delta dagger. There were also show stoppers (the gentility and grace of "Two Step Swing Thing"), mood pieces ("Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground"), as well as some Earl Hooker-brand silk ("Livingston Blues"). Plus Mitchell even managed to save enough room to gash out a big, broom-dusting "Tribute To Elmore." And you thought your Hot Wheels collection was boss. – Blues Rag/Dennis Rozanski
