Considering that he was the most popular male blues recording artist of the 1920s, we know surprisingly little about Blind Lemon Jefferson. He recorded over 100 sides for the Paramount label from 1926 to 1929 and died in mysterious circumstances in Chicago in December of 1929. He inspired a generation of bluesmen but had few imitators due to the complexity of his guitar playing and the distinctiveness of his high clear voice. Tom Shaw, a bluesman and friend of Lemon from the 1920s said this about his playing: "Lemon was strictly a bluesman... And he was the kinda bluesman you didn’t have every day on the street. He was the king. Wherever he pull his guitar out, he was the king there. Wasn’t no use for anybody else to come up talkin’ about playin’ against him, ‘cause they couldn’t even do what he was doin’ – all they could do was look and wonder how in the hell he done it."
In this lesson Ari Eisinger explains the secrets to Lemon’s playing technique and style. He teaches five of Blind Lemon’s most popular and intriguing arrangements phrase by phrase and note by note.
Titles include: Matchbox Blues, Black Horse Blues, Yo Yo Blues, Bad Luck Blues and One Dime Blues
95 minutes • Level 3 • Detailed tab/music PDF file on the DVD
