[78-L] Reuss was Etri was Christian

[warren moorman]

Joseph, you're certainly right about the role of hawaiian guitarists, as well as the conflicting accounts from Durham, Paul, et al, which also simply stem from them having been well known and available in later years to be asked! I believe both aural and other evidence does pretty well indicate Barnes' electric is present on some '38 sides (although, per Julian's post re Blind John Davis, it's the later 1948 Davis cut "Magic Carpet" that most heavily featured Barnes, and a great side it is).
 
 
Of course we realize that the evolution of purely acoustic to completely electric and later solid body electric was a continuum that encompassed resonator and mic-amplified acoustic, e.g. Hittin' The Bottle, and aurally the boundary was occasionally unclear. I'd love to know for sure the amplified acoustic player on Georgia White's "The Blues Ain't Nothin'", (perhaps Lonnie Johnson, but not certain).
 
 
I just think Ware's adept and indisputably electric recordings of 1938 are more notable than they're usually given credit as proof of the spread of electric guitar pre-Christian, and I certainly think Ware's Spirituals To Swing appearance on electric should be rescued from historical oblivion; imagine if Robert Johnson made the show as Hammond first intended, playing with amplification!
 
 
Also, perhaps I should have said big beat rather than back beat, but I do think a back beat feel emerges in some of the more idiomatic boogie piano playing, e.g. some slower Ammons pieces, and they long predated R&B's rhythmic assertions. I'm an amateur on the subject, but my thinking is informed by hearing both Chet Atkins and Ahmet Ertegun say much the same thing.
 
 
Anyway, for all the other reasons I gave-the elevation of "roots" awareness, boogie's emergence to prominence, the early inclusion of electric guitar in a highly visible popular music showcase (Carnegie Hall, no less), the spur to Blue Note Records and Cafe Society nightclub, and so on, it's worth noting the 75th anniversary of Spirituals To Swing today, Dec. 23.
 
Thanks for the stimulating discussion, and yuletide cheers to all,
 
Warren Moorman                     



On Monday, December 23, 2013 1:30 PM, Julian Vein <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
  
On 23/12/13 18:16, Joe Scott wrote:
> Thanks Warren.
>
> For anyone who's interested in these pioneers, it's worth knowing that something George Barnes, Eddie Durham, Les Paul, and T-Bone Walker unfortunately had in common is that they told stories about their chronological primacy that conflict pretty glaringly with other sources. In the case of Barnes, he gave an interview to the WPA on May 10, 1939 (e.g., in connection with the fact that horn players influenced his own guitar playing, "You know I never heard any guitar solos until a year ago," & "I played in my first orchestra a year and a half ago") that conflicts with inflated claims he made when he was much older. Similarly, T-Bone's stories varied, but he once mentioned that the first electric guitarist he ever heard was Les Paul, which is more likely to be true than his claim to have been playing electric guitar well before 1939. His wife's recollection involving him learning to play electric guitar right about 1940 is probably correct.
>
> Joseph Scott
> ===============
Barnes is rumoured to have accompanied various blues singers for 
Bluebird and Vocalion around 1938. I heard a story about Blind John 
Davis appearing in France in the early 1950s and the audience expecting 
him to be playing electric guitar, when in fact it had been played by 
Barnes on record and Davis had played piano!

He contributes two great performances on Louise Massey's "Billie Boy" 
and "Polly Wolly Doodle". He's also on a Squirrel Ashcraft private 
recording of "I Know That You Know", which also contains a brilliant 
bass sax solo by Spencer Clark.


      Julian Vein


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