A Penguin in the Orchard

New Obsession

My daughter was kind enough to get me a guitar for Christmas - a Washburn D10S Dreadnought in black, with a case. Especially for the price, it’s a very nice guitar. Good tone. Nice action. And, I didn’t have to wait until Christmas to play it.

I’ve owned an electric for years, but play it very infrequently. Lately, though, I’ve become pretty enchanted by the Piedmont style of blues, as mastered by folks like Cephas & Wiggins and Archie Edwards. The reason I asked for a guitar for Christmas was specifically to learn that fingerstyle of blues.

And, there are a lot of other fingerstyle players I admire. Right after UPS delivered the guitar, I purchased three full albums from eMusic: John Fahey, The Legend of Blind Joe Death, Blind Blake, Ragtime Guitar’s Foremost Fingerpicker, and Mississippi John Hurt, 1928 Sessions. Along with Cephas & Wiggins and Archie Edwards CDs already in the collection, I figured I had a good start.

I’ve become obsessed with “Poor Boy” from the John Fahey album. My fingers are finally starting to callous, but only after a pretty painful week with blisters - that is, painful when I can feel my fingertips. I played for a couple of hours this afternoon alone, working hard to keep the right thumb going, a critical part of fingerstyle blues. But, I found that if I concentrate on the thumb, the rest falls right in. That’s not what I would have expected, but it was a useful discovery.

So, it’s a new obsession - Piedmont and other fingerstyle blues on the new Christmas guitar.

Technorati Tags: Guitar, Blues, Piedmont