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Posts: 833
Joined: Oct. 29 2006
From: Olympia, WA in the Great Pacific Northwest
Elizabeth Cotten
The left hand guitarist thread got me thinking about Elizabeth Cotten, so I looked her up on the ol' youtube. I'd never seen film of her before, and it never occurred to me that she played with just thumb and index. So I'm even more impressed than I already was...
Edit: man, do I hate misspelling peoples names. Apologies to the late ms. Cotten.
Yeah, she was great! The mighty Gary Davis was another who used only thumb and index, and you've probably already seen that John Hurt did it all with just thumb, index and middle fingers. I think nearly all the oldtime pickers did it one way or the other.
The most brilliant of them IMO was Blind Blake. He recorded West Coast Blues in 1926 and it's still one hell of a handful of guitar!!! Gary Davis explained in an interview (I think it's on the Internet) that the secret lies in the thumb. I think he means using it on every beat, accenting the 2 and 4 ("boom-chuck") like John Hurt in video. It's the difference between fingerpicking and fingerstyle.
The mighty Gary Davis was another who used only thumb and index
Hi Norman,
Ah The Bind Reverend Gary Davis....a terrific guitar player.
In the mid sixties I went to the Great American Folk Train that came to the UK, with Tom Paxton, Buffy Sainte- Marie, Rev Gary Davis and Ramblin Jack Elliot.
It was in the afternoon and at the end of the concert a lot of the Folkies stood outside the back door of the theatre to see their heros leave.
As the taxis pulled up, a very pretty tall blonde girl pushed her way to the front to get some autographs and Gary, (who was 70 years old, about 5' 3" tall and really beat-up looking) tried to get her to go back to the Hotel with him for "a little fun, Baby". I was standing right beside them, so I heard every word!
I must admit, it did make me wonder later about both the "Blind" and the "Reverend" stuff!
In the end she pushed her way into Ramblin' Jack's taxi and the couple were smooching away in the back as it drove off.
Not the sort of thing a 15 year old boy should have witnessed (in those days) I suppose, but I guess it was a bit of an education.
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