Thanks Alex, for those GREAT photos!!!
My Blues talks are closely related to the guitars and other instruments that were historically used in the story of 20th Century Blues history. The musical saw was a home-grown instrument for people who could not afford to, (or were not ALLOWED to) purchase an instrument. The vibrato (and the sliding between notes that the saw is capable of) is much like the human voice.
The cigar box guitar also comes from the tradition that people who could not afford to purchase an instrument sometimes made their own.
The banjo was a very popular instrument, with African roots, that was used by great players like Papa Charlie Jackson. When the minstrel shows became widespread, the banjo lost its popularity among many in the Black community.
The "hubcap", or resonator guitar has a body of nickel-plated bell brass, a bridge resting on a speaker-cone type rig-up, and came out in 1927 so that a guitarist could play LOUD and compete with trumpets and saxes on the jazz stage. It was an expensive but feasible innovation at the time before electric guitars were available. Unfortunately for the resonator guitar's inventors, the electric guitar came out the following year, in 1928, and by the time of the Great Depression, a number of those resonator guitars found their way to the pawn shops, and were thus within range of many blues players.
The black electric guitar is a commercially available replica of the late B.B. King's guitar that he named "Lucille".
Many people think of the Blues as sad music, but much of the Blues deals with a message of hope and survival under adverse circumstances.
Back to the Blues,
Gary Rice
