Bottleneck and slide guitar occupy a documented place in American sacred music, emerging from the itinerant “guitar evangelist” tradition of the 1920s and 1930s, in which blind and itinerant Black preacher-musicians accompanied sung and half-sung religious texts with bottleneck slide on street corners and in churches. The technique’s dual lineage from the African-descended diddley bow and the early 1900s Hawaiian steel guitar craze through to its best known exponent, Blind Willie Johnson are presented.

Tom Feldmann has transcribed note-for-note nineteen recordings by Blind Willie Johnson, Bukka White, Blind Willie McTell, Fred McDowell, Robert Wilkins, Muddy Waters, Edward W. Clayborn, and Charlie Patton in standard notation and tablature.

Online audio access to the original vintage recordings — offering both the historical record and the practical tools to play this tradition are included. The transcriptions will give you a map of how to play the tunes, but the recordings will help you discover the music.

Titles include BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON Bye And Bye I’m Goin’ To See The King, Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground, God Don’t Never Change, I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole, It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine, Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed, Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burnin’, Lord I Just Can’t Keep From Crying, You’re Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond BUKKA WHITE I Am In The Heavenly Way BLIND WILLIE McTELL I Got To Cross That River Of Jordan FRED McDOWELL Jesus Is On The Mainline, When I Lay My Burden Down ROBERT WILKINS Wished I Was In Heaven MUDDY WATERS Why Don’t You Live So God Can Use You EDWARD W. CLAYBORN Gospel Train Is Coming, There’ll Be Glory CHARLIE PATTON Lord I’m Discouraged, I’m Going Home

Level 2/3 • 100 pages • Direct download link to audio files.