Level: 2/3
Tuning: Open A

Mississippi Fred McDowell never sought fame or fortune. In fact, he even didn't own a guitar for most of his life. He was content to farm and play for tips outside the candy shop in Como, Mississippi. Then one evening in 1959, after a day's work picking cotton, he came upon folklorists Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins. They were recording some of the local old time musicians. At a spry 55 years old, they thought Fred too young. But what came out of that guitar proved he'd learned from the masters - and then some. Collins remembers Lomax jotting down a single word in his notebook: "Perfect."

Mississippi Fred soon became renowned for his hypnotic sound. He refined his slide technique with a bottleneck made out of a Gordon's gin bottle. "If you listen," he'd say, "what I sing the guitar sings too." He played haunting spirituals as well as hot blues vamps. He had no problem singing the music of both the devil and the lord. But there's one thing he did insist, even when he switched to an electric guitar - "he don't play no rock n'roll." "Kokomo Blues" is played in the Open A tuning. A fun, hi-octane arrangement.