
Fred McDowell played original songs as well as covers by other artists, i.e. Sleepy John Estes, Blind Willie Johnson and Big Bill Broonzy. "Louise" is a tune composed and originally recorded by Big Bill. Fred had several different approaches to playing the blues but none of them were similar to Big Bill's fingerstyle blues. Big Bill never recorded with a bottleneck while Fred always employed the slide in his arrangements. Fred's arrangement of "Louise" is played in an Open E and features the usual suspects found in Fred's playing.