Level: 2/3
Tuning: Open D

One of the first recorded artists of the Atlanta blues community of the prewar era, Peg Leg Howell bridged the gap between the early country-blues sound and the 12-bar stylings to follow, with his guitar work evolving over time to include fingerpicking and slide techniques. Born Joshua Barnes Howell in Eatonton, Georgia on March 5, 1888, he was a self-taught guitarist who acquired his nickname after a 1916 run-in with an irate brother-in-law which ended in a shotgun wound to the leg and, ultimately, amputation. He recorded many sides from 1926 to 1929 for Columbia Records that spanned traditional ballads, dance tunes to early jazz. "Skin Game Blues" is an unusual but fantastic tune with a great bottleneck arrangement played in Open D tuning.