This collection presents six legendary blues guitarists from the 1920s to early 1940s. Each has his own unique approach, style and techniques for playing. Some like Rev. Gary Davis favored regular tuning while Josh White was equally at home playing in Open D tuning as well as standard tuning. Lonnie Johnson is unique in his playing techniques as well as use of a D G D G B E tuning. Buddy Moss’s recordings influenced generations of Piedmont guitarist, especially Blind Boy Fuller. Bo Carter had one of the most unusual tonal approaches for playing blues, ragtime and novelty songs. And lastly there is Tommy McClennan. His recordings sound “rough and tumble” but once you explore the intricacies of his playing you will discover a powerful blues guitarists.

Titles and artists included are:

REV. GARY DAVIS Cincinnati Flow Rag • Piece Without Words • Children of Zion • Twelve Gates To The City

BO CARTER Let’s Get Drunk Again • Nobody’s Business • Honey • What You Want Your Daddy To Do

BUDDY MOSS Oh Lordy Mama • Sleepless Night • Someday Baby (I’ll Have Mine)

JOSH WHITE Crying Blues • Bad Depression Blues • High Brown Cheater • My Soul Is Gonna Live With God • Pure Religion Hallilu

LONNIE JOHNSON Away Down In The Alley Blues • Stomping ‘Em Along Slow • Blue Ghost Blues • There Is No Justice • Helena Blues • Sittin’ On A Log • Corn Bread Blues

TOMMY McCLENNAN Blues As I Can Be • I’m Goin’, Don’t You Know • Love With A Feeling • New Highway No.51 • Drop Down Mama

Level 3 • 136 pages • Direct download link to audio files.

Reviews: What do you get when you convene God’s ragtime picker (Rev. Gary Davis), the godfather of single-string soloing (Lonnie Johnson), a bona fide Mississippi Sheik (Bo Carter), the Piedmont gentleman Josh White, Georgian string king Buddy Moss, and gruff Delta holdout Tommy McClennan with Stefan Grossman? Stomping ’Em Along Slow, a big book valuably stuffed fat with Grossman’s painstaking note-by-note transcriptions of six-string bedrock blues. In all, the keys to 28 castles get given away, including Tommy’s stomping “New Highway 51 Blues,” Josh’s tumbling “Crying Blues,” and Bo’s “Let’s Get Drunk Again,” which pours out a gin-soaked rub-a-dub-dub line. For pure genius, though, Lonnie’s title track is the spectacular sound of corn popping from out of two guitars—that, in reality, is truly only one.

In addition, Stomping ’Em Along Slow’s 136 pages also include lyrics, artist biographies, a 1963 Lonnie Johnson interview and historic photographs (like that great shot of McClennan, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson and an ultra-cool Elmore James caught mid-stride on a Chicago street in 1953). Most valuable, however, is the download link that unlocks access to the original historic recordings. That’s how you get one-on one time with the waterfall of notes that Rev. Gary dubbed “Cincinnati Flow Rag” or Buddy’s super-influential “Oh Lordy Mama,” a 1934 earworm that got stuck in the heads of everyone from Hooker to Basie to Cream. – Dennis Rozanski/Blues Rag