Level: 3
Tuning: Open A

At age 55, Fred McDowell had been discovered in 1959, when he was first recorded by music historian, Alan Lomax. Those recordings announced McDowell to a new legion of fans. These recordings would launch McDowell's career as a professional musician. Two subsequent 1964 solo albums, released on Arhoolie and Testament, would cement his reputation, leading to international touring the following year, where he encountered enthusiastic response everywhere he went. In America, McDowell became a frequent performer on the club and festival circuit. Although considered one of the great Mississippi Delta blues men, Fred McDowell was originally from Tennessee, having relocated to Como, Mississippi, in the early 1940s, where he found steady work farming, while performing at local picnics and dances. McDowell would be among the first (if not the first) of the northern Mississippi blues musicians to achieve wide recognition for his music.

"Write Me A Few Lines" became one of Fred McDowell's most requested songs. It became a staple in the hands of young White blues revivalists. It is played in Open A tuning with all the rhythmic features of Fred's playing.