al, And Amateur Guitarists NOVEMBER 1977 f % Se 4 ‘es: % ues he Magavine For Peofe Keith Richard FOR 14 YEARS, THE STONES’ GREAT G any M re) Jeg ieaere The Who, THEIR, SOUND ISSiaonUH .MISSISSIPPI FRED MCDOWELL ISSISSIPPI FRED MeDOWELL ‘was one of the most important rural blues guitarists to come out (of the Blues Revival of the 1960s, Undis- covered until 1959, Fred was first recorded by Alan Lomax on one of the folkloris’s ‘many field rips to the South. MeDowell’s specialty was bottleneck slide, with an eerie vocal-like tone. In 1969 the Blues singer switched from acoustic to eleciri, which, if anything, only added intensity t0 that subtle, whining quality ‘McDowell’ playing influenced numer- ‘ous rock and blues slide guitarists, includ ing Bonnie Raitt and the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richard. Here, his main protege, Honest Tom Pomposello. (who. accom- panied the Mississippi bluesman as bass guitarist from 1971 unuil McDowell's death in 1973), offers some insightful re- ‘membrances into Fred, the man, and ‘Mississipp! Fred, one of America's great- est blues guitarists oP EES ean emembes easing first. Mississippi Fred MeDowell record. I remember monkeying around With a slide piece for the guitar, saying to my wife: “Boy, if only I could learn to get that sound, 1 would leave for Mississippi tomorrow and find Fred MeDowell and persuade him to teach me.” The kind of stuff dreams are made of. About one month later, in November of 1970, 1 was going to get the chance to make a dream come true was walking around the West Village in New York City one night, and I passed by the old Gaslight club on MacDougal Street. Their sign read “Appearing next Week: Mississippi Fred McDowell.” On opening night I was at the Gaslight two hours early, so I could get the first table. I sat there in awe, about five feet away from Fred, watching this old man of the blues execute some of his classie bottleneck auitar licks, making them sound brand ‘After the show, I weaseled my way backstage and approached him. I asked hhim about his music, and he answered without any reluctance. Then I finaly got around to the big question. “You know, Mr. McDowell, iI could, Pd really like to hhave the chance to take afew lessons from you. If you'd like to show mea few things ‘while you're here in New York, 'd be glad to pay you for the opportunity!” He just smiled and said, “Well, tell you. Some ‘day this week, you just come up to where Tm staying at. Give me 2 call, and Til show you whatever Ian, There's no sense in me taking any money for the few little things T can show you.” 28 A Protégé Remembers The Legendary Bottleneck Stylist By Tom Pomposello As I got to know Fred better over the years, I found this to be indicative of the ‘genuine musician he was. He would take the time out of his lfe to show his music to anyone who would ask, flattered that they were interested, Unlike so many artists who are reluctant to explain the intricacies of their styles for fear (often with good reason) of being ripped off and receiving no. recognition, MeDovell’. philosophy was, “Well, that might be true that’s just what they may do. But I do know that in their hearts, after I'm dead and buried, they're always gonna remem- McDowell's Music: Pages 98-99 ‘ber that I was the one that showed it to them even if they don't tell nobody else.” 1 did call Fred while he was in town, and he said “Sure, come on up." Iwent to see him nervous as hell, brought along my guitar, and stuck my bass guitar (which | ‘was playing in a rock band) in the trunk of my car. Well, he tried hard to show me things, but I couldn't do anything. 1 couldnt get the fingerpicking motion co- ordinated. My intonation with the bottle- neck would have made a dog howl, but MeDowell di get me started. 1 was about to leave when I decided that 1 would like to redeem myself in my ido’s eyes. I told him I played some bass, and asked if 1 could try to accompany him on a few ‘numbers. Fred said, "Sure, why didn't you say so? So Thurried downstairs to get my instrument, came up, and plugged into an amp. We began playing, and evidently 1 ‘was following him pretty well, eeause he kept throwing one song at me after an- other, each one getting a bit faster and a litle more intricate, A couple of times he laughed out loud, I guess surprised how this long-haired italian kid from Long Island seemed so familiar with his songs. What Fred didn't know was that by this time I had collected all of his records and used to sit home and try to figure them out on guitar; when I couldn't do that, 1 ‘would play along with the records on my bass. Fred carried me through a few num~ bers, then paused for a moment. “Well, how’ about playing with me at the Gas- light tonight?” he said laughing 1 was kind of stunned by that question and made some sort of lame excuse as to how 1 hhad to get back to my job. Fred gave me every opportunity to change my mind, but ‘my inibitions won out. Before saying goodbye, he gave me a couple of memen tos, and I gave him a bottle of Beefeaters gin More important, he gave me_his address in Mississippi where he would be returning shortly ‘We stayed in close touch by mail, and when he returned to New York a few ‘months later, [ was musically ready. I got in touch with his close friendand manager, Dick Waterman, and when Fred came to town, he stayed at my house. I worked the igs with him in New York City, which ‘were by this time getting to be quite frequent. This is how I began a relation- ship that lasted for almost two years, until McDowell's death in July of 1973. It would be trite to relate the way Fred turned my musical perspectives around, ‘but perhaps the most important moments in my musical development occurred dur- ing the time I spent with him at his mobile hhome in Como, Mississippi, enjoying his hospitality and that of his devoted wife, Ester Mac. Fred was recuperating from an ‘operation that he would neverfully recover from, and he stil took the time to show ‘me what Mississippi blues was really about. McDowell was born somewhere be- tween 1903 and 1906. No one seems certain, because back then if you were black and living on a plantation no one kept accurate documentation. of such things. He was born in Rossville, Tennes- see—a fact which always used to bemuse Fred. “They call me Mississippi Fred, but really my home isin Rossville, Tennessee.” He became interested in guitar when hewas in his late teens. 1 remember him tel- ling me one time, “When 1 was a boy, I think the first blues record I ever heard was Blind Lemon Jefferson singing ‘Black Snake Moan.’ ‘O-oh, ain't got no mama, now.’ Man, I tell you, I thought that was the prettiest litle thing I'd ever heard.” By this time, music was all around Fred. Hi tuncle Gene Shields was a guitarist and a leader of a trio. He credits Shields with being the first one he saw play in the bottleneck style. His uncle had taken a beef rib bone and filed it down smooth and then played with it om his litte finger. ‘Also in Uncle Gene's trio was a har- ‘monica player named Cal Payne, who showed Fred “John Henry." Cal's son Raymond was about the same age as Fred, who used to say, "He was a real good guitar player, regular style, not bottler neck.” But Raymond would never show anyone anything. “If you'd walk into the oom when Raymond was playing,” Fred recalled, “he'd right away put the guitar down so you couldn't see what he was doing. Then he'd make some kind of excuse, ‘I'm tired now’ or ‘My fingers hurt.” I often think this early experience ‘was one of the reasons why McDowell ‘always was so open about his style. “Other ‘musicians might try to lose you when they play with you to make themselves look better than you,” he said, “but they don't Know how bad it makes thems look.” Despite Raymond Payne's reluctance to teach him anything, Fred still insisted that “no one could show me nothing anyway. Everyone could play cept me. All the boys. But Ihad to learn things my own, ‘way, Even if you'd be showing me, Td have to go off on my own and get it my way, They'd all be playing ball or some- thing, and 1’ be practicing on Booster Green's guitar.” (Eli “Booster” Green was fan older friend and one-time mentor of Fred's with whom he was later reunited musically by Chris Strachwitz on a 1966 recording session for Arhoolie [Fred ‘MeDowell, Vol. I. Itwas Eli who taught McDowell the celebrated tune, “Write Me A Few Lines” [see p. 99]) The first song Fred ever learned was Tommy Johnson's “Big Fat Mama (With The Meat Shakin’ ‘On Your Bones)” “I learned it on one string,” he explained, “then two, note by note. Man, Labout worried that first string to death trying to learn that song.” This rnote-by-note method was one that was go- ing to become an intricate part of Fred's later day technical approach. Eyen though McDowell experienced his share of obstacles on guitar, he was always. sought after as a vocalist. He ‘Would be invited to the old time Saturday night suppers and would always be asked ‘Contimied on page 2 TOM POMPOSELLO McDowell's Sideman And Blues Historian By Tom Pomposello [As Told To Scott Fish HOMAS ANTHONY “HONEST TOM Dervis 27, began playing guitar at age 16, but as he puts tt, “that isn't even worth mentioning; it wasn't until I met Mr. MeDowell that things started happening.” Tom played electric bass (and studied bottleneck guitar) with Mississippi Fred McDowell from 1971 until Fred's death in 1973. He can be heard backing McDowell on Mississippi Fred MeDowell Live In New York [ObIiv- ‘on, od., LJand playing bottleneck guitar, ‘mandolin, harmonica, bass, and dulcimer ‘on his solo album, Honest Tom Pomposello (Oblivion, od. 6; soon to be reissued by Blue Labor ‘Records, Box 1262, New York, NY 10009]. a remark- ably’ broad survey of American musical siples. He also contributed to Blues From ‘The Apple [Oblivion, od., 4Jas a member of Charles Walker's New York City Blues Band. Currently, Tom_—who was for wo and 4 half years contributing editor to Living Blues—heads a touring seminar on “The History Of The Blues" which has performed at schools ranging from kindergarten all the way to adult education. He also runs Kropotkin Records [273 New York Ave., Hunting ton, NY 11743}—which stocks all of the ‘above-mentioned albums as well as other hhard-to-find blues records—and does a radio show on WBAI in New: York City Here, Pomposello details how he developed his own unique. bottleneck guitar style based on what he'd learned Jrom McDowell. The differences in the ‘wo bottleneck approaches are clearly illustrated on “Hey, Little Girl.” from Honest Tom Pomposello, where mentor ‘and protege get together and jam. As Tom states, “Thad wanted to record something with me playing second bottleneck ‘uitar—insiead of the usual bass—behind MeDowell to show him the lessons he'd been giving me were starting to pay off.” “GP Free, THE FIRST FEW, YEARS afer Fred McDowell passed away, | tried to play just like him. This is a logical transition that many musicians go through before developing their own styles. It took ‘me a while to realize that evenif I perfected every lick he'd ever played, 1 would still never be another Mississippi Fred McDowell. I knew that it was time 10 make my own way. Using the basic tech= rigue I had learned from Fred, I began to develop my style along different lines. At first, I played everything in open D tuning [D. 4, D, Fi. A, D, low t0 high). This worked fine éor solo playing, but when 1 {ot into a band, [found it better to tune to open E(E, B, E, Gt, B, E},s0 1 wouldn't have t0 worry about ‘transposing the fingerboard in my head. Tn E tuning, I developed a flair for a ‘dead-thumb, monotonic bass line, coupled with frstfinger fingerpicking onthe treble strings in a syneopated manner. I hear this Used quite often in John Fabey’s musi. 1 also found that F tuning worked great on old Elmore James, raunchy Chicago, Dust My Broom” style of guitar. But for this style I favor a latpick, because I find that T'can get more speed, especially in playing the triplet figures so prominent in Elmore James's music, then started to work towards devel- oping different bass lines based ona boogie Woogie figure. I play this using heavy thumbpick movement with some synco- pated up-stroke finger work on the treble strings, You would be surprised how tasty the occasional up-beat treble note can be. ‘To this day, Lam working at every possible way to play a boogie line in open tuning, land new ways to phrase the old cliche double-stops, It is important to note that when playing a 12-bar(I-1V-V) bassline in open E tuning (and in the Key of £) that the only logical place to get to the IV igure is fon the Sth fret of the £ bass string Remember, you no longer have that open A siring, since it has been tuned up to a B. The technical difficulty is learning to get to the Sth fret, using your third or fourth finger, without letting the bottleneck get in the way, Or, you can use the bottleneck to your advantage, by playing the note with the bottleneck. Any bass line gets an »TOM POMPOSELLO Contre fom page have come back to Fender. L use a pre- CBS Showman head (Tom Lanni installed ‘4 modular, removable reverb unit in the head) coupled to a single Showman cabi- ret with one 15” JBL K-130 speaker, and this does it all, Since I am a muli- instrumentalist (bottleneck, electric man- dolin, harmonica, and Framus 12-string banjo-guitar, it is important that I keep the head near me onstage. I have a small ‘mixing box (also built by Tom Lani) that facilitates instrument switching and level changing. Iset the amp at about 3 or 4 on, BB sMDUNLOP Seierrnriy paras er ti Poors the volume control, and it really sounds clean, ‘The action on my Dobro is set medium. high. 1 use D'Addario custom-gauge strings (.012; 016; 024 wound; .030; 04; (059), and, unlike Mississippi Fred, I do prefer a wound third string. My hands are used to bending any gauge string (his comes from years of playing awful fuitars!), and I like the extra punch and resonance of the wound third. I need the heavy bass ‘E,’ because so much of what 1 play relies upon that string. I find that on a Dobro with a nonadjustable bridge and high action, the heavier string ais intona- tion atthe 12th fret and above, where Ido much of my lead picking to takeadvantage of the built-in harmonies and octave tones | inherent in an open tuning, use a heavy plastic thumbpick and a Grover metal fingerpick. I like this com- bination, because the plastic thumbpick aids and abets that punchy bass sound, land the metal fingerpick brings out the brightness of the treble strings, (lam sure that much of that sound is in my Dobro already—the sustain from the resonator, land the warmth from the wood body.) I don't have to worry about striking the humbucking pickup with the metal pick and getting those awful, amplified “thuds,” because it is installed so close to the neck, out of the way of the playing area Mississippi Fred MeDowell preferred | wearing a bottleneck on his ring finger when playing in £ tuning, and so do I. 1 Find it impractical to wear it on the middle finger, When a person first tries to play this style, the bottleneck itself might feel better balanced on the middle finger, but actually it makes any chording you will want to do just that much more diffieult The ring finger is a good compromise, because you still have the balance and the added ability to fret basic chords. This also allows you the use of the pinky when needed Like Fred, I found that in 4 tuning it helps to switch the slide tothe ltl finger: One chord in particular which Fred would use for the IV change when playing in open A might help explain why it is helpful to play on the little finger. The chord looks just like a first position C chord in standard tuning. It is easier to play this chord when the bottleneck is on the litle finger, thereby using your first three fingers to grab the chord without obstruction. In A tuning this particular chord works out to be a D9/C (a D9 with the 7th in the bass). It sounds like a cross between a dinimished chord and the sub- dominant, but this particular inversion is so haunting that it isa Delta blues natural land one that Fred favored frequently, As | often reevaluate the bottleneck basics, 1 sometimes feel certain that it would pay to play with the slide on the little finger exclusively, regardless of the tuning, so Continued fr TUDIO of STAG IT’S A CLEAN SWEEP! See eee Sa ee Tagore ee Meee ager aE OF THE STUDIO WHILE MAINTAINING THE RUGGEDNESS AND VERSATILITY DEMAND. oe cel Rg Nels Ale Waele oe he ae Mee AUS e WR OU Le INPUT ALIASING OR OUTPUT QUANTIZATION NOISE, PROBLEMS COMMON TO OTHER SMe Le a) Vale pale) ame aa eM ce ag og RTOs CeO ETM TNC Ral a le ATO Y MOORE UID (Rg a TU Le MeN Iolo) oa 0-1 a 0h ONL ANA NA oD. OLN LL NALLY VOLTAGE CONTROLLED FROM VARIOUS CONTROL DEVICES, ST ta Se WT URerch a WN ele WY LMS Tee ae} oer) Oe ete BOGS me o- PURRU CAATOM POMPOSELLO Contined from page 2 there would be more freedom to finger complex. chords while still wearing the bottleneck 1 prefer a long bottleneck, because 1 often play full chords, barring from three to six strings. Players ike Fred MeDowell and Muddy Waters used short slides. 1 like to angle the bottleneck sometimes, the way a lap-tsle Dobro player would, to get 6ths, Tths, and ths. Innever thought I would use anything except a glass bottleneck, I paid my dues, breaking the necks off hundreds of wine bottles, until my half-brother, Mike di ROTOMATIC Bifuleo, cut off the top of an old Sangria bottle with a glass-cutting hacksaw blade [used this slide for years. I is about 2/,” long, just the right length to barre all the strings. Until recently, this was all used. I used to tell my students that you needed Blass to get the real vibrato and those shimmering tones. Part of it was just the image, I guess, You know, homemade- blues-hottleneck-from-a-wine-bottle. But a short while ago, I decided to experiment with metal sides again. After some trial and error, I found the new slides being made by Mighty-Mite (1707 Cloverfield Santa Monica, CA 90404] to be excellent They are heavy brass (some are chrome), nicely polished, tapered, and come in three different sizes, In addition, if you wear it all night at the gig, your finger will turn blue due to a chemical reaction from the perspiration. Who could ask for anything more? . FRED McDOWELL to sing along with the other guitarists, When they would get tired, Fred would take over on guitar, too. Fred left Rossville when he was about 21, tired of plowing fields with a mule Daring a trip south to Cleveland, Missis- sippi in the late 1920s at a Saturday night juke joint, he heard the legendary Charlie Patton perform. He was quite impressed and consciously began to adapt several of Patton's tunes to his own style. “Gravel Road” is his adaptation of Patton's “Down The Dirt Road Blues.” McDowell also spent a good deal of time in Memphis before he ultimately settled in Mississippi. He held down a variety of jobs as a laborer. In Memphis throughout the 1930s he tried to master the guitar but was hampered by not own ing his own instrument. While working at a dairy outside of Memphis, he got his first guitar, A white man from Texas, by the name of Mr. Taylor, whom Fred re- membered quite fondly, presented it to him. This was 1941, just before Fred decided to move south to Mississippi and settle down near bis sister. Tt was in Como, Mississippi, that Fred MeDowell was to ultimately refine the style that would one day classify him as fone of the greatest country bluesmen of the postwar years, In 1959, folklorist Alan Lomax ven- tured into Northwestern Mississippi dur- ing a recording field trip of the southern United States, When Lomax came to ‘Como, hhe inquired as to whether there were any local bluesmen that he should hhear, explaining that he was from a record company. Among the first names given was Fred McDowell ‘Lomax found Fred at home that even- ing and proceeded to record him. Fred played well into the night for the session (from 8:00 P.M. until almost 7:00 A.M., as mC MIGHTY M NEW FROM MIGHTY MITE | SOLID BRASS WA ‘ASK FOR OUR PRODUCTS BY NAME AT YOUR LOCAL MUSIC STORE! ITE’ MFG. & DIST. PO BOX 3011 CAMARILLO, CA 93010 (805) 482-9815, (805) 484-3274 Our solid brass replacement parts and bridges add to the sustaining quality of any instrument. Available now are Mighty Mite Solid Brass Strat, Tele and P-Bass Bridges, Dome Knobs, Strap Holders, Neck Plates, Control Plates, Brass Nuts, Tension Guards, and String Inserts. Used in conjunc- tion with our ; pickups and other parts, you can turn any ordinary guitar into an instrument of destruc- tion. Beautiful to the eye and devastating to the ear! 82FRED McDOWELL Coninl ror axe 22 hhe recalls it!). When Lomax finally de- parted, he left with promises that these recordings would bring McDowell fame and fortune, Well, he was half right, De- spite the fact that the payment was nom- inal, the recordings when issued were met by much enthusiasm in folk and blues circles, What the recordings did for Fred ‘was 0 establish him, at the age of 55, as fone of the great “new discoveries” in the blues world Fred had the opportunity to play and record fora whole new audience. In 1964, fully five years later, he performed at the [INSTRUMENTS To YOUR. FONE Guitars Fen | Pesan ey Lsafiited 2 263 0), Newport Folk Festival, By this time Athoolie and Testament records had issued solo albums by MeDowell. In 1965 and again in 1969, he toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival. In Germany and especially Great Britain, he was wonderfully received, Rolling Stone Keith Richard heard Fred's version of the spiritual “You Got To Move” [see p. 98] and arranged it for the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers album [Rolling Stones, 59100}. In 1969, Fred made country blues history in Great Britain, He recorded a solo album for the Transatlantic label Using electric guitar, It seems odd today. Dut reaction atthe time among purists was mixed. Everyone was used to Chicago blues played ‘electrically, but Delta blues ‘on electric guitar? One critic commented that he thought much of the subtlety especially in MeDowell’s fills, was lost But nothing could have been further from the truth, One listen to “Amazing Grace performed on the electric instrument and you were a believer. Strangely enough, the instrument was very appropriate for the spirituals Fred loved to perform, That shimmering tone he used to create and his sophisticated hand bottleneck vibrato were seemingly intensified by the electric instrument. Likewise his blues numbers, particularly the percussive, driving rhyth- ‘mie patterns in songs such as “Shake "Em On Down” and “Drop Down Mama” were greatly enhanced, And the electric instrument undoubtedly made Fred's ‘music more accessible to new generation of blues enthusiasts, He was well aware of this and used to caution his admirers (quite tongue-in-cheek, | might add) “I do not play no rock'n'roll, yall. Just the straight and natch’ blue. Prior to 1968, the majority of McDowell's recordings were performed fon an acoustic guitar, either his old wood- bodied National or his acoustic Hofner. 1 fam not sure of the make of Fred’s first electric; it was a red dual-pickup imitation of @ Gibson ES-335, T only saw him use that electric once; by the time I began playing with him, he had a replacement His old electric konked out while he was on tour in California, and he had it assessed as simply not worth repairing. By now, he had grown accustomed to the electric sound, and had no desire to go back to playing acoustic, Fred found a good deal on a cherry- colored, mid-Sixties Trini Lopez. Stan ard model Gibson, This instrument is rnot unlike the ES-335, except that the headstock has all six tuning machines on fone side, like a Gibson Thunderbird, or similar to a Fender. Instead of f-holes, the guitar had elongated, diamond-shaped Soundholes, 1 can recall one night on stage, Rev. Gary Davis was in the au dience, He came up to play a guest set, and Opening Soon. a SATE BLS In the not-too-distant future, your BOSE Professional Products dealer wi break open a brand new product that's different from anything BOSE has ever offered before. | figcanpi decir ceeere se serena perecnerors SSRN Sinn tree yt Address City/State/Zip. Telephone, BOSE:FRED McDOWELL Contined from pe 85 Fred gave him his Gibson to use MeDowell left the stage, and Davis (who was blind) began retuning it. Feeling the strange headstock, he asked, “What kind of @ guitar is this anyway that Fred's using? A Fender? What's Fred doing with a Fender?” A few people in the audience tried to explain that the guitar was a Gibson, but Rev. Gary insisted that he knew @ Fender from a Gibson, ‘MeDowell used this Trini Lopez guitar until his death, The only modification he hhad done to it was to slightly raise the strings, or more precisely, have the angle fat which the strings touched the nut, altered. This was done by the installation. Waterproat. Super-durable. Lote colors. ch coe ‘of a small metal shim, sort of like a long inverted “U" just above the nut. This hhelped to raise the action ever so slightly in the lower position of the guitar, without resulting in higher action throughout, and not noticeably affecting the guitar's intonation, Fred used Black Diamond Light- Gauge Electric Strings (0114, .014, .025, (031, 040, .051). Actually, the brand of the gauge didn’t matter much, so long as the set included a plain, unwound G string. ‘Whenever he bought a new set of strings, before he laid the money on the counter, hhe made sure to check for that unwound string. When he would play my guitar, he would always say, “Tom, Ican't hardly do nothin’ with this. You've got one of them wrapped G strings.” ‘When playing straight acoustic, he would pick with his bare fingers—the thumb and index on his right hand, To get that acoustic clarity on an electric, he found that picks were a necessity. He simply used a regular plastic thumbpick ‘anda plastic fingerpick on his index finger. His style of picking ranged from simple note-to-note to highly complex rhythmic and heavily syncopated brush strokes, or any combination of the two. Most of McDowell's touring during the late Sixties and early Seventies was done in a Greyhound Bus. He hated to fly unless it was absolutely necessary. Conse- quently, he used to carry only a small Practice amp with him, hoping that when he arrived at a club or festival, he could plug into whatever better equipment was available. Often times there would be nothing available, or else some well= meaning producer would want to record the bluesman through his own amp, insist- ing that it would be inaccurate to record a blues artist using someone else's equip- This was unfortunate, because those litte amps were maybe 10 to 15 watts, with ‘one 8° speaker, and not really sufficient for his purposes. Sometimes a club would combat this by close-miking his amp through the PA system, but uniess this was done absolutely right, the result was often 1 very muddy sound. This is why many of Fred's recordings leave the listener with a false impression of his tone. I know from his reaction to good amps that what he was after was a clean, clear sound with a good amount of top end, ‘The first time Fred tried to play bottle- neck guitar (as a child), he used a pocket- knife to emulate the style his Uncle Gene hhad using the beef rib bone. It didn't take Jong for Fred to realize that in order to get the volume and clarity he wanted, he would have to switch to glass bottleneck. Since his style did not utilize full chords barred with a bottleneck, he chose to use a short neck (about 1" long) off of a Gor- ddon’s gin bottle. I remember him telling me how many different things he had ‘tied, but this gin bottleneck was the one Continued from page 92 The Broolwal, NSW, 2100, (02) 8382372 Distributed in Australia by: The Music Dsilery, 508 Prtuaer Road, LAVEDRIVER and it’s time for keyboard players to move over! Hook slavedriver between your own guitar and your favorite synthesizer! You'l get all the sounds that you'd get withthe keyboard, and more that can only happen for guitar players. Thats because only the SLAVEDRIVER gives you total control over the Ba synthesizer's functions. For example, itl follow you at any parallel interval over a nineoctave range, copy your dynamics, trigger filter sweeps every time you pick a note, and it even lets you process your guitar sound through the synthesizer. Step on the foot control and you'll hold a note transpose it to any parallel harmony. With a SLAVEDRIVER, you'll back up your best guitar sounds with a couple of extra parts from your synthesizer. I's lke having a couple of extra guys behind you! And you can use your own guitar, plus i lets vou slide, bend notes, and it copies righthand punctuation too. So when you try out guitar synthesizers, make sure you're playing the one everybody else is into, Write us for the whole story, and have your dealer get you the SLAVEDRIVER to try out P.O. Box 1804 Santa Monica California 90406 (213) 984-8447 >< is here forever.” or FVSTENSFRED McDOWELL Continued from page 9 he really liked, ‘McDowell made his bottleneck, I be- lieve, by first sribing the bottle with some sharp object along the lines where he Wanted it to break, Then he ran it under hhot water in a bathtub, then under cold water while he gently tapped it along the Seribed seams, It worked on the fist try (Fate must have been with him, because 1 ‘could never get this method to work for me!) T's funny how a musician can get attached to something like a bottleneck. One evening, I saw Fred nervously rum- maging through his guitar case, and then breathing a sigh of relief upon finding his Benedetto Guitaw THE VERY FINEST IN HANOCARVED ‘ACOUSTIC ARCHED GUITARS, {eRoveR CEVGAND BLVD. ost OFFICE BOX 1221 HOMOSASSA SPRINGS, FLOROA 22647 COMPARE DeArmond's mini treasured Gordon's bottleneck. “Tom, if 4 have lost that,” he said, “I might as ‘well turned around and went back home.” ‘Once in Germany, when Fred was touring with the American Folk Blues Festival, he told me how he reluctantly lent his bottle~ neck to Buddy Guy, who wanted to try to work in a couple of slide tunes. Buddy returned and explained that he had acci- entally dropped the slide, and it had broken, Fred almost fainted. He tried in vain to find a replacement in downtown Hamburg, He did finaly find a glassware bottle store and tried to explain to the proprietor how he would like him to cut Off the neck of this one bottle. The two struggled through the language difficulties luntil finally the shopkeeper nodded his head and gave an understanding smile. He disappeared into the backroom and re- turned, beaming, about fifteen minutes later with the bottle beautifully cut into an antique vase! Mississippi Fred wore his bottleneck om his third or fourth finger. depending on the tuning he was using. He used three basic tunings: open F, open A, and stan- dard tuning. On his earlier acoustic records, he often used the 4 tuning [E, 4, E, A, Gb, E, low to high]. For this tuning ine wore the bottleneck on his litte finger. Tn standard tuning as well (which he used infrequently), he would wear the bottle- neck on his litle finger, playing usually in the key of E, using the bottleneck spar- ingly, on perhaps a lead descending penta- tonic scale done on the high F string. In ‘open F tuning [£, B, E, Gt, B, E. low to high] Fred wore the bottleneck on his third (or ring) finger. He preferred to use his bottleneck more often in the E tuning, because it lends itself more toward melodie playing. Its important to point out that when 1 refer to Zor A tuning in Fred’s case, I'm talking about a very relative thing. When he tuned his guitar to an £, he would not always tune to a perfect E This is not to say his guitar wasn't in tune, but more correctly that his guitar was in tune with his voice, Usually, before going onstage, ‘MeDowell would sing a few bars and tune the guitar to where it felt right for his ‘voice. There was no problem, since the pitch of the open tuning determines the Key of the song. By my own estimation, he did have an exquisite sense of relative pitch, anyway. Isaw him stop a song more than once because he was unsatisfied with the tuning, saying, “Wait a minute, val. T'm sorry, but I just can't play for yout the way T want unless this is tuned just so.” It might be advantageous at this point to define bottleneck playing as opposed to “slide guitar” playing. While either makes use of a metal slide bar, piece of pipe, or ‘an actual bottleneck, the basie approach is different AA slide guitarist might play in either ‘open or standard tuning, but usually favors standard. The player will most Quitar transducer to any other trans- ducer or guitar with factory fitted transducer—You'llhear greater highs, more. Clarity, and far greater volume from our transducer a ‘OUR TRANSDUCER NEEDS NO DRILLING OF HOLES AND NO PRE-AMP. Rowe-DeArmond Ine./ 1702 Airport Highway /Toledo, Ohio 43609FRED McDOWELL Cominaed from page 92 often use a flatpick and use the slide to play single-note leads or double-stops at ‘most. In other words, what emerges is not really a self-accompanied style, but one Where the slide is able to supplement the {uitarist’s already existing style, I would call Duane Allman and his predecessor, Earl Hooker, slide guitarists rather than bottleneck guitarists, Slide guitarists are generally ensemble players, throwing out ‘chords and fills like conventional guitar- ists, and then perhaps adding a solo with the slide. Although they do not usually fingerpick, they have the added versatility fof using more Keys. 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Anyone who has ever ‘messed around in an open tuning can see hhow wonderful having three strings tuned to the same note can be, In E tuning, a usual picking pattern takes on the char- acteristics of a monotonic or “dead thumb” bass line, combined with finger- picking a usually syncopated melody line with the first finger. The strength in the bottleneck lies in the fact that you can be ‘thumbpicking your bass notes open, while playing melody notes at the 12th fret or higher. This, as I have said, is also the limitation. It is nearly impossible to play that style in another key without altering the tuning. Try it! In E wring, barre across the 3rd fret. Now, while wearing the bottleneck, try to reach up to high at the 1Sth fret on the £ string. No way. So, fingerpicked bottleneck playing almost demands that you be in open tuning, because to keep that monotonic bss line going, and still use the bottleneck in the upper extremeties, you've got to be tuned open. This style, incidentally, pre- cludes many chord changes. This is why sso much bottleneck music has that “drone” sound with the melody superimposed. This is also why Fred favored the short bottle- | etic sae eae Mississippi countey sound, is all based in guRMAN Souq, Everything you expect in a Tunable Crossover/Bandpass Filter (9 Arpications stereo b-ampmono r-amp.erasa tunable bandDase tor (3 Active ter circus provide 2-pore Butterwortn response with 12 (0115 VAC and 230 VAC versions ‘e Dimensions: 19° wide "K" nigh, & deep. 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When he would sing, the guitar part would echo his vocal phrasing. almost exactly. Much has been made of the McDowell style of leting the voice trail off and leting the vocalized bottleneck fill in, Listen to his version of, "Baby, Please Don't Go” [J Do Nor Play No Rock 'N" Roll] where he would be playing and sing-~ ing, simultaneously, “Baby, please don't 120," then maybe the next time through, he would sing only “Baby, please....”—let- ting the vibrato ofthe bottleneck vocalize the two missing words. He would say, “When you hear me play, if you listen real close, you'll hear the guitar say the same thing i'm saying, too.” He was very flat tered one time by a perceptive fan who came up after the show and said, “You know, that’s the frst time I ever heard a talking guitan” That was the effect Fred ‘was out to achieve, This isa very funda- ‘mental point about the blues that iseasy to lose sight of. In the traditional blues, the lyric is everything. As Fred would tell me, “Tove the guitar, but it's the words you're saying that people are listening to.” During the winter of 1971, when he ‘Continued jrom pare 96 e ———ROTHCIID. EFRED McDOWELL Connied from page 24 ‘was staying with me between engagements fat the Gaslight, I was in the process of laying down some of my own demo tracks ata recording studio in New York. Lasked Fred if he would like to come along and do some coaching, maybe sing or play a dduet with me, Although he was not feeling well (something I did not realize at the time), he agreed in an instant. One of the ‘songs he led me in that day, “Hey, Little Girl (Who Made Your Dress)” was so effective we decided to issue it on my own album Honest Tom Pomposello[Oblivion, fod, 6}, A few days after this session, Fred rettimed home, cancelling the remainder of his tour because of severe stomach performers --- composers: HOME-STUDY COURSES -sxsic [AND ADVANCED THEORY, COMPOSITION [ARRANGING EAR TRARING Concise and caro eundomioanone sun 8 ‘fect way onan modern msi wth ‘esa amin by ou fat Tryovves bogies or vorced oma ra potssoral main wo want snd teodr oleen rae abut harmony. chord ‘Snot vin proven arog ‘Simonton oem son fru eg ‘sam "APPLIED MUSIC SCHOOL ip 505 W hbo Tonos 33609 pains. On the advice of his doctor, they operated, and he was not to leave his hhome again. I visited him there in Missis- sippi that following spring. He was in ‘good spirits and showed me the time of my life, A few days after, I returned home and called, only to find Fred back in the hospital, We talked over the phone. He never complained, but T could tell the great pain he was in. Instead, he kept ‘asking me how I was doing and told me to say hello to my wife, Chri, and his “little buddy,” my son Travis. On July 5, 1973 we headed back down to Mississippi to attend his funeral, Fred McDowell had died from abdominal cancer. finable something that is the spirit of the real blues, . See McDowell’s Music On Pages 98-99 To my Knowledge, that informal ses- sion he had done with me in New York City was the last time he set foot in a recording studio, I am very proud of that All too often, musicians who stop and analyze the style of another musician, ‘make the mistake of never looking beyond the man's technical prowess, I have never heard anybody play or sing like Missis- sippi Fred MeDowell. But lam convinced that what made Fred great as a musician, ‘was what made him great as a man, That “Mississippi mystique” of his, that unde- TD Selecied MeDowell Discography Solo albums: Mississippi Fred MeDowell, Arhoolie (Box 9195, Berke- ley, CA 94709), F 1021; My Home Js In The Delta, Testament [1085 Valley View ‘Ave, Pasadena, CA 91107}, T-2209; Fred MeDowell, Vol. 1, Athoolie, F 1027; Amazing Grace (with the Hunter's Chapel Singers), Testament, T-2219; Long Way From Home, Mil stone (Tenth and Parker, Berkeley, CA 94710), MSO 93003; Fred McDowell And Johnny Woods, Rounder (186 Willow Ave., Somerville, MA 02144), 2007; Mississipi Fred McDowell In London, Sire (Warner Bros.), SES 97018; Mississippi Fred McDowell In London, Vol. I, Transatlantic, TRA 203; When I Lay My Burden Down (in- ludes cuts by Furry Lewis), Biograph BLP-12017; Fred McDowell And His Blues Boys, Arhoolie, 1046; 1 Do Nor Play No Rock'N'Roll, Capitol, ST-409;, Mississippi Fred McDowell 1904-1972, Just Sunshine, JSS-4; Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning, Athooli, 1068; Mississippi Fred MeDowell Live In New York, Oblivion, od. 1. 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