From the category archives:

Blues

Big Bill Broonzy

The Blues Singer Guitarist Big Bill Broonzy
(Photo credit: Copyright Terry Cryer; used with permission)
The Blues Singer Guitarist Big Bill Broonzy (born William Lee Conley Broonzy) has long been a favourite of mine.
His style was very distinctive. He would sometimes use a basic, fundamental guitar accompaniment, occasionally highlighted by stark, single string solos, and forceful chording.

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‘Hokum’; Its Role in the Blues

Hokum
The Technique of Hokum
In a general sense, ‘hokum’ was a style of comedic farce, spoken, sung and spoofed, while masked in both risqué innuendo and “tomfoolery”. It is one of the many legacies and techniques of 19th century blackface Minstrelsy. Like so many other elements of the Minstrel Show, stereotypes [...]

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Big Bill Broonzy’s Guitar Teacher

“Papa” Charlie Jackson
Papa Charlie Jackson was a very sophisticated player of the six-string banjo-guitar (six stringed instrument, tuned like a guitar but with a banjo body, that gave it a lighter resonance) and ukulele, who was one of the earliest and most successful of the solo blues singer/instrumentalists (note that blues was considered a type [...]

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