One day many years ago Bob Dylan walked on stage and played an electric guitar for the first time ever live to an audience. It made the front page of all of the big papers and it wound up being quite a story. So what was the big deal? Bob Dylan uses to play an acoustic guitar and many folk music fans felt that the electric guitar was a tool of loud and obnoxious rock music. But Dylan didn't care and went on to revolutionize the world of music by simply plugging in and playing an electric guitar. Blues music is a little different.
Blues music got started with acoustic blues guitar but once the old blues musicians got a listen to that electric guitar the acoustic blues guitar was left in the dust. It is kind of a shame because some of the best blues music is the early stuff played on acoustic blues guitar. In Chicago, around the 1930s, a movement appeared and gained success. The classic blues musicians of Mississippi Delta area came accompanying their brand of acoustic blues guitar music to the city. Some of the famous stars, such as Muddy Waters and Son House were playing that acoustic blues guitar causing the wilderness to the persons listening to them.
Howling Wolf began to putting aside the acoustic blues guitar, while picking up the electric one. It assisted to increase the numbers of acoustic blues guitar hits. The music got out to people in those days was the recorded classic acoustic blues guitar hits on electric guitars, made by Wolf and others. For many years the electric guitar ruled the blues world and the Jimi Hendrix decided to record a short movie of himself playing and acoustic blues guitar and for just a little while we got to hear as close to the modern equivalent of those old classics that we will hear.
As Jimi fired through Here My Train A Comin' it was just like being on the delta near the turn of the century when Robert Johnson would travel from small bar to small bar just to make a living playing his guitar. It was a great time that is lost forever. The acoustic guitar gets its due once in a while on blues and rock records but it will never be a main instrument like it used to be all of those years ago. The sound can never be mistaken and the music played on it was right from the heart and we will never hear music played like that ever again.
For more knowledge on blues guitar, make sure you check John Libbo's excellent Blues Guitar Tips and Secrets, and Blues Guitar Secrets.
