Thinking about playing blues guitar…

But first…
Dulltown, UK: Today’s architectural term is, Flushwork.
The decorative use of knapped flint in conjunction with dressed stone to form patterns, such as tracery and initials, etc.
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Me, I’ve been playing guitars for years now, I mostly play blues guitar.
All my stimulation is from years and years ago, from the old blues chaps and lasses, they are mostly all dead now – of course they are – it was a long time ago.
I’m thinking of people like, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Albert Collins, Memphis Minnie, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf – those sort of people.

There are a few trendy people still playing blues guitar, even now, but, it’s funny, they don’t sound much like the old people did. They seem a bit too clever, and a bit, er, boring.

A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking about this.
I keep spotting on YouTube and Twix, (X) clips of people playing blues guitar.
They are there, doing twangy, clever things on their instruments. And people, the audience, are cheering and applauding it, too. Modern folk, men and women, doing blues – blues with great long rambling solos in them, look at their fingers, they whizz about, all over the neck, quick notes, bending swooping notes, too! Yowling noises with the distortion switched on! Look at the audience, and hear how they are cheering!
But, it doesn’t sound like blues music to me, though.

As I was showing a friend of mine a blues riff or two – I had a thought…
I was wondering why his version of the riff didn’t sound as… as, er, aggressive, and punchy, and meaningful, as I thought mine did.
Afterwards, it came to me.
I was thinking about the old blues players, and why they were so different from the modern ones.
Two things struck me:
One: The guitars back then didn’t have modern super-lightweight strings on them, strings that one can bend, and pull, and raise the pitch of the notes. The old guitars had thick hand-to-handle strings!
And two:
And this is an important point – the people back then worked all their lives in unpleasant, poorly paid jobs for the white people. On farms, and in factories in Chicago – and they had… strong hands!
Yes, strong hands! Nowadays, who has strong hands?
Only people who have to do manual tasks, to make a living.

A guitar played with strong hands sounds different from one played with puny, floppy hands.
I think my blues playing sounds a bit different because I’ve done a lot of manual work in my life – sawing, chiselling wood, putting screws in, hitting nails with hammers, that sort of thing.

You wanna play good blues guitar?…
Get your fucking hands working!