Spirit Of The Blues

Blues music and Blues guitar has its roots in the Gospel and Spirituals that raised the hopes of the down trodden descendants of the slave trade. Deeply connected to religion, early field hollers and chants slowly became the popular tunes that were passed down from generation to generation. Songs like ‘The Battle Of Jericho’, ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ or ‘Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen’, would have been familiar to all the Blues greats. Also, many blues guitarists were preachers by trade and used their guitars to voice their feelings and to' spread the word'. Spiritual Blues became hugely popular in the late 1950’s and 1960’s and artists like Josh White, Joeseph Spence, Rev Gary Davis would go on to influence guitarists like Ry Cooder and Davey Graham. As a huge fan of fingerstyle blues guitar I thought it a fitting tribute to collect just a few of these ‘Spiritual Blues’ and arrange them for guitar. They are all fairly easy to play and the arrangements are there for you to change around and suit your own style of the Blues. Some of the tunes like ‘Jericho’ I have given a Sixties Bert Jansch flavour or the Cooder feel for ‘Nobody Knows’ and ‘Wing And A Prayer’
All tunes are supported by guitar tab and links to audio.