Elmore Blues (Resonator Slide)

Lapyang

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This is a tribute to the great Elmore James, King of Slide Guitar.
I made up this song following the standard 12-bar blues format, along with James signature riffs and style.

Played on a tenor scale, Mya Moe Walnut Resonator Ukulele, with a brass slide.

Open G tuning. g-B-D-G.

Hope you like it.

 
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Really nice Joseph.

I recall an interview with Frank Zappa in Guitar Player magazine a few decades ago. He was asked about his favourite players in different genres and he said that Elmore James was his favourite slide player. "He plays the same solo for every song, but I get the feeling he really means it."
 
Really nice Joseph.

I recall an interview with Frank Zappa in Guitar Player magazine a few decades ago. He was asked about his favourite players in different genres and he said that Elmore James was his favourite slide player. "He plays the same solo for every song, but I get the feeling he really means it."

Thanks Jim. Now that you mentioned it, those were really the same solos, weren’t they!?
 
Actually, Elmore's solo on Shake Your Money Maker is very different.

I think it's really cool to hear slide ukulele and your two verses were quite different. Thanks a lot Joseph.
 
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Actually, Elmore's solo on Shake Your Money Maker is very different.

I think it's really cool to hear slide ukulele and your two verses were quite different. Thanks a lot Joseph.

Jim, I tried to include variations in my songs, or I will get bored playing them.
 
Ok that really got my foot tapping, you got your groove on with that song. I loved it, what a great way to broaden your horizons and add to your repertoire. I love the slide and that Mya Moe sounded really good.
 
Ok that really got my foot tapping, you got your groove on with that song. I loved it, what a great way to broaden your horizons and add to your repertoire. I love the slide and that Mya Moe sounded really good.

Thank you, Dave. Glad you like it. I really didn’t know what to do with the resonator until I discovered this.
 
Very nice.....really nice.....motivation to get better with my resonator......I have a few glass slides.....I'll have to try brass as well......THANKS!

Thank you. I have tried glass, brass, steel, even wood slides. Some days, one sounded better the others, some other days, it totally flipped...
 
slides.jpg
Here's part of my slide collection. The green bottleneck I made in high school circa 1965. It's my oldest slide.
afie slide.jpg
Here's my current favourite. A potter friend of my son made it for her husband, but he gave it to me.
 
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I read a Teach In column in Sing Out! magazine and made the slide following those directions.
-I found a bottle (I forget what kind) with a good neck and scribed around the neck with a glass cutter.
-I wrapped a piece of string soaked in lighter fluid around the scribed scratch line.
-I lit up the string..
-I plunged it in cold water and the neck broke off.
-I rubbed the sharp edges on the sidewalk to round them off.
The finger recess was where the break didn't follow the scribed line. I don't ever use it as a finger recess; it's just a flaw.
I never became an expert slide player, but when my son Clay was about 12, he wanted to learn slide guitar, so I showed him the "Elmore James lick" and in a couple of weeks he was a better slide player than I was. That summer we went to a bunch of festivals and he got to ask some questions of a bunch of slide players. He talked to John Hammond Jr., David Essig, Ellen McIlwaine and Bonnie Raitt.
He asked Bonnie why she wore her slide on her middle finger. She told my 12 year old son than she used to flip the bird a lot and that gave her control over that finger.
Bonnie&Clay 1988.jpg
Clay talking to Bonnie in 1988.
 
I read a Teach In column in Sing Out! magazine and made the slide following those directions.
-I found a bottle (I forget what kind) with a good neck and scribed around the neck with a glass cutter.
-I wrapped a piece of string soaked in lighter fluid around the scribed scratch line.
-I lit up the string..
-I plunged it in cold water and the neck broke off.
-I rubbed the sharp edges on the sidewalk to round them off.
The finger recess was where the break didn't follow the scribed line. I don't ever use it as a finger recess; it's just a flaw.
I never became an expert slide player, but when my son Clay was about 12, he wanted to learn slide guitar, so I showed him the "Elmore James lick" and in a couple of weeks he was a better slide player than I was. That summer we went to a bunch of festivals and he got to ask some questions of a bunch of slide players. He talked to John Hammond Jr., David Essig, Ellen McIlwaine and Bonnie Raitt.
He asked Bonnie why she wore her slide on her middle finger. She told my 12 year old son than she used to flip the bird a lot and that gave her control over that finger.
View attachment 132756
Clay talking to Bonnie in 1988.

That's a great Bonnie Raitt story, and it is funny how that "boutique" finger recess came about.
 
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