I have been drawn to the blues since I bought my first LP – “Cosmo’s Factory” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song I kept going back to over and over again was Suzie Q. I loved the beat, the vocal and just that cool guitar riff that played over and over again, hypnotically in a rhythm I’d never heard before. I read magazine articles in my teens about how blues music had heavily influenced so many bands, particularly the English ones. When Muddy Waters came to my town, I went to see the show. That night, with Johnny Winter and Pinetop Perkins accompanying him, Muddy just bought a powerful, truly amazing music to my ears, and led me to being a blues fan for life.
As a guy who plays mostly rock and folk songs on guitar learned from Dylan and Beatles chord books, I have kept my blues tunes to a minimum over the years, primarily because I couldn’t manage to make it sound that good! I tried playing harmonica along with it sometimes, but never to a sound that I liked. If I wanted to play these songs, and learn more of them, I needed to start at the beginning guitar playing wise: I needed to put the pick down, get rid of the capo and limber up my hands and fingers to pluck those strings with feeling….
So along comes word of a blues workshop out at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia. I had always thought the idea of going away somewhere for a few days to participate in an immersive music experience would be fantastic, so I signed up and ventured across the state of Pennsylvania, a tiny section of Maryland and made my way up through the mountains until I made it to Elkins.
After checking in and leaving my stuff in the cement college dorm room, I made way to the first night orientation where all of the instructors were able to introduce themselves and play a brief song as a preview of coming attractions. When they played what they meant to teach, I instantly thought ‘what have I gotten myself into? I am in way over my head here…’ But I was committed and I figured I could at least enjoy the music during the week if nothing else.
I participated in 4 guitar workshops and a harmonica session each day I was there. My right hand struggled with alternate thumb bass picking and index/middle finger lead playing, while my left chord hand moved up to untouched parts way up the fretboard. One thing I hadn’t considered was that I usually play less than an hour a day, and this was closer to 5 hours. The tunes from one class blended in to the next and luckily the instructors allowed us to use our phones to video them as a way of getting back to the tune that needed practice time. Funny thing, once you play it over and over and over again you start to get a little bit of it; the rule of 10,000 repetitions to approach mastery is definitely in play with Delta and Piedmont blues playing.
Apart from the workshops, it was just great to hear music that I am not that familiar with at all: Old Timey and Swing. The banjos and violins and stand-up basses were around every corner, and people had smiles on their faces as they created this ancestral music together. As I sat down to an Old Timey ‘Onion’ (where the players layer out in a circle) I was struck by how people ran up to join the group, how all the players knew the classic song and just an overall euphoric state percolated in each player.
And then after dinner, after a nightly performance, I’d head back to the porch and sit in with the blues jams. There the instructors sat in with the students and shared their talents, always making time and room and space for anyone up to take a round. For me music is mostly a solitary experience, with an occasional open mike or party where I play with others, so these jams were a revelation. If nothing else, if I don’t learn fingerstyle playing, I want to continue to be a part of blues jams from now on.
I came back from the mountain top with a true sense of community. I will follow my instructors as they make their way to my area for their shows, I will practice the tunes they spent hours showing us how to play and I hope to return to Augusta in the future to enjoy this musical environment and the great people once again.
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