Blues / Music Origins

Boogie Guitar

randydafoe26 Comments

I recently talked about one of the offspring of Boogie Woogie being Rock and Roll Piano. Well, some rock and roll guitar came from another offspring and that is Boogie Guitar. Almost as soon as the sound was first captured on the piano keys, guitar players started to dig that boogie sound as well. Here is a brief walkthrough of the evolution.

The style was developed from such an incredible amalgamation of guitar players dating back to as early as the 1920s. Many I have spoken about before, Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker, and names I mentioned in my piece on West Coast Blues. It travels from origins in Texas, across the South, into the West and then up to Chicago.

Hudson Whittaker (born Hudson Woodbridge; January 8, 1903 – March 19, 1981), known as Tampa Red, was a very successful artist in his time. Born in Georgia, raised in Florida, and ended up in Chicago. He was one of the earliest to pick up the boogie woogie feel and translate it to the guitar. His slide playing was a precursor to modern Rock Guitar solos. Similar things we see in the playing of Robert Johnson as well.

There are several other names to mention but just to touch on Western Swing for example and members of Bob Wills band such as guitarists Cotton Whittington and Sylvester Weaver, or Zeke Campbell who had association with The Lightcrust Doughboys and others. Max from PowerPop got into that recently and you can read that here. Then there was Eldon Shamblin, perhaps he was an even more significant player in that genre who had picked up and applied techniques from the great Jazz guitarist Eddie Lang. Follow this link for some of Eldon Shamblin with Leon McAuliffe. The style shows up in the most subtle of ways sometimes you don’t even realize that it’s there.

The next song and artist was very popular and brought a lot of attention to the boogie guitar style.

Boogie Woogie guitar, Arthur Smith.

“Guitar Boogie” by The Rambler Trio featuring Arthur Smith, written by Arthur Smith and recorded in 1946. It was re-released in 1948 and became a hit with his renamed group, ‘Arthur Smith and His Cracker-Jacks’. Smith, some may know is the author and original artist of “Feudin’ Banjos” from 1955 and recorded with Don Reno that was co-opted for the movie Deliverance. Below is a cover of “Guitar Boogie” by the sensational Roy Clark. I watched this about 10 times and I have already seen it before, many times!

John Lee Hooker

I did a post recently on the great John Lee Hooker who took from the genre and created Boogie-Blues. He was just amazing. One of the coolest persons to ever grace this planet. “Boogie Chillun’“(original from 1948).

These pioneering guitar sounds made their way into Rock and Roll in such a big way with the use of the same bass pattern. From Chuck Berry to Norman Greenbaum, Bob Wier, and Joe Satriani. It not only informs the rhythm guitar but the bass guitar and steel guitar as well.

ZZ Top “Tube Snake Boogie” live from Germany.

Here are some greats showing off in these video clips below, first from 1963 the legendary Willie Dixon introduces Matt Guitar Murphy who I was lucky enough to see once in person then Phil Baugh and Glen Campbell from 1965.

26 thoughts on “Boogie Guitar”

  3. Great choices, Randy. I too had forgotten what an amazing guitarist Roy Clark was. And I believe that’s the first time I’ve seen a video of ZZ Top… quite the show!

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