While many concentrate on getting the newest guitar gear for the year others are just sticking to making old style blues guitar songs like YouTuber Edward Briggler. I discovered Edwards music in a Reddit group and he was sharing his latest work Lonesome blues and I encouraged him to do a Guitardoor Interview With us and Share some of his Favourite Old style blues and his own latest blues songs for Jamuary.
I LOVE THE SOUND OF YOUR BLUES GUITAR CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT IT?
Of course, this one I’m playing has an interesting story. I had caught wind of some guitars for sale and that they were true lefty guitars. The guy who was going to sell them was going to convert them to right handed guitars so he could actually sell them, but luckily was able to catch him before work began and he fixed this one and another one up. The one in this song is a 1961 Gibson and it’s been my favourite acoustic guitar for the past couple of years. I have never really been one to buy a bunch of instruments or keep rotating. I still play my Epiphone Les Paul that I got when I was 15 years old (I’m 39 now). It’s my mainstay (and only electric guitar) so anything you hear from me with an electric guitar is that one.
When it comes to blues, how important is having the correct tuning and what do you consider the best way to tune your guitar is for to play when playing of making old style blues?
I usually just stay in tune with the instrument when playing or making old style blues especially if I am by myself, sometimes a few cents lower and probably cause I just make sure the strings are in tune together. For other ones, I tend to find the open tuning it’s in and go with that. I love messing with open G and open D tunings. Lots to work with.
WHAT IS CONSIDERED THE BEST BLUES SONG EVER?
Gah, that’s such a tough question. There are so many different styles and types of blues from different regions. I’ll give you my top 3: Robert Johnson’s “Travelling Riverside Blues”, R.L. Burnside’s “Goin’ Down South”, and Holwlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning”. Willie Dixon songs along with Junior Kimbrough are up there too, but those 3 just really seem to embody the blues to me.
Guitardoor: 3 amazing blues songs I will pick Howlin’ Wolf to put in here since we have covered RL Burnside and Robert Johnson in earlier articles.
WHAT IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BLUES SONG TO PLAY ON GUITAR?
Man, I’d say ‘Little Wing’ by Jimi Hendrix. It just flows around and I have always thought of it as such a beautiful song and it’s definitely a blues song that can sing on guitar. I can play that song forever; it always makes it onto a set list of mine.
Guitardoor: Great choice Jimi had a slight edge over the performance of Stevie Ray Vaughan on this one but since he wrote it that’s understandable Jimi said about this track according to Harry Shapiro and Cesar Gleddeek
I got the idea like, when we were in Monterrey and I was just looking at everything around. So I figured that I take everything I see around and put it maybe in the form of a girl maybe, something’ like that, you know, and call it ‘Little Wing’, and then it will just fly away. Everybody’s really flying’ and they’re really in a nice mood, like the police and everybody was really, really great out there. So I just took all these things and put them in one very, very small little matchbox, you know, into a girl and then do it. It was very simple, but I like it though.[14]
Shapiro, Harry, 1952-; Glebbeek, Caesar Borrow this Book on the Internet Archive
ON YOUR CHANNEL YOU USE GARAGEBAND FROM TIME TO TIME. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS TYPE OF TECHNOLOGY AS A OLD STYLE BLUES PLAYER?
I think using technology to help capture ideas and feelings is good to do. I use it because it’s easy to use and I can just focus on writing and putting songs down without having to rent time at a studio. I’ve learned so much too! Just how to balance a song out, write different parts and also experiment with different sounds and textures. Now, if I had access to a place like ‘Sound City’ or ‘Third Man Records” where I could push some vibrations onto tape or even straight onto vinyl, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Guitardoor: It works with the Epiphone Les Paul very nicely I bet you are glad you held on to that amazing sound and a great tune Edward.
CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT CREATING AND WRITING LONESOME BLUES?
Most of the time, I start with my guitar in hand and just start singing and playing to see what comes out and once something seems to be repeating I grab a hold of it and start gnawing on it. That’s how this one came to fruition and what’s strange is that it was fully fleshed out in an hour. And by that I mean I have the framework and lyrics and then I just love to improvise over that basis
Guitardoor: One hour to write something that good you must be really proud of that piece so lets have a listen to this old style blues song created in an hour and here for eternity
Thanks for the Interview and Where Can People Find more of your New and Old Style Blues?
Besides YouTube and Spotify You can also Find Edward Brigger on Reddit
