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  1. Hence I am a hardcore blues and jazz fan Paul ! Not really a surprise, but now I’m a patented one ! Then I can recommend the excellent 2CD “Quiet ! Gibson at Work” that shows why this guy was an UFO in his day !

  2. Hello, Paul. I’m George Barnes’ daughter. My late mother and I founded The George Barnes Legacy Collection in 2010, in the interest of making his exceptional life’s work more available, recognized, and appreciated. I have been producing material from the collection since 2013, and am in the process of writing a memoir about his life, and the unique world in which my mother and I lived because of him. I’m glad you’ve acknowledged his artistry and influence in this post, and in your book, “America’s Gift” (I have not read it; I’ve only seen a review in WorldMusicCentral.org). I’m sure you know you’ve only scratched the surface. If you decide to reference my father in future posts or other publications, please feel free to contact me; I’m always happy to help those who support my father’s legacy present more detailed and accurate information. Cheers!

    1. Hi Alexandra. Being a great admirer of your father’s work, I was thrilled to hear from you. In my blues history book, America’s Gift, I devote an entire chapter to George Barnes, entitled ‘The Teenage Pioneer of Electric Blues’ so, perhaps, know a little more about his amazing virtuosity than you think. It’s available on Amazon. The only other blues musician in the book who gets a chapter to themselves is Lonnie Johnson who, I believe, gave guitar lessons to your Dad before he was 16 in the 1930s. If you could expand on this, it would be well worth another post. Indeed, if you have any information at all you could share I would be delighted to publish it. I think the world, and especially America, need to know much more about your father’s massive contribution to so many music genres. You can contact me at paulgmerry@gmail.com – I have also made two videos on George Barnes which you can find on my YouTube channel under Paul Merry. I had to make a second video because the publisher of Jazz Gillum’s ‘Reefer header Woman’, on which George played, made me mute it. Perhaps you could have a word with them ;).

  3. Durham played a resonator guitar. It was Barnes guitar on Bill Broonzy’S Low Down Dirty Shame that was the first real electric guitar on record.

    1. Eddie Durham explained how he recorded ‘Hittin’ the Bottle’ with an amplifier in a 1979 Guitar Player interview:

      “I went back to using a wooden guitar with a resonator. I used to let Lunceford put the microphone up to the sound-hole. Then later on DeArmond came out with a pickup (DeArmond was the first commercially available attachable pick up), which I got, but they didn’t have sound amplifiers. So I’d get any kind of amp I could find and sit in the corner of the stage and run the cord to the guitar, and that was it. And if we were in an auditorium, I’d go directly into the sound system. You couldn’t play rhythm like that because it was too loud. I used to blow out the lights in a lot of places. I’d just play solo work, and I think that at the time I was the only guy playing that kind of guitar in a jazz band.”
      Guitar Player magazine (USA), August, 1979.

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