The Country Blues

I’ve been feeling the blues lately. Not a state of melancholy — the musical kind. Sinners is partly responsible for that, a wild yarn that foregrounds the music of the Delta c. 1932. Mostly, though, I’ve just been immersing myself in a soundtrack that fits the path I’m on in my work.

Some folks write in silence; I’m one of those who picks up the rhythm and texture of music. Instrumental music. For setting the “Deep Americana” atmosphere I seek, one of my go-to artists is Justin Johnson.

Johnson has built an enormous internet following — and thus a career — with mesmerizing country blues guitar. His playing hits right in the x-ring of the “vibe” I crave.

His business is built on online lessons and avidly consumed YouTube videos. One of them in particular boosted his profile; it featured a shovel guitar. He told Fusion:

“I was on tour a couple of years ago on the Mississippi Delta. I was about to go on stage at a festival in Clarksville when a guitar builder came up to me saying he’d built a three string guitar, and he’d love me to try it. He hands me a shovel loaded with three strings, a pickup and controls on the blade and machine heads on the handle. I loved it, I used it for the whole set and on the rest of the tour. I put out a video using it and it went viral, it’s got nearly 40 million hits to date.

“With so many people asking where they could get one, I set about building them here in my workshop in Nashville. You can check them out on the website, they all come with a certificate of authenticity, along with signature slide and instructional DVDs to teach you how to play the three string shovel and three string guitars.”

JJ is one of a long line of players who got bit by the blues early, and found their course in life set. Fusion:

“I was a teenager when I first got drawn to blues music. I didn’t have a lot of friends around me who embraced that genre, but I really didn’t care that much, for me, the blues was a life changer. I knew what I wanted to perform from then on. It was really Lightnin’ Hopkins and John Lee Hooker who got me started, it’s the simplicity, the rawness and the power of their songs. They could play just a few notes and sing a few lines and they got you hooked. Then I progressed to the more primitive Chicago and Memphis country blues and the prison songs. I have a lot of respect for that kind of music and how it influenced a lot of today’s popular music, I’m trying my best to keep blues and roots music alive wherever I am in the world.”