Perhaps more than any other state, Mississippi has long been linked with the blues, so much so that Alan Lomax referred to it as The Land Where the Blues Began. From the earliest days of recorded blues, and even before that, Mississippi has always abounded with great fingerstyle blues guitarists. So it was that Mississippi fingerstyle blues guitar was the obvious choice for author John Miller’s next book, following up on his earlier releases, East Coast Fingerstyle Blues Guitar and Texas Fingerstyle Blues Guitar.\n\nIn Mississippi Fingerstyle Blues Guitar, 1926\-1959, John Miller has adopted an approach designed to showcase a wide range of the styles of the Mississippi blues guitarists who recorded in the period covered by the book, twenty\-seven different guitarists in all, each represented by a single song. And the songs in the book have been selected for variety in the keys and tunings in which the songs were played, too, with a generous helping of songs in four different open tunings as well as songs in D, A, G, E and C in standard tuning. And along with songs by the heavy hitters you’d expect to encounter in such a book ― Charlie Patton, Tommy Johnson, Son House, Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt ― you’ll encounter pieces by more obscure, though no less expert players, people like The Down Home Boys, Mattie Delaney, Frank Evans, Cat\-Iron, and Rosa Lee Hill. Each song in the book is preceded by a brief bio of the person who performed it, a discussion of the song with practical playing tips designed to help you bring the transcriptions to life, the song’s lyrics, and transcriptions presented in both standard notation and TAB. Plus the book includes sound links to the original recorded versions of all of the songs, so you can get the sound of the songs in your head. Titles included: Learning the Songs Understanding the Tablature THE SONGSTERS Jim Jackson Old Dog Blue The Down Home Boys Original Stack O’Lee Blues Sam Collins Graveyard Digger’s Blues Mississippi John Hurt Blue Harvest Blues LOST IN THE SANDS OF TIME Bo Weavil Jackson Devil And My Brown Blues William Harris Bull Frog Blues THE HEAD TONE Rube Lacy Mississippi Jail House Groan Ishmon Bracey Suitcase Full of Blues Mattie Delaney Tallahatchie River Blues THE HERNANDO SOUND Garfield Akers Dough Roller Blues Joe Callicott Fare Thee Well Blues Robert Wilkins Get Away Blues THE DELTA Charlie Patton Pea Vine Blues Tommy Johnson Canned Heat Blues Son House The Pony Blues THE BENTONIA SOUND Skip James I’m So Glad THE SOPHISTICATES Bo Carter Pretty Baby Eugene Powell Low Down POWERHOUSES Booker White District Attorney Blues Big Joe Williams Meet Me Around The Corner IN TRANSITION Tommy McClennan Whiskey Head Woman Robert Petway Catfish Blues Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup Mean Old Frisco Blues FIELD RECORDINGS Frank Evans French Blues Cat Iron Jimmy Bell Rosa Lee Hill Faro Fred McDowell Drop Down Mama Appendix―Default Chord Positions Acknowledgements Glossary Afterword About The Author In addition to his work as a composing and performing musician, John Miller has close to forty years' experience as a music teacher, having begun teaching privately while still in high school. He is available for private instruction in fingerpicked Folk guitar, Country Blues guitar, Brazilian guitar, Music theory and chord voicing and composition. John offers private lessons in Bellingham and Seattle. John has extensive experience teaching groups, with many years' service teaching at such music camps as Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Georgia Strait Workshop, BC Swing Camp, the California Coast Music Camp, the Port Townsend Country Blues Workshop, Augusta National Heritage's Bluesweek and the European Blues Association's Bluesweek.