The Fingerpicking Blues of Etta Baker
HOMESPUN
A Lesson in the Real Piedmont Style
Taught By Etta Baker.
Level 3
60-minute DVD or VHS, Includes music + tab book

“One of the signature chords of my guitar vocabulary comes from her version of “Railroad Bill.” This was the first guitar picking style that I ever learned.” –Taj Mahal

Learn traditional fingerpicking blues from a legendary player! Etta Baker plays, sings and breaks down ten traditional and original tunes, offering a true down-home lesson in Piedmont style blues.

Playing her dreadnaught acoustic and 1950's Gibson Les Paul, Etta's rock solid yet swinging fingerpicking is truly inspiring to watch. You'll see, up close, her alternating-thumb and blues picking techniques, plus left-hand chord shapes, slides, bends and the variety of rhythmic devices that add a personal touch to every song she plays.

Etta performs and discusses some of the best-known songs of her repertoire: The classic fingerpicking of "Carolina Breakdown," "One Dime Blues," "Railroad Bill" and "Bully Of The Town;" the "Spanish" four-finger style of "Dew Drop;" the electric Delta blues style of her original "On The Other Hand Baby;" the rocking "Brown's Boogie;" and two songs in open-D (or "K.C.") tuning-- "Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad" and her powerful bottleneck/slide version of "John Henry."

About Etta Baker
Etta Baker of Morganton, North Carolina was born in 1913 and has been playing guitar since the age of 4. The legendary Piedmont guitarist first gained a wide following among folk music enthusiasts in the 1950s with her tracks on the groundbreaking album "Traditional Music of the Southern Appalachians." She learned much of her blues fingerpicking from her father, who was steeped in the traditional guitar styles and songs of North Carolina and Virginia. Many of her most renowned songs and instrumentals can be heard on her CDs "One Dime Blues" (Rounder Records) and "Etta Baker and Taj Mahal (Music Maker). Now in her late eighties, Etta continues to tour, and makes an annual appearance at Doc Watson's great festival, MerleFest, held each April in the hills of North Carolina.