The Fingerpicking Blues of Etta Baker

“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.”