Edward James "Son" House Jr. was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist, noted for his highly emotional style of singing and slide guitar playing.
Son House
Son House, Minneapolis, May, 1971
Mississippi State Penitentiary, where House was confined
Blues Trail Marker on Greig Street in Rochester, NY, where Son House and his wife Evie lived in the 1960s.
Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that reflect characteristics of the human singing voice. It typically involves playing the guitar in the traditional position with the use of a slide fitted on one of the guitarist's fingers. The slide may be a metal or glass tube, such as the neck of a bottle, giving rise to the term bottleneck guitar to describe this type of playing. The strings are typically plucked while the slide is moved over the strings to change the pitch. The guitar may be placed on the player's lap and played with a hand-held bar.
A musician playing slide guitar style; The slide is on his left ring finger. He is playing a metal-body resonator guitar (a National-type) using fingerpicks on his right hand.
Ry Cooder using a glass slide in 2009
Wooden resonator guitar played with a steel, angled to form a chord unavailable from straight open tuning
Image: Coricidinslides
