Looking for instrumental blues

[Bernd O]

Hallo Axemen,
i am looking for some blues without vocals. It seems that it is not so popular and so I found nothing except Ry Cooder and Justin Johnson.
Do you know alternatives?

Greetings from Herne, Germany

[sunjamr]

Do you mean instrumental blues to listen to, or to play yourself? If you are a guitarist wanting to learn instrumental blues, ALL of the lessons here on this site are instrumental.

Sunjamr Steve

[Bernd O]

I mean blues to listen to. I already searched a lot but without success except Justin Johnson. He made some really good songs.

[sunjamr]

Hi Bernd – Justin is a great guitarist, and an overall nice human being. If you message him, he is happy to answer any questions, or at least he was for me.

For other options;

Daddy Stovepipe from Begium (??)
Jeff Beck
Allman Brothers have some instrumentals (Jessica and Little Martha, for example)
Santana has many instrumentals
Eric Johnson
Eric Bibb has many instrumentals (Sebastion’s Tune is one of my favorites)
Leo Kottke
Many bluegrass groups have instrumentals
Many old-time blues masters from the early 1900s have instrumentals
Almost 100% of videos uploaded for the Monthly Challenge sessions are pure instrumentals, and many are professional quality. Click on the Forum tab, then look under “Consolidated Active Melody Member Challenge Posts Archive” and you will find well over 10,000 instrumental blues performances.

Hope this helps!

Sunjamr Steve

[GnLguy]

Don’t know if this falls into the category that you’re looking for but Kim Simmonds was an amazing player & musician

[GnLguy]

Stefan Grossman has a lot of albums that are acoustic blues, ragtime, etc

[Andrew A]

Have you tried Ronnie Earl. He’s a big fav of mine !

[Bernd O]

Oh wow. Thank you for all your tips. I will have a look at all of them. Sunjamr Steve, you made me curious about “Sebastion’s Tune”. I read that you love Pink Floyd and David Gilmour too, so maybe we have a similar taste.
May your fingertips never hurt again.

Bernd

[GnLguy]

Bernd

I didn’t think of this when I responded earlier but I compiled a playlist of the instrumentals written by Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band
I think the he had provided at least one instrumental per album while he was with them – he just had a knack for writing those.
His influences ranged from Western Swing music courtesy Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys, to Django Reinhardt to Brahms
The Allman Brothers were known for their twin harmonized guitar approach – from the start, it was Dickey who came up with the harmony. Having said that, his instrumentals were filled with that harmony as well
You get my point that I’m A huge Dickey Betts fan…. One of the greatest ever

[Bernd O]

Hi GnLguy,
thank you for your tip. I like it and will have a closer look to Dickey Betts. Unfortunately I realized that I didn´t exactly described what i am looking for.
And that is only one or perhaps two acoustic guitars. No bass, no drums, no vocals. I already mentioned Justin Johnson. Especially his “darker” songs create a heavy, oppressive atmosphere that makes you curious about what is coming next. Music only to listen to, like to a story.

[GnLguy]

That’s what I thought you were looking but I threw the Dickey Betts playlist out there in case you might like it also
The songs on that list are in chronological order of release

Now that you further defined what you’re looking for, I suggest that you look into Stefan Grossman, John Fahey, Bert Jansch, Dave Van Ronk, Davey Graham
Some of their songs have vocals but there are a lot of instrumentals in their catalogs

Stefan Grossman releases a free song with tab each Wednesday.

Stefan studied with a blind street preacher, Rev Gary Davis, for 3+ years; Rev Davis was a walking encyclopedia of Piedmont and Delta blues songs and styles, both blues & spirituals; he was an influence on a huge number players, giving lessons to make extra money – but it was Stefan that would spend weekends with the Rev and his family. Stefan learned songs from Davis and with a 60s style reele to reel, he recorded Rev Davis playing and
also the singing at the black church where Rev Davis preached

Stefan moved to Europe in the late 60s and lived fore for approx 20 years
He roomed with Eric Clapton for a period of time at first – I’ve wondered how much influence from Stefan is in ECs unplugged approach. 😉

[Bernd O]

Thank you for the names that i didn’t know before. I will check them. Stefan Grossman. Yes, I like him and saw several lesson videos on Youtube, but I don’t know his albums. ECs unplugged approach. I love it. Simply great. Now I have enough to do with listening to all the artists you and the others suggested to me.

[Ralph P.]

Here’s one of my favorite Acoustic Fingerstyle Blues players, Kenny Sultan:

He has a lot of instructional DVD’s out. Worth checking out.

Ralph

Ralph P.

[GnLguy]

Hey Ralph
I’d forgotten about Kenny. He is a great player and instructor

Here’s one by Stefan that I really like

[Bernd O]

Hi Ralph,

BULLSEYE!

Kenny Sultan is what I am looking for. Could you tell me also your other favorite Acoustic Fingerstyle Blues players?

[Ralph P.]

Hey Bernd, My favorite would be Clapton, but none of his stuff is even slightly “easy”. I also really like Keb Mo. Most of his acoustic playing is done to accompany his vocals. Great songwriter and player.

I really like Kenny Sultan because he seems to have a lot of Clapton in his playing, and he plays instrumentals.

Have fun,
Ralph

Ralph P.

[Bernd O]

Now I also watched some guitar lessons from Kenny Sultan. There are some very interesting and easy ideas to spice up the own blues.
Yes, Clapton is one of the best. I wish Gary Moore had made an unplugged album…

[Author]

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