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228 Part IV: Sounding Like the Masters: Blues Styles through the Ages Freddie King, a two-pick man
Freddie King was a Texas-born guitarist who played with a plastic thumbpick
and a metal fingerpick, in a two-finger fingerpicking style that he said he
learned from Muddy Waters sideman Jimmy Rogers and Jimmy Reed sideman
Eddie Taylor. His early influences included Lightnin’ Hopkins and saxman/
jump blues star Louis Jordan, but he’s influenced others, too: Jeff Beck, Keith
Richards, Jerry Garcia, Peter Green, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and John Mayer.
Freddie’s family moved from Texas to Chicago in 1950, when he was just 16,
and there he sneaked into clubs to hear the greats of that era: Muddy Waters,
Howlin’ Wolf (who took a liking to the young guitar player), and Elmore James.
He began recording as a sideman in the ’50s while working in a steel mill.
Freddie King’s best-known song is the instrumental “Hide Away,” recorded in
1961, which was covered by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton,
and Stevie Ray Vaughan — and every blues cover band in North America and
Europe. Following the success of this tune, which placed on the pop charts as
well as the R&B charts, Freddie followed up with more instrumentals, including
“San-Ho-Zay,” “The Stumble,” and “Side Tracked.”
Figure 12-9 shows a lick in the style of Freddie King’s “Hide Away.” Keep the
approach light and crisp, as Freddie did, and play “on top of” (or slightly
ahead of) the beat to capture his sound.
TEAM LinG
Albert Collins, master of the Telecaster
Nicknamed the “Master of the Telecaster,” Albert Collins was an accomplished
showman and a fierce guitarist. Born in 1932, in Leona, Texas, he received his
initial musical training on the keyboards, but he soon picked up the guitar and
started hanging out in Houston clubs and absorbing the influence of his Texasbased
idols, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Lightnin’ Hopkins (a distant relative),
T-Bone Walker, and John Lee Hooker.
Albert Collins concocted a unique recipe for playing guitar, consisting of a
Fender Telecaster, a capo (which was often strapped on at the fifth, seventh,
or even ninth frets), unorthodox tunings, and a stinging fingerstyle approach
that fairly snapped notes out of the guitar. The essence of Albert Collins’s
style was his aggressive attack, piercing sound, and staccato phrasing.
Albert Collins had a string of instrumental hits in the late ’50s and early ’60s
whose titles all had a “chilled” theme to them (“The Freeze,” “Sno-Cone,” “Icy
Blue,” and “Don’t Lose Your Cool”). These songs earned him the nickname
“The Iceman.” In 1962, he released “Frosty,” which became a big hit.