Browsing: Tampa Red

In the early ‘20s a Vaudeville guitar player named George Beauchamp paid a visit to a stringed instrument shop. His complaint: no matter how loud he played, his guitar just couldn’t compete with the rest of the instruments in the orchestra.

So, the owner of that shop, John Dopyera, developed the idea of fitting a guitar body with aluminum cones. Discs of fine-spun aluminum that vibrate to amplify sound. Make the body out of metal, and you’ve got a National guitar.

A lighthearted subcategory of urban blues called hokum was popular in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Find out all about this old, raucous, raunchy genre of blues music!

Courtesy of our good friends at the Delta Blues Blog, enjoy the story behind the original music competitions — born on the mean streets of the blues!

Trumpet records began it’s existence in Jackson, Mississippi in 1951 because of a forgotten pile of records. It lasted only five years, but it’s brief time made a enduring impact on musical history.