What are some good delta blues songs to learn?

i play guitar (obviously). i can accomodate to any tuning, and know chords in pretty much every alternative tuning, so if its an alt. tuning no problems.

im after something very metallic, and not for lap style reso. ive already learnt a few songs on banjo but im after some real classics.

please include a tab if possible

Man, that’s a bit of a challenge without knowing your guitar style too well. I’m also going to have to apologize because, I’ll look for tabs, but they’re pretty scarce for delta blues stuff. (Though luckily, it’s usually guitar accompaniment only so hopefully at least some of it can be worked out by ear fairly easily). Let me try here:

Son House, definitely. His stuff is very metalic and extremely classic. In fact, many many later Rock & Blues artists have covered him because, well, he’s extremely influential.
Try some of his staples, for example:
- Death Letter Blues
( TAB (and pretty accurate at a glance): http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/e/eddie_son_house/death_letter_tab.htm)
- Preaching Blues (there are multiple versions, fyi)
- Levee Camp Moan
Son House Samples:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00138F576/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1253622853&sr=1-8

Also, the list might be a little cliche, but probably wouldn’t be complete without suggesting Robert Johnson:
- Sweet Home Chicago
- Crossroads
(There’s so many covers of these songs I looked, I’m having trouble finding the original tabs for these.)

If you’re looking at alternate tunings, and are feeling really adventurous, try Skip James! He used Drop D (or was it Drop E… sorry not coffee yet this morn!) tuning quite a bit for what came to be called Bentonia style of Blues (came from Bentonia, Mississippi, bottom of the delta). Skip’s stuff is really enigmatic, interesting, and quite eerie! Which gives it a lot of appeal. And Bentonia style Blues is really not heard too much, so it’s often kind of fun to play for people, because it’s not familiar quite familiar…
- Devil Got My Woman
- Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
(TAB: the best I can find is the following, which I see has a few questionable spots, but it’s a great place to start:

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/s/skip_james/hard_time_killing_floor_blues_crd.htm

Chris Thomas King also does this song in the O! Brother Where Art Thou movie / soundtrack. His version is strikingly close, but I don’t believe it’s in drop D if memory serves me right.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/s/skip_james/hard_time_killing_floor_blues_ver3_tab.htm

Skip James samples:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=skip+james&x=0&y=0

Finally, I might suggest Lead Belly. Sorry I looked and looked for tabs for these. I think you might be stuck trying them by ear. Luckily it’s mostly just chords and he doesn’t do a whole lot fancy, though just a note, I know sometimes he’s been known to use Drop D. In what I heard fro mthe clips below it sounded like standard though.
- Rock Island Line

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=Lead+BElly+rock+island+line&x=0&y=0

- Goodnight Irene
- Salty Dog.

http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1253624726/ref=sr_pg_1?ie=UTF8&rs=&keywords=Lead%20BElly&rh=n%3A!624868011%2Ci%3Amp3-downloads%2Ck%3ALead%20BElly%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A625151011%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A625151011&page=1

Hope that helped! I can think of a few more that I left out (Mississippi John Hurt, for one!) because this answer is probably too long aready! But if you want any more suggestions or got questions, etc. Just hit my profile and drop me an e-mail

Guitar Classics; Extreme – More Than Words

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