With his idiosyncratic style and spare Tele-driven setup, the inventive guitarist twists roots music on his new groove-centric album, Get It!
Rick Holmstrom says he spends āa lot of time not listening to guitar. I like trying to imagine the guitar taking the place of saxophone, Ahmad Jamalās piano, or Mose Allisonās piano. Like Billie Holiday, who does those weird little micro bends that the great singers doāhow can you get a feeling like that on the guitar?ā
For Holmstrom, the answer is a style that blurs the lines between traditional bluesāthe genre where heās invested most of his nearly 40-year careerāand a place on the edge of the envelope, where chromatic lines, finger-crafted imitations of slide, microtonal bends, and a devout belief in the unerring power of the groove telegraph his vision. Those elements plus his clean and spanky and typically Tele-driven tone have made him Mavis Staplesā music director since 2007 and caught the ear of Ry Cooder. His ability to conjure the spirit of Mavisā late dad, Pops Staples, on her renditions of Staple Singers classics is uncanny, yet still retains Holmstromās distinctive flavor.
While his resume most certainly slants toward the old-schoolāheās toured with harmonica aces William Clarke, Johnny Dyer, and Rod Piazza, and recorded with Jimmy Rogers, Billy Boy Arnold, and Booker T. Jonesāheās also added spectral playing to the R.L. Burnside space-straddling classic Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down and recorded a solo album in 2002, Hydraulic Groove, that seamlessly wedded funk, trip-hop, ambient electronics, and roots music. In a less conservative place than the blues market, it wouldāve been widely heralded as the masterpiece cognoscenti know it to be.
Bubbles - Rick Holmstrom
Now, heās got a new instrumental album called Get It! thatās a funky and emotive showcase for his style; chasing down his passion for the almighty groove but doing so along his distinctive path where bends get weird (āWeeping Tanaā), melodies swing hard (āRobynās Rompā), the great spirits of the genre are summoned (āKing Freddieā), the strains of Morocco echo (āTaghazoutā), and hip-hop-sample-worthy rhythm tracks (āKronky Tonkā) do some heavy lifting.
Holmstromās journey started as a kid in Fairbanks, Alaska. His father, a local DJ, exposed Holmstrom to the blues, soul, and R&B that would define his career. No doubt the Staple Singersā hits like āIāll Take You Thereā and āFreedom Highway,ā both part of Mavisā live sets today, were on heavy rotation.
āLetās get past all this existential, post-apocalyptic doom and have a funky good time.ā
Cooder played a role in his arrival as Mavisā musical right hand. āMy band opened up for Mavis on the Santa Monica Pier,ā he relates. āWe get off the stage, and the promotor says, āHer band is stuck at LAX, but Mavis is here. Can you back her for a few songs?ā We didnāt really know her songs, but we played three or four.
āAs I was walking off the stage, a guy with yellow glasses tapped me on the shoulder, and it was Ry Cooder. Ry was producing a record of Mavisā, and he liked the way we played with her. He kept telling Mavis, I guess during the session, āI really dug that band that played with you.ā Then our first gig with her, unbelievably, was The Tonight Show. [Laughs.]ā
āThe album is all my ā53 Tele except for two songs,ā Holmstrom says. āItās the variety of sounds you can get out of them. āAll About My Girlāāthatās the neck pickup. It sounds like it could be a hollowbody. The middle is pure Stax or Motown, and then the bridge is whatever you want.ā
Photo by Brad Elligood
Holmstromās individuality is even more surprising considering he cut his teeth during the 1980s blues explosion. While he was digging on Chicago, New Orleans, Stax, and Motown, everyone else was fixated on a particular player out of Austin, Texas. āI didnāt want anything to do with Stevie Ray Vaughan,ā he says. āAnd thatās no diss at all. Heās a really great guitar player. But when he came out, I was like 12 years old. Playing was still an option for me. Then he came along, and it was almost enough to give up guitar.
āAll you had to do was look around and see all these guys that were copying him. Everybody had a Strat, a hat, some boots, and a Super Reverb,ā he explains. āSo, I got a big hollowbody with a single P-90 and no cutaway and tried to learn saxophone and big band horn-section melodies.ā
In forging his own way, Holmstrom sidestepped the blues-shred of those years. Preferring to let his parts breathe, he fills that space with ā¦ nothing. Check out his solo on āLooky Hereā from Get It! The guy sometimes drops out for a full measure. He even ends the solo by basically not playing at all for the last two bars. Not surprisingly, it wasnāt a guitarist who inspired this restraint.
Looky Here
When Rick Holmstrom was writing his new album, Get It!, the songs started with him developing melodies by singing them, then transposing them to guitar.
āYears ago, we were playing in Boston with Mavis,ā Holmstrom recalls. āWe got there a night early, and Ahmad Jamal was playing. He would break down a melody and only use two of the notes. It draws you in because youāre not hearing all the notes that could be there. Your brain is allowed to imagine the rest. That was a life-changing gig for me.ā
Like his playing, Holmstromās songwriting is also decidedly non-guitar-centric. Instead of plugging in, turning up, and going for it, he says he listens. āWhen Iām making up songs or getting a groove going, Iāll hum or sing to myself,ā he says. āThen I'll think, āWhere does this melody go next?ā Iām not playing the guitar at that point. Iām humming it and singing it to myself. āDoes that flow? Okay, now letās go back and learn that on guitar.āā
Of course, the contemporary zeitgeistānot just a quest for melodyāalso played a role on the creation of Get It!Rick Holmstromās Gear
Holmstrom primarily picks with his fingers but will revert to a pick for some solos to achieve a sharper attack and a more gain-colored tone.
Photo by Joseph A. Rosen
Guitars
- 1953 Fender Telecaster with Ron Ellis neck pickup and ā50s Fender lap-steel bridge pickup
- 1955 Les Paul Special with phase switching
- 1940s Gibson ES-150
Effects
- SIB Electronics Echodrive
- ā60s Fender Reverb Tank
- Milkman The Amp (used as a preamp for the rented AC15 when touring)
Amps
- 1950s Valco-made 1x10 Bronson combo modded to tweed Tremolux specs (with 6V6 tubes)
- Fender silver-panel Vibrolux (with 6V6 tubes)
- Vox AC15 (rented backline when touring, with EL84 tubes)
Strings
- Dunlop (.011ā.050)
āIt was January ā21 and my previous record, See That Light, hadnāt even come out. Then the insurrection happened, and it started to drive me nuts,ā he says. āIām watching MSNBC and reading The Times and stuff, and it was really bugging me. The only thing I could figure to do was get creative and get my mind off it. I booked a session and started making drum loops of grooves that I thought might work.ā
While the worldās events have led some artists to exercise their struggles via dark, introspective works, Holmstrom went the other way. Get It! is all about having a good time, feeling free, and reminding us of a simpler, joyful way of looking at the world. āI wanted this record to be something you might put on when you get your friends together or when youāre having a barbecue,ā he says. āLetās get past all this existential, post-apocalyptic doom and have a funky good time.ā
āIāve gotten to the point where I hate guitar pedals.ā
While the album is crammed with great blues, songs like āSurfer Chuckā and āTaghazoutā play with ā60s surf rock, sultry Middle Eastern motifs, and whatever else caught Holmstromās fancy. āFunkE3,ā in particular, with its percolating Meters-style groove and stylistic shifts, shows how far Holmstrom and crew can go.
That one had been hanging around a while. āWe did a tour years ago with Mavis, where Joan Osborne opened, and we also backed Joan,ā Holmstrom relates. āOne of our background vocalists said, āMan, why donāt you walk her off with an instrumental, and then, boom, go right into the Mavis set?ā So āFunkE3ā is the song I started working on and ended it up being that [transitional] song a lot of nights.ā
Even with a wide breadth of styles on Get It!, the albumāssound and production are the secret behind its gleefully old-school character. Inspired by classic ā50s and ā60s blues albums, the musicians tracked together, in the moment, without overthinking. āI was always trying to make things sound like Chess Records in the ā50sālike that Little Walter, Muddy Waters kind of thing,ā Holmstrom says. āYou can tell itās three instruments really close to each other, with some bleed.ā The other two musicians in the room were Steve Mugalian on drums and Gregory Boaz on bass.
Rick Holmstromās band on Get It! are also his touring partners: drummer Steve Mugalian and bassist Gregory Boaz.
Photo by Brad Elligood
Holmstromās commitment to tradition also permeates his guitar sound. From beginning to end, he smothers the album with vintage-style amp tones from a small combo with a split pedigree. āI used a very tiny guitar amp called a Bronson. Itās a weird Valco-made amp from the ā50s. I had a buddy of mine turn it into, like, a mid-ā50s tweed Tremolux. Itās a great-sounding, magical little amp.ā
Despite the wide range of gain used throughout the new album, the Bronsonās onboard tremolo, a tube-driven SIB Electronics Echodrive delay, and a 1960s Fender Reverb Tank are all the effects Holmstrom used. Even that may have bordered on too much for him.
āIāve gotten to the point where I hate guitar pedals,ā he says. āI absolutely hate them. Ideally, I would love to plug straight into an amp. No 9-volt power, no wall warts, no skinny little power cables that are going to break right before the gig. I would rather use my hands.ā
āI was always trying to make things sound like Chess Records in the ā50sālike that Little Walter, Muddy Waters kind of thing.ā
So how does he get all his sounds? Like everything else, the old-school way. āI turn the volume of my guitar down and pick a lot with my fingers. Then, if I turn the volume on the guitar all the way up and pick with a pick, itās pretty gain-y.ā
Not surprisingly, Holmstrom also prefers vintage guitars. Save for a couple of tunes, the entire album was recorded with only one of them. āThe album is all my ā53 Tele except for two songs,ā he says. āItās the variety of sounds you can get out of them. āAll About My Girlāāthatās the neck pickup. It sounds like it could be a hollowbody. The middle is pure Stax or Motown, and then the bridge is whatever you want.ā
As versatile as the Fender Tele is, the songs āKing Freddieā and āPour One Outā begged for something different. And though that something elseāa 1955 Gibson Les Paul Specialāis also a drool-worthy vintage piece, this one was different. āIt has an out-of-phase, push-pull tone knob on the bridge pickup,ā Holmstrom says. āI can blend the amount of out-of-phase so that itās not completely nasally thin. Itās what Peter Green did, Iām sure, with his Les Paul. All points lead back to the blues, really.ā
Erlee Time - Rick Holmstrom
In this live performance video of āErlee Time,ā from Get It!, Rick Holmstrom demonstrates his playful bends, joyful sense of melody, and the vintage Tele tone thatās part of his signature.
The gospel guitarist who took his tremolo-shaken country blues from Sunday mass to the masses.
Whenever you hear country blues-inflected guitar played through an amp with tremolo, youāre hearing a sound descended from singer/composer/guitarist Pops Staples. Best known as the leader of a family gospel group, the Staple Singers, his guitar style influenced and inspired John Fogerty, Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder, and countless others. The dark mystery of his instrumentās wavy sound has become part of the fabric of American music.
Roebuck Staples, known as āPops,ā was born to Warren and Florence Staples on December 28, 1914, on a cotton plantation near Winona, Mississippi. Roebuck and his older brother Sears were named after the Chicago mail-order company that supplied millions of rural Americans with everything from washing machines to musical instruments.
The Staples soon moved to a plot on the Dockery plantation near Drew, Mississippi. As a teenager, Staples would make money participating in local boxing contests, but other interests had already begun. Though secular music was forbidden in his family, his brother David played blues guitar. By age 14 Staples was paying fifty cents a week towards a Stella he saw hanging in a store window. Like many blues artists of the time he picked cotton during the day, but when work was done heād commune with the guitar, taking it to bed and playing under the covers as long as his father would allow.
āLeroy Crume
In Drew, he heard blues legend Charley Patton, who played at a local hardware store in the evenings. The sight of Patton, Howlinā Wolf, and others making a living playing music inspired the young Staples to practice. By age 16 his diligence paid off with party gigs on the plantation circuit. The house manager collected contributions from the attendees, sometimes paying the guitarist $5 a nightāa fortune by sharecropper standards.
Despite his love of the blues, Staples remained involved in the religious community, singing in church and later touring with a gospel quartet, the Golden Trumpets. At the time the guitar was associated with āthe Devilās musicā and forbidden in churches, though Staples never saw the contradictionāhe felt the blues were just telling a different story.
Citified
At 18, Staples married 16-year-old Oceola Ware. A daughter, Cleotha, and a son, Pervis, soon followed. Seeing no future for his family in the South, he journeyed to Chicago. There, Staples put the guitar down for a dozen years while working in a slaughterhouse and a series of other jobs. Oceola worked as well, and gave birth to two more daughters: Yvonne and Mavis.
The Staple Singers pose with Don Cornelius (right) on the set of Soul Train. This publicity photo was taken during production of the June 8, 1974 episode.
Chicago in the ā40s was a hotbed of R&B, blues, and bebop. The Staples family lived in the neighborhood that spawned such talents as Lou Rawls, Sam Cooke, and Johnny Taylor. Gospel was also on the rise, with guitar-based male quartets and piano-accompanied female soloists working a circuit of churches around the nation.
For a while, Staples joined the Trumpet Jubilees as a vocalist, but in 1948 he decided to form a group closer to home. He pulled out an old guitar and taught Mavis, Cleotha, Pervis, and Yvonne harmony parts to āWill the Circle Be Unbroken.ā The familyās debut at an auntās church brought seven dollars and promises of more gigs. The Staples warm Southern sound quickly caught on, and soon they were branching out to other cities and states.
In 1950 Staples bought his first electric guitar, an amp, and the tremolo effect that would help define his sound. Pops played a variety of mostly Fender guitars throughout his career: Telecasters, Jazzmasters, Jaguars, and Stratocasters. In Greg Kotās book, I'll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers and the March Up Freedom's Highway, Sam Cookeās guitarist Leroy Crume recalled: āWhen Pops came on the scene, he brought this little gadget you put on an amplifierāat the time they werenāt making amps with tremolos ā¦ People used to call it āPop Staples and his nervous guitar.āā The effect was most likely a DeArmond 601 Tremolo unit, which became available in 1948.
Though Pops Staples never left the church, heād spent his fair share of time in juke joints playing the blues. With his family band committed to gospel, he now joined a Baptist church and was āborn again,ā giving up secular music for the moment.
In 1953, Pops had the newly named Staple Singers record a single to sell at shows. A Chicago label, United Records, soon signed them, but their first label record, āWonāt You Sit Down (Sit Down Servant),ā failed to hit. An early version of āThis May Be the Last Timeā (later covered by The Rolling Stones as āThe Last Timeā) was cut but not released until years later, and on another label. United wanted the band to move in a more rock ānā roll direction, and for Mavis to sing the blues. Pops refused to agree.
It was back to the factory for a while, but the Staple Singersā singular soundā14-year-old Mavisā low voice, Popsā falsetto, and country soul in an urban environmentācouldnāt be denied. Another part of their unique appeal was Staplesā guitar. Though artists like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Popsā favorite, Blind Willie Johnson, had incorporated guitar into gospel, the Staple Singers were one of the first Chicago gospel groups to employ this previously shunned instrument. They were allowed to enter local churches that had previously permitted only keyboard accompaniment.
Vee-Jay Days
In 1955, the Staple Singersā worth was recognized by Vee-Jay records (who later recognized the Beatlesā talent, distributing their records in America when Capitol initially refused). After a couple of false starts, they released the haunting āUncloudy Day.ā It became the Staple Singersā first hit (at least by gospel standards) and allowed them to begin touring nationally.
Part of the Staplesā appeal lay in a down-home sound and attitude that reminded Northern urban churchgoers of their rural Southern roots. The Staplesā stripped-down performancesājust Popsā guitar and their voicesāstood in stark contrast to the more flamboyant gospel acts of the day.
Popsā playing is the foundation of the tracks the Staple Singers cut for Vee-Jay between 1955 and 1961. As Greg Kot describes it in his Staples book: āHis style created an atmosphere that was immediately distinctive, a hypnotic swirl of reverb, repetition, and riff. Chords were implied as much as articulated, notes were blurred, tones and overtones were carefully layered like the bricks Pops used to cement into place at his construction jobs.ā
While the Staple Singersā repertoire wasnāt strictly gospel, identifying themselves with that genre gave them an advantage over R&B groups: They could play hundreds of small churches across the country, sometimes doing two or three services a day at a single church. Like many R&B artists, though, Staples carried a gun in his briefcase to ensure payment by crooked promoters and to protect the money afterwards.
In the 1960s, the Staple Singers moved to Orrin Keepnewsā jazz and folk label, Riverside Records. Keepnews added more prominent bass and drums to their recordings, helping them extend their audience beyond the church while remaining true to their homespun roots.
The group managed to fit into the āfolkā music revolution of the ā60s, often crossing paths with Bob Dylan on TV shows and at festivals. The fledgling legend was a huge fanāto the point of asking Mavis to marry him. The group recorded āBlowing in the Windā for Riverside before Dylanās own version hit the streets.
Pops often found folk musicās message to be in tune with his familyās ideology. Dylanās music, and a meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., inspired him to record songs reflecting the civil rights and anti-war movements for their record This Land.
Cleotha, Yvonne, and Mavis Staples (left to right) are the female vocalists of the Staples Singers. The first song their father, Pops Staples, taught them to sing harmony on was āWill the Circle Be Unbroken.ā
Freedom Highway
In 1965, the Staples signed with Epic and recorded with producer Billy Sherrill. Sherrill was known for creating the ācountrypolitanā sound of artists like George Jones and Tammy Wynette, but had started in music playing the blues.
That year also brought the famous Selma to Montgomery civil rights march. Pops Staples, upset by the images of clubs, dogs, and tear gas, was moved to write his iconic song āFreedom Highway.ā The group performed it for the first time at Chicagoās New Nazareth Church, where Sherrill recorded the entire performance for the live Freedom Highway record. Al Duncan on drums and Phil Upchurch on bass add admirable support, but Popsā guitar anchors the recording, from the country blues licks of āWhen Iām Gone,ā to the rockabilly rhythm/lead combo of āHeās All Right.ā By the concertās end, the Staple Singers had defined the meeting place of the African-American church and the American civil rights movement.
The Staples were devastated by the death of their friend and hero Martin Luther King in April 1968, but by July theyād recovered enough to sign with Stax Records, where Al Bell and Steve Cropper helped them continue on their path toward gospel-infused pop music.
Bell also wanted to produce solo records for Pops and Mavis. He and drummer Al Jackson, Jr., had the idea of making a record featuring three Stax guitarists: Pops, Cropper, and Albert King. Though Popsā tremolo guitar is overdubbed on a number of Jammed Togetherās tunes, its full low-tuned mystery is reserved for the one Pops feature, āTupelo.ā
Guitarless in Muscle Shoals It wasnāt until Bell produced the Staple Singers in Muscle Shoals that the group had their first crossover hit, āHeavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom).ā But it was their next one, āRespect Yourself,ā that solidified the Staple Singers as crossover stars, hitting the pop charts at number 12.
For the follow-up, āIāll Take You There,ā Bell played a Jamaican record, āThe Liquidator,ā by the Harry J Allstars, for the Muscle Shoals crew. They lifted the intro practically intact and put their own spin on Aston and Carlton Barrettās reggae rhythm. Though Mavis breathes, āPlay, Daddyā before the guitar solo, Muscle Shoals guitarist Eddie Hinton performs it.
In Muscle Shoals Pops was not permitted to play guitar. Though the āSwampersā had utmost respect for his sound, his style was too idiosyncratic to fit into their well-oiled music machine, though the spirit of Popsā sound remains in Barry Beckettās spooky electric piano and the soulful guitars of Jimmie Johnson and Eddie Hinton. Pops wasnāt happy about not playing on the sessions, but his feathers were smoothed when āIāll Take You Thereā became a number one pop and R&B single.
These secular successes brought some expected backlash from the gospel community, who took the Staplesā political and pop songs as a sign they were turning their backs on the church. Pops felt the group was still doing the Lordās work by bringing messages of hope, pride, and unity to the black community. The group played a prominent role in Staxās celebration of black pride, the 1972 Wattstax concert, and was featured on the best-selling recorded documentary that followed.
Staplesā guitar was absent on the next round of Muscle Shoals sessions as well. Despite being a retread of āIāll Take You There,ā āIf Youāre Ready (Come Go with Me)ā gave them another top 10 hit in 1973. āTouch a Hand (Make a Friend)ā followed it up the charts later that year. The album, Be What You Are, also contained a track called āHeaven,ā featuring acoustic and electric guitar (and a solo) from another Staples fan: Jimmy Page.
The Weight Part II The Staples left a failing Stax Records in 1975, but were quickly signed by Warner Brothers, who paired the group with Curtis Mayfield as producer. Mayfield was working on a soundtrack for Letās Do It Again, a movie featuring Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier, and wanted the Staples to sing the title song. Initially put off by its sexual innuendo, Pops was brought around by his respect for Mayfield and his daughtersā enthusiasm, leading to yet another huge hit.
In 1976 Martin Scorsese convened a special shooting session of the Staple Singers and the Band singing āThe Weight.ā The Staples had covered the song back in 1968, weeks after the Bandās first album, Music from Big Pink, was released. The group had been unable to play the concert filmed for the Last Waltz, but the Band considered the Staplesā vocal sound a huge influence on their own vocals and harmonies, and wanted them in the movie.
The late ā70s saw many bands struggling with the rise of disco, and the Staple Singersānow simply known as the Staplesāwere likewise caught in the conundrum. Chasing trends with tunes like āLetās Go to the Discoā was no answer. They returned to Muscle Shoals in 1978 in hopes of recapturing some of their original magic, but cutting a bunch of dance tracks, even with the Swampers, was no help.
Working in Allen Toussaintās studio with Meters bassist George Porter and arranger Wardell Quezergue also failed to reignite the Staplesā success. In 1984, on yet another label, the Staples had a new flirtation with the R&B charts thanks to a recording of the Talking Heads tune āSlippery People.ā This led to Pops acting in Talking Heads frontman David Byrneās movie True Stories. Other acting jobs followed: Barry Levinsonās film Wag the Dog and the Chicago production of Bob Telsonās gospel-based musical, The Gospel at Colonus. Finally, Mavis left the group for a solo career, and Pops began his own solo flight.
The Staple Singers with Stax label mates Booker T. & the MGās in a late 1960s rehearsal.
Solo Staples Virgin Records subsidiary Point Blank was signing a spate of blues artists in the late ā80s, including Albert Collins and John Lee Hooker. At the behest of Hookerās booking agent, they signed Pops.
Peace to the Neighborhood let Staples bring his guitar to the fore once more on tunes like āI Shall Not be Moved,ā āMiss Cocaine,ā āDown in Mississippi,ā and āWorld in Motion.ā With guest artists Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Ry Cooder helping out, the record earned a Grammy nomination in 1992. Popsā tremoloed guitar appears on about half the Point Blank follow-up, Father Father, which, despite a lack of blues tunes, won the 1994 Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy.
Popsā career slowed, but the awards continued. In 1998 Staples was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1999 the Staple Singers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The following year, on December 19, 2000, Pops Staples died after suffering a concussion in a fall near his home in Dalton, Illinois, just nine days before his 86th birthday.
Despite failing health, in 1998 Pops had begun sessions for another solo record. Shortly before he died, the ailing musician asked Mavis to play him the unfinished tracks. When they were done, he pleaded to his daughter, āDonāt lose this.ā That became the albumās title when it was finally released in 2015. Wilcoās Jeff Tweedy, who has produced acclaimed records for Mavis, reworked the music, stripping away most of the original session tracks, leaving Popsā signature guitar, vocals from Pops, Cleotha, and Mavis, and a few tasteful overdubs.
Donāt Lose This serves as a fitting finale for Roebuck āPopsā Staples, the man who brought the sound of electrified country blues guitar to the church, the city, and the world.
Pops Staples plays his Jazzmaster onstage with the Staple Singers circa July 1971.
Hallmarks of Style: Pops Staplesā Guitar
Pops Staplesā deceptively simple guitar style seamlessly combined strumming with bass lines and picked melody notes, all rendered with a vibe-heavy groove.When bluesman Rick Holmstrom took the job as Mavis Staplesā guitarist, he brought the spirit of Popsā without feeling the need to be a carbon copy. Mavis was onboard with that, deriving new inspiration from his personal approach. Nevertheless, Holmstrom has studied the gospel patriarchās style in great detail.
āWatch him on videos, where heās playing E7 in root or ācowboyā position,ā says Holmstrom. āHe may be tuned down to D and capoed up to Eb, depending on the time period, so I took one of my Teles and tuned it down a whole stepāit gets the spookiness down there. Pops would take that first position E chord and pick out little melodies with his pinky on the high E and B strings He might also be doing a hammer-on on the D string from D to E,or from Ato B on the A string. Sometimes he would slide up to the root on the A string. He might have had an alternating thumb bass going on the low strings, but it was not strict like with country guitar.
āYou can hear Charlie Patton, Son House, and Big Bill Broonzy in his playing. People have laughed at me when I say he reminds me a little bit of Scotty Moore, but he was not all blues. On āSuzie Q,ā James Burton plays that E7 chord with a little lick, and it sounds like something Pops wouldāve done. Pops wasnāt any kind of great technician, but he had this great vibe.ā
For Marty Stuart, seeing Pops Staples play in The Last Waltz was revelatory. āAfter that, I became enamored of the Vee-Jay recordings,ā he says. āI have always been a fan of a guitarist who can take two notes and wreck you.ā
Stuart met Staples when working with the Staple Singers on the Rhythm Country and Blues record, and was quickly adopted by the family. When Pops died, Mavis and Yvonne gave the country star the rosewood Fender Telecaster Pops played in The Last Waltz. Stuart has compared it to being handed Excalibur.
āItās an instrument of light and truth,ā says Stuart. āWhen I put that guitar on, there is a responsibility that falls around my neck. I left it tuned down to Eb, the way Pops played it.ā
The guitar started off with standard Telecaster pickups but, according to Stuartās co-guitarist, Kenny Vaughan, was later modified with a Fender Wide Range Humbucker and 6-way brass saddles.
āItās real heavyāone of the solid ones,ā says Stuart. āIāve tried to play country and rock on that guitar, and it wonāt come out. But as soon as I play gospel, it comes to life.ā
Stuart recalls one time when Pops visited Nashville. āPops called and said, āMarty, I need two things: a Fender ā65 with a shake on it and a stretch-out car.ā I said, āNo problem,ā and then I called Mavis and asked, āWhat is a Fender ā65 with shake on it and a stretch-out car?ā She said, āOh Marty, thatās a Fender amp with tremolo and a limousine.ā [Laughs.]ā
Stuart beautifully summarizes the elusive magic of Popsā playing: āItās like trying to tell somebody about the Grand Canyon if theyāve never been there, or explain a dream you had last night. Sometimes when you canāt analyze something, the best thing to do is to shut up and let it entertain and inspire you.ā
YouTube It
In this rare clip from 1968, Pops accompanies his daughters on the gospel classic āWade in the Waterā with only a Fender Jaguar. The song is associated with the Underground Railroad.
The Staples Singers āIāll Take You Thereā was the number one hit in 1972 when this TV performance was filmed.