The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army & Death Letter

This is a live performance from the Grammy Awards, don't know what year, haven't looked into that. They play their probably most recognizable song from their career "Seven Nation Army". The song was released as a single in 2003 and was the opening track for the band's album titled "Elephant". The song reached the tops of modern rock charts and also won a Grammy Award for best Rock Song in 2004.
The song is known for it's lower register toned bassy guitar riff. It is in fact a riff that sounds like a bass, but it's played on guitar. Jack uses his semi-acoustic 1950's style guitar and runs it through a Digitech Whammy Pedal that drops it one octave giving the sound it's bassy guitar riff.
The song is played in Open A tuning, and he uses slide on it which I think just sounds amazing.
Towards the middle of the performance there's a break and they start playing their version of the classic blues song "Death Letter". I really like this version and I love how agressive Jack's slide playing is, I really love it and you can hear the roots dating back to Son House. I earlier posted Son House's version of Death Letter CLICK HERE for that performance. It's a great performance from a great band.

Enjoy ; )

Rory Gallagher - Banker's Blues

This is a live performance by Rory Gallagher, doing an acoustic blues classic on his own. It's a solo performance, just Rory and his guitar, it's so fantastic what only a select few performers can do when they sit on their own and do an self accompanied acoustic blues performance. It's a tradition of the 1920's and 30's, and so many people today aren't able to do it. Very few people listen to the roots of the blues, and perform them as well as Gallagher did.
The song Banker's Blues was originally recorded by Big Bill Broonzy, a legendary player of the acoustic blues era of the 1930's. He's not as famous as Robert Johnson, but still quite known within the guitar playing community. And both Gallagher and Clapton have cited him as an influence on their playing styles.
The song is about women and how they'll steal your money, if you have them in the bank, a quite simple theme. The song follows the same chord structure as "Key to the Highway", but is still different. It's sort of like Son House's "Death Letter" sounds like "Rollin' and Tumblin'", but they are different songs.
It's a great song, and a great performance. I've embeded a version of the original recording beneath, the sound quality isn't good, and you can hear the needle scratching the record, but it's still good.


Enjoy ; )

Son House - Death Letter

This is an acoustic solo performance by legendary blues musician Son House. House isn't as widely known and famous as Robert Johnson who was also one of the old dogs when it comes to blues. Son House was born in 1902 and got to have a long life lasting to 1988 which meant he got to be around the greats and even influence some of them. Many people believe that House has influenced Johnson, in fact Johnson incorporated some of "Death Letter" into his own blues classic "Walking Blues". Son House, because of his old age, was also one of the people who helped spread the myth that Johnson had sold his soul to the devil in trade of his marvellous musical abilities.
The song Death Letter is about a man who learns about the death of the woman he loves in a letter. It is a very dark and depressive song, as the narrator views her dead body in the morgue and attends the funeral only to return home in a state of depression.
The song and Son House himself also gained some new notoriety in recent years due to Jack White being heavily influenced by him. The White Stripes has also covered Death Letter live on numerous occasions. It's a great song with a simple rhythm. One man and his guitar, that's what the blues is all about.

Enjoy ; )