Acoustic blues played on a 12-string guitar has a unique and full sound. A solo artist can do some amazing things with it that can\u2019t be matched by a six- string guitar.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt goes both ways. There are some things that would sound silly on a six-string, but there are other things with a lot of notes that would sound muddy on a twelve-string,\u201d says Todd Albright.<\/p>\n
Todd Albright is in concert, 8 p.m. May 16, Godfrey Daniels, Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
Albright is one of the few performers who plays classic pre-World War II country blues on an acoustic guitar, playing bass and melody notes simultaneously, sometimes using a slide, and always finger-picking.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody flat-picked back then. That became popular as Gibson released twelve-string models in the sixties,\u201d Albright says in a phone interview from his home in Detroit, Mich.<\/p>\n
Albright plays and sings songs by 12-string guitarists, including Blind Willie McTell and Barbecue Bob, who made records in Atlanta in the 1920s.<\/p>\n
Although they were rare in other areas of the United States, a number of 12-string players recorded in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
Albright adapts the songs of classic blues men for his guitars. He doesn\u2019t stray from the tradition, but adds a bit of his own style. \u201cI don\u2019t do it note for note. What fun would that be?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was always a small audience for the country blues, and solo guitar was out of style when they were recorded. But it was cheaper to hire one guy with a guitar than to conduct a 26-piece band with a lady singer.\u201d Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, and other female vocalists were at the height of popularity.<\/p>\n
As with many blues players, Albright was inspired by the recordings of Robert Johnson. Albright began to play guitar at age 14.<\/p>\n
Albright\u2019s album, \u201cBlues for Dexter Linwood,\u201d was released in April on his own label. Dexter Linwood is an area of Detroit, not a blues artist.<\/p>\n
The album was recorded in monaural, with occasional accompaniment by producer Charlie Parr on slide guitar and Dave Hundrieser on harmonica.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was done the way they did it in the twenties and thirties. If they made a mistake, they started over. There was no editing,\u201d Albright says.<\/p>\n
Albright was asked to record an album on Jack White\u2019s Third Man Records. \u201cDetroit Twelve String: Blues & Rags\u201d was released on that label in 2017.<\/p>\n
Albright was heard by White at a bookstore, where Albright played in between poets who were doing readings.<\/p>\n
Albright, who does not own a six-string guitar, brings two guitars with him on the road. One is in open tuning. He uses four or five different tunings on the other 12-string guitar during a concert, talking to the audience in between songs and explaining the history of the songs he performs.<\/p>\n
Albright has appeared yearly at Godfrey Daniels since he first appeared there in 2015 with Roy Bookbinder. Albright took a year off during the pandemic. He calls Godfrey\u2019s his \u201cfavorite club in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is super cozy. The people that run it are great. And the sound is magnificent. It is like one of the coffeehouses that opened in the sixties and never changed. They only sell one thing: good, honest music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to play similar folk rooms. I don\u2019t have to compete with the television or the bartender. And festivals are hot and the sound is bad,\u201d Albright says.<\/p>\n
Albright has done concerts in the past year with Arthur Terembula, who is from Allentown. Terembula, who will open the Godfrey\u2019s concert, is a student of country blues and ragtime guitar.<\/p>\n
Todd Albright, Arthur Terembula, 8 p.m. May 16, Godfrey Daniels, 7 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem. Tickets: 610-867-2390, https:\/\/godfreydaniels.org\/<\/p>\n
PHOTO BY AGNES FISCHERTodd Albright<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Acoustic blues played on a 12-string guitar has a unique and full sound. A solo artist can do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-194136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}