There is no music history without Black History. That’s why we’re celebrating Black History Month by honoring some of the legendary artists who paved the way for acoustic guitar and shaped music as we know it today. While musicians like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and the Beatles are acknowledged as rock pioneers, their musical inspirations - African-American rock and blues artists - are all-too often left out of the conversation.
Black musicians created ragtime (which gave way to jazz), blues, and gospel music - the foundations for rock music. The banjo, a signature of American country music to this day, was created by enslaved Africans and their descendants. From Charlie Christian to Tobin Abasi, black guitarists have consistently redefined the music that we listen to. Over a period of time, it seems as though they became an exception rather than the rule when talking about guitar-based music.
In America, February is the month that we set aside to acknowledge the achievements and advancements of a large group of our population that have gone unnoticed in our past. It is my hope that we can use the next 28 days to celebrate their contribution to our lives in a positive way. Music as we know it today would not exist without Black artists.
Here are some of the legendary African American guitar players who have left an indelible mark on music history:
Pioneers of Blues and Folk
Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter
Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter was a talented multi-instrumentalist from childhood, having played several instruments, including accordion, bass, harmonica, and, of course, the guitar (both 6-string and 12-string). Living as a wanderer, Lead Belly learned songs through oral tradition. He spent most of his life in and out of prison, and along the way, he developed his musical style combining folk, blues, and gospel. One of his more famous tunes, “Midnight Special,” was actually a traditional prison song.
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Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter). Photo by photographer unknown. (Public Domain)
Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson’s Deal With The Devil Was Real? – And The Evidence Will Haunt You
Few figures in American musical history have inspired more mystique than Delta bluesman Robert Johnson. Born in Mississippi in 1911, not many details are known of Johnson’s early life. Ever thought about offering up your soul for unparalleled mastery of guitar? Well, Robert Johnson was the first to shake hands on that Faustian bargain, according to legend.
That is the origin for his iconic 1936 song “Crossroads,” where he proclaimed he met the shadowy figure. Johnson perfected a method of sounding like two guitar players at once. He played rhythm on the lower strings and melodies on the higher strings, while singing. He pioneered the boogie bass pattern, which was later used by artists like Chuck Berry.
Johnson has been described as “an orchestra all by himself” (by Richards). Most famously, the lore around Johnson is that he “sold his soul to the devil” at a crossroads in exchange for legendary talent, a story he recounted in his song “Crossroads”. The final legend that Johnson left behind in his mysteriously short life was his discography. He recorded around 30 discrete tracks, including “Come On In My Kitchen,” “Ramblin’ On My Mind,” “Hell Hound On My Trail,” and, of course, “Cross Road Blues.” He died at the age of 27. He was known as the King of Delta Blues, and Eric Clapton even labelled him as “the most important blues singer that ever lived” due to his iconic riffs, otherworldly playing, and hauntingly beautiful voice. Though his legacy is shrouded in mystery, his influence on acoustic guitar is crystal clear.
Elizabeth Cotten
There are no rules in guitar - just ask Elizabeth Cotten, who became one of the most well-remembered folk musicians while playing her guitar completely upside-down. Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten, born in North Carolina in 1895, was a master of American folk music, although didn’t record her first album until she was 62 - more than half a century after she taught herself to play guitar and banjo.
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As a lefty, she played a standard right-handed guitar and flipped it to play comfortably without rearranging the strings. She would secretly borrow her brother’s instruments when she could, flipping them to play left-handed. Though Cotten began playing music by 7 years old and writing songs by 8, she gave up guitar in her teenage years to focus on her family and church. It was not until her 60s that she was rediscovered as a talented musician.
Cotten created a unique style of playing - simultaneously plucking the bass line while playing the melody on the higher strings. The technique later became known as “Cotten style”. She recorded the songs she had written in her childhood in her home. After the first album was released, she began playing concerts at acclaimed venues like the Newport Folk Festival, and won a Grammy in 1985 for Best Traditional Folk Recording. Cotten’s music - including her song “Freight Train”, which she wrote before her teenage years, was beloved by the folk revival moment in the 1960s, and she toured and performed up until her death in 1987.
Odetta Holmes
Speaking of Odetta Holmes, she had a vast legacy of her own. Her music was filled with unrivalled passion, as she transformed spirituals with her unique combination of folk and jazz. Her career began in New York City nightclubs, but she quickly blazed her own trail in the world of folk. She released two solo albums in 1957, and her 1963 release, Odetta Sings Folk Songs, was one of the best-selling folk albums of that year.
While Odetta was known for her music, her impact spread beyond and into the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. One of her most iconic performances was in 1963 at the March on Washington, where she performed “O Freedom.” Though she believed her role in the movement was very small - like “one of the privates in a very big army” - Martin Luther King Jr.
Country and Rock Pioneers
Charley Pride
It’s impossible to imagine modern country music without the foundation of Charley Pride. Known for his warm, baritone voice and relatable storytelling, Pride captured the heart of Americana, pairing catchy chord progressions with reflections on love and loss. Born on a cotton farm in Sledge, Mississippi, Pride bought a Sears guitar for himself and learned to play by just listening to the country radio.
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After singing to the iconic RCA Records and releasing his first single in 1965, the label first tried to obscure Pride’s race - intentionally leaving his photos out of press materials. Even after his breakout single “Just Between You and Me” was nominated for a Grammy in 1967, radio DJs refused to play the song after learning he was Black. Music industry gatekeepers’ racism notwithstanding, Pride’s popularity continued to skyrocket.
That same year, he became the first Black singer to perform at the Grand Ole Opry since DeFord Bailey in 1941, and in 1971, Pride released one of country music’s biggest hits: Kiss an Angel Good Mornin. For many years after, Pride was the best-selling act for RCA Records, second only to Elvis Presley in sales.
Richie Havens
Richie Havens paved the way for the future of folk music, introducing soul to the acoustic guitar. A Brooklyn-native, Havens started as a guitarist playing live at the Greenwich Village Folk Clubs in the mid-’60s. His unconventional open tuning and unique playing, combining intense percussive strumming with a fast-paced thumb-fretting technique, quickly made him a standout performer.
Following the success of Woodstock, Havens started his own record label, Stormy Forest, and released 5 albums, including a Billboard chart-topping cover of George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun.” In 2003, the guitarist was awarded the American Eagle Award by the National Music Council to commemorate his place in the nation’s musical heritage.
Linda Martell
“I want to sing.” Those words - spoken to her record producer, Shelby Singleton Jr. -were the words that started Linda Martell’s career. Though Black contributions to music were the foundation for ‘60s country music, artists like Martell often found difficulties trying to make their way into the scene. Though she only released one album - Color Me Country - her music caught fire.
Her first release, “Color Him Father,” was a Top 25 country hit, and the second, “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” hit number 33 on the Billboard charts. She also had her fair share of appearances at country staple events, including a song on the television show Hee Haw and a performance as the first Black woman at the Grand Ole Opry.
Despite her success, her career was cut short due to the abuse of power she felt Singleton and the rest of the industry had over her. From her stage name to her recording rights, Martell’s career was out of her control, and so she left the industry after just one album.
Chuck Berry
With songs like “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Johnny B. Goode”, Chuck Berry earned the nickname “Father of Rock and Roll”. His lyrics spoke to a generation of teens in a way that hadn’t been done before - “He lit up our teenage years, and blew life into our dreams of being musicians and performers,” tweeted Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.
Berry pioneered rock star swagger before the term “rock star” was a thing, with his signature “duck walk”, punchy solos, and signature guitar (a hollow body Gibson ES-350T).
Freddie King
Blues legend Freddie King combined Texas and Chicago blues styles - from Texas, the open string style, and from Chicago, the bellowing tones he used. He incorporated both thumb and fingerpicking in his style. A singer who often recorded instrumental tracks, King’s playing often included vocal nuances, as if the guitar was doing the singing.
King provided inspiration for generations of blues and rock guitarists, including Mick Taylor, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Lonnie Mack.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
With a powerhouse voice and innovative electric guitar solos, Sister Rosetta Tharpe blazed a trail for rock music in the 1930s and 1940s. Sometimes called the “Godmother of rock and roll”, Tharpe was one of the original great recording stars of gospel music, and one of the first recording artists to use distortion on her guitar. She was born in Arkansas in 1915 and started performing gospel music with her mother at age six.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe playing guitar. (Public Domain)
B.B. King
Known as the “King of the Blues” B.B. King is acknowledged as one of the most influential blues guitarists of all time. Riley B. King grew up singing in the gospel choir in his Mississippi hometown. The minister there played guitar during services, and taught King his first three chords. King bought his first guitar for $15, a month of his salary at that time.
He joined a gospel group to play at area churches before following Delta blues musician Bukka White to Memphis for nearly a year. King’s nickname “B.B.” came from his nickname at a radio station, where he was a DJ and singer - “Beale Street Blues Boy”, shortened to “Blues Boy” and later, “B.B.”. He was a fixture of the Beale Street blues scene by the late 1940s and 1950s, playing in a group called The Beale Streeters.
With his band, The B.B. King became one of the biggest names in R&B in the 1950s with hits like “3 O’Clock Blues”, “You Know I Love You”, and “Every Day I Have the Blues”. King prioritized quality over quantity in his playing, using his expressive phrasing to give his guitar a voice. “When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille,” King famously said.
He utilized a style that became known as the “B.B. Box”, using a pentatonic minor shape down the neck of the guitar and focusing on ⅘ notes. King was one of the biggest influences for a crop of young musicians in the United Kingdom, including Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin.
Jimi Hendrix
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named Jimi Hendrix the “greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music”. Rather than using standard barre chords, Hendrix fretted notes on the 6th string with his thumb. The technique let him to sustain the chord’s root notes while playing the melody, a method sometimes called “piano style”.
Hendrix influenced many great artists who came after him, including Prince, John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Robert Smith of The Cure, Black Sabbath , A Tribe Called Quest, Run-DMC, and Halsey. The Greenwich Village studio he commissioned, Electric Lady Studios, has been used by artists like U2, Kanye West, and Lady Gaga.
Hendrix received many awards throughout his life and posthumously, including 1968’s “Performer of the Year” by Rolling Stone and was ranked #1 on the same publication’s list of greatest guitarists of all time.
"Jimi Hendrix 1967-cropped waist" by A. (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Prince
Prince Rogers Nelson possibly led the most innovative musical career of the century, beginning with his debut album - which, at 19, he was able to produce himself through an almost unprecedented clause in his Warner Brothers contract. With complete creative control, Prince pioneered the “Minneapolis sound”, which is a genre of funk rock with synth-pop and new wave elements.
His music spanned funk, R&B, rock, new wave, soul, synth-pop, pop, jazz, blues, and hip hop. Prince’s sixth album, Purple Rain, was also the soundtrack to the film of the same title, which he also starred in. Prince struggled against Warner Brothers to protect his artistic vision over the years, during which he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol. After his contract ended in 2000, he went back to his old name and was one of the first artists to put his music out online.
Modern Innovators
Labi Siffre
If you haven’t heard of Labi Siffre yet, we can guarantee you’ve heard his music. A British singer-songwriter, poet, and activist, Siffre’s music has been sampled by some of the biggest names in music - including Kanye West, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Miguel, and JAY-Z. Known for his lush finger-picked guitar and poeticism, Siffre released a number of albums in the 1970s before taking an almost decade-long musical hiatus.
In 1985, Siffre quietly released “(Something Inside) So Strong” in protest to the South African Apartheid. The song became his biggest hit and introduced Siffre to a new generation of listeners.
Tracy Chapman
One of the most iconic guitar players of all time, Tracy Chapman needs no introduction. When she burst on the scene, the 1980s were dominated by glam, synth, and electronics. Chapman’s music demonstrated the power in minimalism, pairing her ethereal guitar strumming with sparse instrumentalism. Born in Cleveland, Chapman made art out of the working class struggle, telling stories of community, feminism, family, and oppression.
Her first single, “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution,'' would go on to be one of the most compelling protest songs of all time. Now, over thirty years since her 1989 self-titled debut album, Chapman’s music is still as emotionally resonant as ever.
Yola
Yolanda Quartey, known professionally as Yola, is the reigning queen of country soul. Her genre-bending 2019 breakthrough album, Walk Through Fire, incorporates twang, orchestral strings, and baroque rock for a stunning debut. Her guitar playing, rhythmic and energetic, remains the center-piece of the record, letting each song take shape differently.
Whether she’s drawing inspiration from the bluegrass of Appalachia, Motown-infused Detroit, or the trip-hop of her hometown in Bristol, Yola is ultimately a country artist that dares to explore all the different paths of the genre.
Other Notable African Guitar Players
Here are some other notable African guitar players:
- Barthelemy Attisso - lead guitarist of Orchestre Baobab, of Senegal.
- Alick Macheso - lead guitarist of Ochestra Mberikwazvo, of Zimbabwe.
- Oliver De Coque - Ogene Sound Super of Africa
- Mamadou Diop (also known as Modou Diop) - Senegalese rhythm guitarist, now based in the United States of America
- Afel Bocoum - Malian guitarist, Ali Farka Touré's noted protégé
- Henri Bowane - A figure in the development of Congo rumba, early mentor to Franco.
- Diblo Dibala - a Congolese soukous musician, known as "Machine Gun" for his speed and skill on the guitar.
- Nico Kasanda (aka "Dr. Nico")
- Jean-Bosco Mwenda - Pioneer of African fingerstyle in 1950s, Congo.
This list is by no means comprehensive. There are countless other Black artists - acoustic and beyond - that have revolutionized music and shaped it into what we hear today. We encourage you to delve deeper into the history of these musicians and their influence on the industry as a whole.
