My departed friend, and supreme acoustic and electric guitarist, David Moore, found great satisfaction in deeply studying the nuances of a certain blues guitarist, and once he resolute in devoting himself to the scholarship regarding that artist, there was no stopping him.  Moore didn’t take a “10,000-foot view” approach of the blues guitarist and then slothfully attempt an interpretation of their music; no, he completely immersed himself into their methodology and ensured, through all resources available, that he fully understood their techniques and subtleties.  And in the end, he always conquered in learning and ingraining their exclusive styles.

Inevitably, I would receive a message from Moore asking if I had a specific song in my collection by a particular blues guitarist, or perhaps whole CDs, albums, or cassettes, and if I did, could I then provide him copies of them.  Many a package was dispatched to his home in Goshen, Indiana containing recordings of those blues guitarists that were front-of-mind to him.  When Moore set his mind upon tackling the blues of whoever was of interest to him, without doubt, he would nobly succeed.

Such as it was when Moore relayed to me that he was interested in the blues song “Guitar Rag” by Sylvester Weaver.  Long a favorite of mine, Weaver’s hypnotic tune became a bona fide blues classic, and definitely one of my favorite country blues offerings.  As was always the case, I pulled the cut from my vast blues collection and shipped a copy to Moore.  The next time I saw him, he performed the song at a show, and my jaw, as was constantly the case with his abilities, dropped.  This was no mere homage version of this complicated blues instrumental; no, Moore thoroughly captured all the textures and intricacies of the tune.  It is a very moving song with its haunting lilt, and I was wholly moved by Moore’s reading of this traditional blues song.

But Sylvester Weaver remains largely unknown to most blues fans, except those who have taken a scholarly deep-dive into the music.  Exactly who was he?  Why is he considered a pioneer of country blues slide guitar?

Details surrounding Weaver’s life are not voluminous, but due to his amazing talent, an attempt needs to be made to describe his life.

Sylvester Weaver came into the world in 1897, having been born to Walter Weaver and Mattie Weaver in Port Gibson, Mississippi, a location in the Claiborne County in the lower western part of the state.  Gibson, like much of the U.S. south at that period, was heavily invested in agriculture. 

Walter Weaver eventually moved his family north to Louisville, Kentucky, though the fertile Mississippi background Sylvester Weaver experienced, including its music conventions, no doubt influenced his later professional musical pursuits, becoming the very underpinning of the blues variety he adopted and flourished within.

This is where the holes in Weaver’s background rear their heads.  Very little is known about the first 30 years or so of his life (outside of his musical achievements), his early influences, and initial musical experiences.  It is known that Weaver lived and worked in an area in Louisville known as Smoketown, as did his parents, an area southeast of downtown Louisville that had historically been a Black enclave since the Civil War.  It is said that he worked various manual labor jobs, including being a porter, a packer, a janitor in an apartment building, and also a chauffeur.  During this period up to 1930, these jobs supported Weaver as he pursued his blues music career.  However, specific points related to his blues guitar development and any teachers or influences seems unknown.

What is known is that in 1923, most likely in October, Weaver traveled to New York City and recorded two cuts with Sara Martin, a blues singer who carried the moniker “The Famous Moanin’ Mama.”  By this time, however he learned, Weaver was most accomplished as a blues guitarist.  It is important to recognize that the Louisville area was a very rich musical locale, and was especially noteworthy for the prevalence of top-notch jug bands in the vicinity.  It is obviously not known if Weaver gleaned any knowledge and/or experience with any of the area’s jug bands.

A week or so after the Sara Martin recording session, Weaver returned to New York and laid-down two solo blues guitar instruments that were released on the Okeh label, “Guitar Blues” and “Guitar Rag.”  These blues cuts are considered the first recorded blues guitar instrumentals, and perhaps the first recorded country blues, as well.  It must be noted that Sara Martin also again recorded at this session using Weaver’s solo guitar backing.  As an aside, the great Bob Wills and his band, the Texas Playboys, released their own version of “Guitar Rag” in the 1930s to high acclaim.  It has gone on to be a country music standard.

For his two solo recordings, Weaver utilized his singular slide guitar technique where he deployed a knife blade upon his guitar’s strings.  His blues slide guitar form held grand sway upon aspiring blues slide guitar practitioners.

Weaver went on to record roughly 50 more songs, some 20 or so with Sara Martin, and others with Helen Humes, Sally Roberts, and with violinist E.L. Coleman.  During this period, Weaver showed he was a capable vocalist, and presented it to fine effect on “True Love Blues.”

Also, during this timeframe, Weaver got together with Walter Beasley and recorded with him, with each bluesman singing on each other’s recordings.  The duo produced and recorded a tremendous duet entitled “Bottleneck Blues”, a blues instrumental hailing from 1927. 

What hasn’t been relayed so far was just how proficient Weaver also was on the banjo, and this aspect of his musical skill set, as important as it is, often gets minimal reference due to his broad blues slide guitar capabilities and influence.  During his later recording years, he did record using the banjo. 

An astonishing thing happened in 1927 regarding Weaver and his blues career.  He simply retired from the music business, and never again performed in public.  He all but seemed to give up blues music entirely. 

It is chronicled that in 1938 Weaver was again living with his parents, but by 1949, he and his wife, Dorothy, were living in the Cherokee Park section of Louisville.  Virtually nothing is known about Weaver’s latter-period avocations.

Weaver passed away in 1960 from the consequences of tongue cancer.  Though the 1950s certainly saw a resurgence of interest of the blues, Weaver died essentially an unknown.

Thinking of Weaver and his blues, it is reasonable to consider his massive influence on slide guitarists from Elmore James to blues-rock champion George Thorogood, as examples.  When Weaver slid that knife across those guitar strings and recorded the first country slide guitar instrumental, he opened the door to an art form that remains vital to this day.

Hearing my friend David Moore not only play Weaver’s “Guitar Rag”, but also record it on one of The Moore Brothers Band CDs, cast veils of irony over me.  Here was this highly-talented blues guitarist in northcentral Indiana, roughly 90 years after the song’s initial recording, so coveting Weaver’s composition that he devoted many hours to learning it, recording it, and also performing it live (as I saw him do numerous times).

Such was Sylvester Weaver’s considerable stimulus upon not only the blues world, but the music world, in total.