Arthur Blake (aka Blind Blake) remains one of the blues’ most gifted songsters, yet so little, after all these years, continues to be known about his life and times.  What is known, however, is that Blake’s legacy as one of the blues’ most unique and broadly-skilled guitarists of all-time is firmly cemented via his recorded legacy.

Blake hailed from Jacksonville, FL, and was blind from birth.  Not even Blake’s date of birth is concretely established, though some outlets suggest 1896 (the same outlets suggest the year of death as 1934).  The reality is that within the blues, he remains something of a cipher due to the limited information about his life and times.   

Musicologists consider Blake something of an oddity inasmuch he was not indebted to a single musical type.  In this writer’s opinion, therein lies the ability of the listener of Blake’s music to thoroughly enjoy the experience; its wide-ranging diversity.

Blake first recorded for the famed Paramount label in 1926, and over the course of the next six years, he cut 79 tunes.  His first hit for the label was, oddly enough, an instrumental, which at the time, was a singularity, as most blues hits at the time included vocals that told a story, usually some form of lamentation about life’s condition.

Blake exercised a complex, sophisticated picking style, which granted him the capability to not rely on fixed accompaniments.  Rather, his approach was one of rhythm, melody, and chordal structure.  Elements of jazz and ragtime permeate Blake’s efforts, demonstrated by his sense of phrasing.  Blake’s methodology did not conform to any strictly bonded fashion. 

To the previous point directly above, Blake was particularly improvisational in his song constructions and guitar tactics.  Due to the adventuresome slants to his music-making, Blake served-up some of the most complex guitar picking ever heard.  

Furthering the point immediately above, Blake, unlike other blues musicians who may find comfort in creating music in a couple or three keys at most, was known to play in the keys of open D, dropped D, A, C, and G.  And this only makes sense given the varieties of musical styles he was creating and performing; blues, ragtime, pop odes, vaudeville-esque tunes, and even jazz, whether within a solo context, with another singer, in a band setting, or perhaps with only a piano accompanist.  Interestingly, though, Blake is not known to have recorded or performed any gospel tunes. 

Blake was not one to be held to a strict blues or other genre structure; rather, he was well-known for deploying a mixed structure tactic within a single song.  Certainly, he was adept playing in a stringent 12-bar blues structure, but, he was not bound to the relative safety of such a line of attack.  Blake was proficient in 8-, 12-, and 16-bar arrangements in his desire to provide more complicated harmonies within his tunes. 

Blake’s guitar work, notwithstanding the varied genres he made music within, has a fluidity that is remarkably uniform.  His competence within diverging frameworks is startling in its eminent qualities.  At times when listening to Blake’s music, one may detect the rhythmic cadences of a piano player, though certainly that is too narrow a comparison to closely attach to his guitar playing. 

Within his recordings, Blake was obviously at ease playing within an ensemble format, as he implemented a more basic approach to tally within the group format.  When playing with only piano accompaniment, Blake would seemingly adjust his playing to the resonance of the piano by thrumming his guitar instead of utilizing his remarkable singe-string capabilities.  And when working in a jazz, vaudeville, or even a Dixieland configuration, Blake would bring forth the accents and rhythms inherently found in small bands of these genres. 

Blake’s vocal competences held, akin to his guitar knowhow, the distinctive abilities to adjust in style, delivery, and feel to the genre presented, and the over-arching message of the tune.  Upbeat, joyful, mournful, melancholy, or somewhere amongst these moods, Blake’s voice could ideally match the desired temperament needed to convey the story at-hand.  

Probably the best introduction to Blake’s music is via the 23-track CD entitled Blind Blake – Ragtime Guitar’s Foremost Fingerpicker, a compilation found on the Yazoo label.  This excellent collection with good sound quality contains ten blues and 13 merged structure selections, displaying well Blake’s versatility; the listener will find a generous, wide-ranging overview of Blake’s broadly-based proficiencies.  With some detective work, this CD should be able to be found, and if not, other generous compilations of Blake’s work are to be had.  Certainly, a source such as Amazon.com or discogs.com can ease the process of unearthing Blake’s phenomenal recorded harvest. 

If your personal blues collection does not include any Blind Blake, now may be the time to consider a strategic acquisition that serves as an overview of his stunning work.  Due to its repeatedly varied nature, the experience of listening to Blake is never tiring.  Rather, it is refreshing due to the breadth of styles adopted.  Your blues collection will gain some measure of immediate respectability by having Blind Blake’s work included.  Seek it out today!