Guitar Weaver of the Chicago Blues: Eddie Kirkland
In Keith Richards' " Life ," he offers much incisive musical commentary, especially about the blues. He definitely studied it at great length, but not like many British blues buffs… his reading is from a totally practical perspective. "Life" discusses "the magic art of guitar weaving" [p.145]. What he describes is his and Brian Jones' emersion in the Chicago Blues music of Jimmy Reed. That music in its best form was underpinned elegantly by the second guitar of Eddie "Don't Call Me Little" Taylor. It is very hard to discern the two guitar lines. But that is what Richards and Jones studied. They studied it carefully – in its simplicity and monotony – and focused on the two-guitar set-up, and the subtle, though 'primitive', interplay thereof. The basic blues guitar and the rock lead and rhythm guitar duo are pretty well known. It is killing what passes for blues these days as it uncreatively recreates itself years after the fact...