Directions and Influences - chapter 2

Lonnie Donnegan and Skiffle

Apart from playing through all the tunes in my Bert Weedon ‘Play in a day’ guitar book, I was thumpin’ away at Lonnie Donnegan’s ‘Ole Grand Coolie Dam’ and ‘My old man’s a dustman’. Skiffle was a kind of folkie version of Rockabilly but both had that raw driving rhythm that paid homage to all the blues and gospel that had inspired it. It was white boys gettin’ down and dirty and I loved it and later when I finally got to hear and discover the Blues... it all made sense.

NEXT: chapter 3 - Then Along Came Hendrix