Dobro Blues
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Dobro Blues is blues played on resonator guitars associated with the Dobro tradition, especially lap-style or slide-rich playing with bright sustain and country-blues attack. It overlaps with resonator blues but leans toward the singing, metallic, sustained side of slide tone that later connected blues to country, bluegrass, and Americana dobro styles.
History
Dobro-type resonator instruments entered American roots music in the late 1920s and 1930s as louder acoustic guitars that suited slide, Hawaiian-influenced lap playing, and country-blues performance. Tampa Red, Bukka White, Son House’s later resonator work, Josh Graves’s country dobro influence, Mike Auldridge’s roots expansions, Jerry Douglas’s blues-informed dobro vocabulary, and Taj Mahal’s revival work illustrate how blues feeling migrated through resonator technique across genre borders. Dobro Blues influenced country slide, bluegrass dobro, acoustic blues revival, and modern roots collaborations.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Bob Brozman, The History and Artistry of National Resonator Instruments
- Neil V. Rosenberg, Bluegrass: A History
- AllMusic
- The Blues Foundation