Arnold Shultz

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Arnold Shultz ( February 1886 in Ohio County , Kentucky ; † April 1931 in Butler County , Kentucky), sometimes also written Schultz , was an American blues - and old-time musician . Shultz is credited with having a great influence on mandolinist Bill Monroe as well as developing the "thumb-style" on the guitar .

Life

Shultz was born in 1886 to a black laborer born into slavery . His father had taken the owner's last name. Shultz's entire family played stringed instruments and toured Ohio County as a musical group. Shultz learned to play the fiddle and around 1900 also the guitar from his uncle. However, his repertoire was not limited to blues, but also extended to old-time music, the music of the white rural population. Shultz's cousin remembered Shultz playing pieces like Wagoner and Old Hen Cackle on the fiddle.

Shultz lived primarily in Ohio County, where he met young Bill Monroe in Rosine in 1923 . Shultz worked as a miner in Rosine between 1923 and 1925 and lived in a small hut on the railway line. Monroe was a talented boy who just Mandolin had learned and guitar with his uncle Uncle Pen Vandiver on square dances played. Shultz made traditional Afro-American music, work songs and blues accessible to Monroe and influenced him with his guitar playing. As Monroe recalled, “ People loved Arnold so well all through Kentucky. If he was playing a guitar, they'd go gang up around him. “Monroe started performing with Shultz and accompanied him on guitar. The young Monroe and Shultz became friends quickly: “ I used to listen to him talk and he would tell us about the contests that he had been in and how tough they was ... I admired him that much that I never forgot alot of the things that he would say. "

One day - the exact date is not known - Shultz left Monroe's hometown on a train and traveled back home. He died in 1931. On his tombstone in Morgantown it is written: "He was famous for his guitar picking - dedicated to thumb picking and finger cording."

Arnold Shultz's life left some legends in addition to his legacy as a musician. He is said to have played on showboats that crossed the Green River ; he is said to have played with Louis Armstrong and at the end of his life he is said to have been poisoned by a jealous white musician. However, none of these statements have been substantiated.

influence

Although Shultz never recorded, he is considered an influential musician. In addition to Monroe, Shultz also influenced the guitarist Ike Everly, father of the Everly Brothers , as well as Mose Rager and through this Merle Travis , one of the most virtuoso guitarists in country music . Shultz developed a style with strong bass lines, simultaneous chord play and the plucking of a melody. Nowadays this style is mostly associated with guitarists Travis and Chet Atkins .

swell

  1. ^ Bill C. Malone: Stars of Country Music , pp. 208 f .; University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0252005279 .
  2. ^ A b Robert Cantrell: Bluegrass Breakdown: The Making of the Old Southern Sound
  3. ^ Robert Cantwell: Bluegrass Breakdown: The Making of the Old Southern Sound
  4. ^ African American Web Connection

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Shultz, Arnold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schultz, Arnold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American blues and old-time musician
DATE OF BIRTH February 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Ohio County, Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH April 1931
Place of death Butler County, Kentucky