Artists & Bands

T-Bone Walker tunes

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The first electric guitar soloist!

Born to African-American and Native Indian parents in 1910, T-Bone Walker would become the first electric guitar soloist.

Often cited as the main influence of his peers, T-Bone was a great singer, dancer, showman, and most notably, electric guitarist.

Not just a great performer, T-Bone wrote some fantastic tunes in Call It Stormy Monday, Papa Ain’t Salty, and T-Bone Shuffle, just to name a few.

It was as early as 1929 when T-bone started to record, but as he says: “I’ve been doing it for a long time before that came around”.

Originally a dancer, T-bone practised along with the band in the breaks of his performance. Once he had developed his guitar skills well enough he took to the stage with the sweetest vocal you’d heard, blazing out solos with the guitar behind his back, whilst doing the splits!

This all happened in the 40s, a decade before the electric guitar was born in most people’s eyes.

Years before Fender produced their first electric guitar, T-bone played his Gibson ES-250 and literally changed the world of music.

Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad) & Papa Ain’t Salty

Released in 1947, (They) Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad) quickly became a blues standard. This is perhaps T-Bone’s best-known tune and has been covered by every blues artist who knows their history since.

The song is so important to the history of music that it’s difficult to grasp its monumental impact. For example, this is the song that inspired B.B. King to pick up the guitar.

Not as famous as Stormy Monday (but then what is?) Papa Ain’t Salty was co-written with Grover McDaniel. Released in 1955 it further added to T-Bone’s great repertoire.

This song had that sliding rhythm guitar riff on it which has been copied numerous times since.

Using the links below, you can learn how to play these two classic tunes.