GUITAR SHORTY 1
There has been more than one Blues player called Guitar Shorty, but something they have in common is a talent for showmanship. Jimi Hendrix‘s brother-in-law is still using that name over on the West-coast for his backflipping, flash-guitar stage act, and others may have used it too, but an older Bluesman with an similar ‘larger-than-life’ character took the name much earlier.
Shorty sings a hilarious duet with himself!
In June 1952, Shorty made some recordings for Savoy Records when he was billed as Hootin’ Owl: although ‘Love That Woman’ and ‘Wine Drinkin’ Baby’ were not issued at the time, they showed up on compilations many decades later. There is no evidence that he ever took his act on the road, but it is possible that he was the source of David Kennedy being known as ‘Guitar Shorty’, because the story goes that he showed up at a Florida club in 1956 and ‘Guitar Shorty’ was on the posters, so he adopted that name when he began performing over on the West-coast. The original Guitar Shorty got married and settled in Elm City NC, working during the tobacco season but mainly scraping a living with his guitar. In 1970, Blues fan Danny McClean recorded Shorty in his own front room and at a local radio station, resulting in the album ‘Carolina Slide-Guitar’. This showed the scope of Shorty’s abilities, with his stylish playing, his great original songs and his interpretation of classics like the Spiritual, ‘Jesus on the Main Line’ and a Blind Willie Johnson number. He told Danny he had played with Blind Willie, and with Blind Boy Fuller too, but he also claimed to have played with The Beatles and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. He was always full of tall stories and also liable to break in to an astonishing Elvis impersonation at any moment!

Guitar Shorty I Discography
Not to be confused with the West-coast ‘ball of energy’, this rather more laid-back character plays some superb Piedmont guitar and sings 10 of his own songs, and a superb version of Blind Willie Johnson’s ‘Near the Cross’.