They met when a lost generation of great American blues guitarists discovered an enthusiastic fanbase in Britain during the 60s, reviving their music and their fortunes in a new land. If you send me a couple of hundred dollars for the postage and you can have my old guitar’"īooker White was one of the great Delta blues guitarists, who wrote songs such as Fixin’ To Die Blues, later covered by Bob Dylan, and Po’ Boy that powerfully evoke the hard lives and soul-piercing musicality of black bluesmen in America’s Deep South during the 1930s.īy contrast, Keith Perry was a press photographer from Newcastle - where he continues to live and work today. "He said, ‘Look, you’ve sent me tapes, you’ve been a friend. This was not the result of some reluctant sale, but a remarkable gift made in honour of the unlikely friendship between these two men from vastly different backgrounds.
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They were written to Newcastle photographer Keith Perry, who has carefully preserved the letter to this day.Īnd little wonder, because Booker sent the note to confirm that his guitar, a 1933 National Duolian resonator that he affectionately called ‘Hard Rock’, had arrived at Keith’s home. The words are those of Booker ‘Bukka’ White, the legendary Delta bluesman whose slide playing inspired the young BB King to take up guitar. Have a nice time in music and thanks a whole lot and let me continue to hear from you and Hard Rock.” I will be looking to hear from you and I will know if you got the guitar.
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“You will have to tune it up, as I had to tune it down to send it. Most of all, I hope you have received the guitar by now and I hope you will like and enjoy it,” the letter read. “Mr Keith Perry, I am fine and hope you are. Its contents may be brief, but mark an extraordinary moment.
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The letter, written in a flowing hand on fading yellow notepaper, is dated. How did a guitar owned by Booker White, one of history’s most influential bluesmen and an early inspiration to BB King, come to rest thousands of miles away in the North East of England? We meet its current guardian, photographer Keith Perry, to find out how an unlikely friendship carried this iconic instrument all the way from Memphis to Newcastle. (Image credit: Joe Branston/Future) The story