Clive Sheard-Blues

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In his own words "During the folk revival of the mid to late nineteen sixties there was a BBC television programme on Country Blues guitar styles, and from that moment onwards I was hooked. The traditional and contemporary folk music that I had been playing was no longer my dream; a blues guitar player was all I ever really wanted to be. I can remember tuning in with my brother on Sunday mornings and struggling with stripped down versions of songs by Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt and Big Bill Broonzy. Davis' "Candy Man" and Hurt's "Creole Belle" are still in my repertoire today, albeit more complex arrangements.

I saved frantically for my first steel strung 12 string guitar and I can't remember if it cost £18-17s-6d or £17-18s-6d but either way I was robbed. The Piedmont guitar styles and the songs from people like Blind Boy Fuller and Blind Willie McTell, or the Texas and Louisiana guitar styles of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly and Mance Lipscomb still provide endless hours of enjoyment and challenge for me. I made a particular study of how Leadbelly and McTell exploited the power and richness of the 12 string guitar. After performances people often say "that's a wonderful sounding guitar". When I ask which guitar they mean, they invariably point to the big low tuned 12 string."