| Candyman | Rev. Gary Davis |
| Creole Belle | Mississippi John Hurt |
| Wildwood Flower | The Carter Family--A. P., Sara and Maybelle |
| Cocaine Blues | Rev. Gary Davis arr. of trad. song |
| Glory of Love | Billy Hill, arr. Big Bill Broonzey, learned from Big Bill Archie |
| Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out | Jimmy Cox |
| Abilene | George Hamilton IV |
| Salty Dog | Traditional |
| You Are My Sunshine | Jimmy Davis |
| Sportin' Life | Brownie McGhee |
| Stealin' | The Memphis Jug Band, 1928 |
| Baby, It Must Be Love | Blind Willie McTell, arr. Roy Book Binder |
| Travelin' Man | Traditional?, after Pink Anderson, arr. Roy Book Binder |
| Weeping Willow | Blind Boy Fuller?, after Pink Anderson, arr. Roy Book Binder |
| Cincinnati Flow Rag | arr. Roy Book Binder after Rev. Gary Davis |
| That'll Never Happen No More | (Blind Blake, arr. Roy Book Binder |
| Mississippi River Blues (1) | Willie Brown, arr. Roy Book Binder |
| Bugaloo Down La Rue | Unknown--probably from Kicking Mule |
| Kicking Mule Mystery | Unknown--probably from Kicking Mule |
| Last Steam Engine Train | John Fahey |
| Chattanooga Choo Choo | Mack Gordon and Harry Warren, arr. Dale Miller |
| Mississippi River Blues (2) | Big Bill Broonzey |
| Hey Hey | Big Bill Broonzey |
| Saturday Night Rub | Big Bill Broonzey |
| Baby Let Me Lay It On You | Rev. Gary Davis |
| Mr. Crump Don't Like It | after Frank Stokes, arr. Steve James |
| Dropped D Blues | Steve James |
| Slow as Lightnin' | after Lightnin' Hopkins, arr. Steve James |
| Pistol Slapper Blues | Blind Boy Fuller |
| Jivin' Woman Blues | Blind Boy Fuller |
| Nothing in Rambling | after Memphis Minnie, arr. Del Rey |
| Bye Bye Baby | "Little Hat" Jones, arr. Steve James |
| Blind Blake's Rag | after Blind Blake, arr. Joe Cainen |
| Long Tall Mama | Big Bill Broonzey |
| Devil's Dream | Rev. Gary Davis |
| Sally, Where'd You Get Your Liquor From | Rev. Gary Davis, arr. Steve J. McWilliam |
| Slow Blues in C | Stefan Grossman |
| Trouble in Mind | Big Bill Broonzey |
I first started playing guitar in the Fall of 1965, using the 12-string of my roommate, Bill Sussman. I struggled to learn a lot of good songs from my dormmate, the Legendary Bill Archie--at least legendary to me--who introduced me to this style of playing. My next big influence was Roy Book Binder, whom I saw at a festival at Fox Hollow in the early 70s. Watching him play made me think, "I could maybe sort of learn to play those songs like that". So I bought his album and learned a half-dozen tunes which were more complex than any I'd played before. I got various instruction books with tablature from Kicking Mule, and learned some more good tunes from those. Through the years I have always greatly benefited in many ways from sessions with Ellen Schmidt--singer, songwriter, and friend. I went through a long stretch of playing only off and on, and not learning much new. In December of '04, I started playing again regularly, and have played one, two, or three hours a day since then every day I could. I got new tunes off the internet--a great source now--and from instruction DVDs by Stefan Grossman, Del Ray, Steve James, Ari Eisinger, Ernie Hawkins, and Woody Mann.
The style I play is called "fingerstyle", and the tunes are generally from the genre which is called "country blues"--from players from the 20s, 30s, 40s, and later--Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, Big Bill Broonzey, Mississippi John Hurt, Gary Davis and others. A great place to hear this music now is on internet radio at www.weeniecampbell.com. The instrument I play now is a Martin Backpacker guitar--a small travel guitar. I've enlarged the sound hole so that it takes a cut-down guitar pickup. I've recorded all of these tunes on my laptop computer, with a small pre-amp between the pickup and the PC. These songs are approximately in the order in which I started to play them. Developing the skills to make this CD has been a lot of fun, but I'm afraid the process is ongoing--the subtitle of this CD is "Muffs and All". But I hope you enjoy it.
Cover photo by Cheryl Benson
Lance Benson, 2006