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Review #27: Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations by Steve James

January 27, 2026 by joemcmurray Leave a Comment

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Is this one of the best or worst method or repertoire books for learning to play acoustic fingerstyle blues guitar?

You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations by Steve James is a hybrid repertoire/method book for learning to play fingerstyle and bottleneck blues. This book is suitable for late beginner to advanced fingerstyle players but is best for intermediate players. I would definitely not recommend this book for complete beginners – it starts out too hard for inexperienced fingerstyle players. The book offers some technical advice as well as fun historical anecdotes and quotes.

There are a bunch of fingerstyle blues books on the market, and I would generally not recommend this book over some of the others. On the positive side of things, this book excels in its material focused on open tunings and bottleneck slide. If you watch the included videos, you’ll see that the author is an incredible bottleneck slide player, and that is reflected in these chapters. On the other hand, I do not like multiple things about this book.

The difficulty progression isn’t very smooth – the book starts out with some difficult (late beginner/intermediate) tunes, and then the difficulty varies from tune to tune. Part of this is because the open tuning arrangements (starting in the middle of the book) are a bit easier to play.
There aren’t a lot of exercises. There are some, but this is more of a repertoire book with analysis and technical advice in the text.
I’m not a fan of the way that Acoustic Guitar Magazine lays out their books. They don’t integrate their text and playing examples. Instead of text that prepares you for an example, then the example, then more text, then the next example, etc., they usually have the text in a big block, and that text will refer you to the examples which are together in another block. It requires more jumping back and forth for the reader. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s not my favorite.

Late-beginner fingerstyle players could utilize Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations as a supplement to a traditional method book:

A general fingerstyle method like Alfred’s “Beginning Fingerstyle Guitar,” or
A more focused method like Bruce Emery’s “Travis-Style Guitar from Scratch.”

Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations provides both treble clef and tablature for each arrangement. Neither fretting nor picking hand fingering is provided in the music, but it is sometimes mentioned in the separate text. You can usually tell which notes should be played with your thumb by looking at the treble clef – bass notes generally have down stems. Regardless, the skill of choosing sensible fingering is important, and you will need to look elsewhere to further develop this skill.

Videos demonstrating the examples are available online. These are great. For me, it was especially helpful while working through the bottleneck slide chapter.

Produced by String Letter Media in association with the Acoustic Guitar Magazine.

My own books:

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)]. The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook. Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar.

My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.

Review #23: Fingerstyle Blues Songbook by Steve James

November 6, 2025 by joemcmurray Leave a Comment

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Is this one of the best or worst repertoire books for learning to play acoustic fingerstyle blues guitar?

You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

Steve James’ Fingerstyle Blues Songbook is a repertoire book drawing from various substyles of fingerstyle blues (general old time country blues, Delta blues, ragtime blues, Texas blues, and bottleneck blues). Most of the tunes are suitable for late-beginner and intermediate fingerstyle players, although advanced players will certainly enjoy the tunes as well. The music in this book may sound “old-timey” (much of it comes from the 1920s and 30s), but it is really fun to play if you are interested in the style.

This book is comparable to Stefan Grossman’s Complete Country Blues Guitar Book (Review #9). Both are great resources.

Fingerstyle Blues Songbook includes solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements of 15 tunes. Each arrangement features a single chorus of a 12 or 16 bar blues (often with a repeat and a 2^nd ending). No page turns are ever needed! Each arrangement is presented as a lead sheet with both the vocal melody (in standard notation) and the solo guitar arrangement (in both standard notation and tablature). Each tune includes a couple paragraphs of background information including notable recordings and some fingering suggestions.

Most of the tunes provide you with a single progression of the tune – even with the repeat, none of these will last a full minute as written. In a real performance you would probably want to repeat the form multiple times with singing, variations, or improvisation. My only complaint about the book is that it would have been helpful if the author had explained this a bit more. However, if you listen to fingerstyle blues recordings, then you will hear many arrangement ideas.

As mentioned, the book provides both treble clef and tablature for each arrangement. Tiny chord charts are written above the music with fretting hand fingering, but these do not provide fingering for any of the melody lines. Additionally, no picking hand fingering is included (although you can tell which notes should be played by the picking hand thumb by looking at the treble clef).

The book starts with a couple easier arrangements, but otherwise doesn’t progress from easiest to hardest. Beginners might find the spiritual Oh, Mary Don’t You Weep on page 32 to be one of the easiest arrangements in the book.

The majority of the tunes use standard tuning. However, alternate tunings are used for the four tunes that utilize a slide.

This is a repertoire book full of song arrangements. This is not a method book that teaches you the fundamentals of how to play fingerstyle blues guitar. However, if you have some fingerstyle experience, then this book will provide you with a bunch of fun tunes. This is also a great supplement to a method book.

Recordings are available on an included CD (which unfortunately didn’t come with my used book). These would likely be very helpful to many readers.

The book doesn’t use the modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc. No thumb slaps, guitar body percussion, or tapping.

For authenticity, I recommend using an acoustic steel string guitar rather than a classical guitar. You will need a slide for several tunes.

Distributed by Hal Leonard.

My own books:

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon at https://a.co/d/g7Udsso. The first priority of this book is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.

Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.

Review #9: Complete Country Blues Guitar Book by Stefan Grossman

June 1, 2023 by joemcmurray Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:34 — 25.6MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

Stefan Grossman’s Complete Country Blues Guitar Book is a repertoire book of various substyles of fingerstyle blues (general old time country blues, Delta blues, ragtime blues, Texas blues, and bottleneck blues). Most of the tunes are suitable for late-beginner and intermediate fingerstyle players, although advanced players will certainly enjoy the tunes as well. The music in this book may sound “old-timey” (much of it comes from the 1920s and 30s), but it is really fun to play if you are interested in the style. Aside from the large selection of tunes, the book provides tons of cool history, interviews of blues players (Skip James and W.C. Handy), and historical photos – makes for a great coffee table book!

The book is organized into sections for each substyle of fingerstyle blues. At the beginning of each section there is a textual description and history of the blues substyle being presented. Before each tune, there is a description of where that tune originated from, who played it in this style, important recordings to listen to, and some technical performance details.

Most of the tunes provide you with a single progression of the tune – sometimes only 20 or 30 seconds long. In a real performance you would probably want to repeat the form multiple times with singing, variations, or improvisation. My only complaint about the book is that it would have been helpful if the author had explained this a bit more. However, if you take the listening recommendations seriously then you will get the idea.

The book provides both treble clef and tablature. There are no right or left-hand fingerings provided (except occasionally in the description before the tune). The tablature is unusual in that the fret numbers are written between the lines instead of on the lines, but I quickly adjusted to it without any problem.

The majority of the tunes use standard tuning. However, alternate tunings are used extensively within the sections on “Country Blues Guitar: The Alternating Bass and Open Tunings” and “Bottleneck Blues Guitar.”

This is a repertoire book full of song arrangements. This is not a method book that teaches you the fundamentals of how to play fingerstyle blues guitar. However, if you have some fingerstyle experience, then this book will provide you with a lifetime of fun (at almost 260 pages, it will literally last you a very long time).

Authentic fingerstyle blues tunes from various substyles.
Great organization.
Good difficulty graduation – easier tunes to start each section.
Short tunes.
Lots of alternating bass and monotonic bass
Strange tablature will take a few minutes to adjust to.
No fingerings for right or left hand.
No audio access, but there are lots of listening recommendations that are helpful.

The book doesn’t get into the modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc. No thumb slaps, guitar body percussion, or tapping.

I recommend using an acoustic steel string guitar rather than a classical guitar since there are multiple tunes that utilize the fretting hand thumb over the top. You will need a slide for the final section, but you can use it with your normal guitar.

eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

Riding the Wave: my second fingerstyle guitar album is available on all streaming platforms.

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