The infinitely influential slide guitar attack of Elmore James was rooted in one immortal lick, a crashing, shangety-shang barrage that he first unfurled on record on his 1951 classic ‘Dust My Broom.’ It was such a devastating performance that Elmore will eternally be identified with the song and its central riff. Whenever he’d sign with a new label, he’d cut another version, continually reinforcing the connection. But great and powerful as ‘Dust My Broom’ is, it’s by no means the only reason Elmore is revered as one of the genre’s leading postwar innovators, or why he was eventually inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. James was also a fine single-string picker who didn’t require a bottleneck or metal tube to deliver a torrid guitar solo. His tortured, vibrato-soaked vocal delivery was every bit as riveting as his fiery fretwork. That blistering slide technique inspired a small legion of Chicago disciples led by his cousin Homesick James, J.B. Hutto, Hound Dog Taylor, and Johnny Littlejohn. Later on, Chuck Berry, Fleetwood Mac, and Duane Allman exhibited their allegiance as Elmore’s inventions expanded into the rock realm.
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