million followers on Instagram that Albert Upside Down was a "new favourite" book for her daughter Loretta, while Clarkson, a former tortoise owner, said: "I like this book. Any style of picking with the left hand ( flatpicking or fingerstyle guitar) is considered playing left-handed. Surf-rock guitarist Dick Dale is considered to be an early influencer many heavy rock guitarists, including Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix.

He had a remarkably wide perspective on the blues as well, crossbreeding more traditional 12-bar forms with everything from sweet Stax soul to big-band balladry. Albert Upside Down is the fourth book in the series, and features the adventurous tortoise escaping from his garden home but becoming entangled in some balloons. His approach to fingerstyle, epitomised on Blackbird, using both sides of his index finger to pluck, gives a sound you would get from conventional travis picking.

For all of the bends, be sure to align the other fingers behind the fretting finger to aid in bending accuracy, as the proper intonation of these bends requires significant fret-hand strength. This is a charming modernisation of the traditional 'if we all help, we can achieve anything' story. Fashioned from a 125-year-old piece of black walnut, this guitar would be King’s main ax from 1972 until his passing, 20 years later.

Pushing a tube amp that hard would have undoubtedly produced heavy levels of distortion, beyond the scope of what King wanted. The Chicago blues pioneer was a primary influence on Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, and Peter Green, making his licks some of the most imitated in blues history. I listened to the slide guitar of Elmore James and a couple of more people I knew way back there,” he told one interviewer. King was survived by his wife, Glendle; two daughters, Evelyn Smith and Gloria Randolph; a son, Donald Randolph; a sister, Elvie Wells; eight grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren.

In fact, there are various stories of King turning up to a gig or the studio, playing out of tune and insisting that everyone else tune to his guitar! His huge hands were another factor in this aspect of his style, as was the slackness of the strings in the low-slung tunings King favored. The same year he recorded a studio television session, more than an hour long, for CHCH Television in Canada, featuring the up-and-coming blues sensation Stevie Ray Vaughan; it was subsequently released as an audio album and later as an audio album plus DVD titled In Session.

The argument goes that people with dominant left hands are likely to have more developed right brain hemispheres, and be better at creative tasks. During childhood he sang at a church with a family gospel group, in which his father played the guitar. The blues seems an unlikely genre for the creation of dynasties, but Bramhall’s dad, Doyle Sr, played drums for Freddie King and was a lifelong friend of the Vaughan brothers.

He picked cotton, drove a bulldozer, worked in construction, and held other jobs until he was able to support himself as a musician. This is the first book in a planned series and if this book is anything to go by, this is going to be one series that you want your children to be reading as who doesn’t love a book that keeps a child entertained, gives them a laugh and educates them in a fun way too.