Page 30 - BiTS_08_AUGUST_2024

The young Collins was initially attracted to the piano, and took some lessons whilst
at high school, favouring the jump blues of Louis Jordan and Jimmie Lunceford, but

around the age of 14 this interest was soon superseded by the guitar. As with so many
aspiring guitar players, he started by making one of his own, consisting of a cigar box,

and home made neck, strung with baling wire. This clearly wasn’t going to get him
very far, so in exchange for some labouring work a local carpenter made him one

from an oak tree - it must have been rather heavy! It also included some rattlesnake
rattles inside it, apparently to improve resonance.

Collins was a cousin of
Lightnin’ Hopkins, who

was the reigning king of
Houston blues, but it was

another cousin, Willow
Young, who taught him

his unusual open tuning
(in other words,
strumming the open

strings produced a chord
- of which, more later),

which he played with his
fingers, rather than a

plectrum. As a result,
when Collins played in

other keys he used a
capo across the relevant

fret on the guitar neck,
thus ensuring that the

open strings were in the
required key. Although his guitar tuning was uniquely his own, his style of playing
was initially heavily influenced by T-Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker and Gatemouth

Brown.

By age 18 Collins was accomplished enough to form his first band, of guitar, piano,
drums (and later bass), working Friday and Saturday evenings, on a semi-pro basis,

at a bar owned by family friends. He had already graduated to electric guitar, even
though much of their repertoire consisted of Lightnin’ Hopkins covers. By day he
worked as ranch hand (for 4 years), and then did 12 years of truck driving.

He worked this gig for a year, prior to moving to the Manhattan Club, in Galveston,

where he started experimenting with horns, in a nod to his early interest in jump