It was this song that sent Jack White down the road of music. It's easy to see how the stripped back nature of the piece has influenced White's own musical experimentation with The White Stripes, especially their hard followed rule of only three instruments per song .
Son House was a Delta blues singer active from the early 1920's to his death in 1988. He trained to be a Baptist preacher till his late teens before being seduced by the blues and killing a man during one of his own performances (allegedly in self defense). He used his religious background by incorporating elements of gospel within the style and framework of the Delta blues.
House had a heavily percussive style of playing and singing, happily accompanying himself on heavily strummed dobro slide guitar or simply clapping along in rhythm. It's the latter style that Grinning in Your Face employs. Raw and electrifying, over eighty years down the line Son House still has the ability to claw his way into your mind with the sheer power of hand claps and his own voice.
Does it say what instruments they used? Or am I just blind?
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