Sliding Into the Blues

A Mississippi Arts Commission grant provides a musical opportunity for an Oxford teenager to learn from longtime slide guitarist.

Written by Leslie Criss  |  Photographed by Lindsay Pace

When two music-loving strangers, both from Oxford, met last year, it quickly became clear it was a perfect pairing.

Though she is an eighth-generation Marylander, Wendy Jean Garrison has called Oxford home since 1987, when she and her Mississippi-born husband settled on 180 acres outside the city. Anyone with the slightest affection for hill country blues has likely heard her name or her music.

A lifelong music lover, Garrison took piano lessons as a child, later learning to play jazz piano.

“I loved piano, but I wanted to play guitar,” she said.

And she has — since she was 14.

She taught biology at Ole Miss from 1991 to 2015, while also playing with different bands around the Square. Students who showed up on occasion where Garrison was playing were very surprised.

It was in Mississippi that Garrison grew curious about playing slide guitar. Blues expert James Liniger first began to satisfy her curiosity. If you wanted to know anything about the blues, Liniger was your man. Considered a leading scholar on the blues, Liniger also was learning to play slide guitar. In fact, thanks to a grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission in 1984, Liniger became an apprentice to James “Son” Thomas. Later, Garrison was an apprentice to bluesman Bill Howl-N-Madd Perry. And now, Garrison has an apprentice learning from and performing with her.

Sophia Doyle, a 15-year-old sophomore at Oxford High School, was on a quest to find someone to teach her more about guitar. The search was proving fruitless until her dad, Daniel Doyle, remembered he’d once met Garrison. He told his daughter about Garrison, and she was interested.

“I appreciated the fact she was a woman and could be a good role model,” Sophia Doyle said.

“I was just hoping she would agree to give me one or two lessons to help.”

Like Garrison, Doyle had learned to play piano first. In fact, the rule was before any other instruments could be purchased and played, Doyle first had to learn piano. Her desire to play guitar was strong, even after seven years of piano lessons.

“I had always wanted a guitar,” she said. “I was home one day and opened a closet and saw my dad’s old guitar from college just sitting in the closet. So, the summer before last, I taught myself to play that guitar as best I could.”

A writer of poetry, Doyle eased into songwriting as well. And her one or two lessons from Garrison turned into a year-long apprenticeship after Doyle was awarded a folk arts apprenticeship grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission. Since July, the two have worked together as teacher and student, and often as co-performers at gigs in north Mississippi. As part of their year together, Garrison will teach Doyle the basics of playing slide guitar.

“I had never heard of slide guitar,” she said. “But the truth is, once I heard Wendy play it, I recognized the sound. I’d just not known what it was called.”

As part of the grant process, the person applying has to write a lesson plan of sorts of what the apprenticeship will entail.

“Then you do it,” Garrison said. “This provides structure to the year-long process.”

For those unfamiliar with slide guitar, let’s hit the highlights. Many would say the slide sound is a little bit country. The guitarist uses a slide placed on a left-hand finger — Garrison wears her slide on her pinkie. The slide is normally a smooth, tube-shaped object that might be made of glass, metal or ceramic. For her slide, Garrison uses a socket wrench. The sounds made by the slide moving across the guitar strings have been likened to certain aspects of a human singing voice.

Doyle is quite pleased with her time as Garrison’s apprentice, and she looks forward to the months ahead.

“I love playing with Wendy,” she said. “I meet so many cool people. We played a private house party, the Art Walk in Water Valley. This has opened up opportunities for me to do some events on my own. I’ve made great connections through Wendy and our work together.”