Blind Willie McTell

Blind Willie McTell was a Piedmont blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont blues. Unlike his contemporaries, he came to use twelve-string guitars exclusively. McTell was also an adept slide guitarist, unusual among ragtime bluesmen. His vocal style, a smooth and often laid-back tenor, differed greatly from many of the harsher voices of Delta bluesmen such as Charley Patton. McTell performed in various musical styles, including blues, ragtime, religious music and hokum.

5 May 1898

Born on the same birth date (5 May 1898): Elsie Eaves

Born on the same birth day (5 May): Afonso III of Portugal • Andor Lilienthal • Aryna Sabalenka • Bernard Pivot • Bobby Ellsworth • Celeste (singer) • Henry Cavill • James LaBrie • Michael Palin • Mitch Marner • Shawn Drover • Yossi Benayoun

Born in the same month (May 1898): Ariel Durant • Armand Hammer • Charles-Léon Hammes • Elsie Eaves • Ernst Bacon • Faruk Nafiz Çamlıbel • John Gilroy (artist) • Julius Evola • Scott O'Dell • Septima Poinsette Clark • Tamara de Lempicka