I use glass and metal. Finger picks and finger nails.
For the most part, I play in Open G. Depending on the song I switch to Open D or E. Ry Cooder goes into Open F on a few, Vigilanti Man come to mind at the moment.
Best think I can tell Travis is to submerge himself into Country Slide Music. Listen closely to it, play along with it. Shove the blues into the background, forget about it for the time being. Soon you'll be hearing nothing but country slide in your head.
I also play 'Come On In My Kitchen' and everything else Mr. Johnson played.
I was first taught to play it in Open Gb with a capo on the second fret. But that's way to high for me to sing in, unless someone has even a gentle hold of me. The open Gb with the capo lays right over his recording.
I now play it in open G and ain't strainin' none to sing it.
Ya shouldn't really let it matter what key your in, as long as your comfortable and your voice is too.
I also do stuff by Sleepy John Estes, Son House, Ry Cooder, and other old time blues players.
Yeah, yeah, I know Ry ain't old time, but some of his stuff is good and I respect the man's talent.
Blind Lemon Jefferson and Fred McDowell are some other I emmulate.
You might want to try and learn to 'fret behind the bar', JoeKing. Works wonders if you slide with your pinkie.
Lay the slide across the any fret and fret behind it with your middle or ring finger while dampening the strings with your index finger. If your action is high, it works and sounds great. The string you fret will drop below the steel and you can get all kinds of combinations of chords and extend the tonal quality. If you've low action, well, I ain't got no help fer ya there, except to raise the saddle a might. But if ya use it for standard playin also, ya don't wanna raise it none.
If your a blues player, JoeKing, comeon over to a blues board once in a while, if your intersted.
http://www.bigroadblues.com/cgi/dcforum/dcboard.cgi
There are some real heavy blues people over there and can answer any question you might have. Even if the answer doesn't pretain to your question. Hee, hee. It's small and everyone gets pleanty of help. Contribute all ya want too. It works both ways. Just like here.
Slidin' on.
