As a guitarist for 9+ years, it’s been fun to see commenters over at Boing Boing try and figure out whether or not Charlie Patton played his guitar in the “crab legs” style, which is pictured briefly in the song posted above.

Most are saying, yes, it’s totally possible, and one person says it’s the regular way of playing in Botswana.

Here’s some “totally can’s”:

• Jeff Healey plays in a similar fashion …
• I know dobro players sometimes do that grip. Maybe it was a style that favored a lead in a non-electric, san-pick Texas/Mephis style that some of these old recordings had.
• It’s possible to play with a knife in that way. See Bukka White playing with a round metal bar here. Some of Patton’s “slide” playing goes so far up the neck that he must’ve been using a knife (I think).
• I’ve been playing a long time (20+ years) and I can reach over the top of the fret board and play if I try. It’s not particularly comfortable, and I’m not particularly fluid doing it, but with practice, it’d be totally do-able.

Here’s some “totally can’t’s”:

• Unless he was using a non-standard tuning, it’d be extremely surprising …
• … it sounds like he was also a great showman, playing the guitar between his legs and behind his back … Maybe this was another technique he used to show off his guitar skill?
• I think showmanship is the best conclusion. There’s no real advantage to playing like this, other than the fact that it looks cool.