Norman Blake (born 1938) is known first as a flatpicking guitar player. The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame says he is just as skilled on mandolin, fiddle, and Dobro. He learned the Dobro in his teens. In 1971 he played it on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken. This page covers his Dobro work. His guitar work has its own page.
Why Blake matters on Dobro
Blake’s Dobro is on Will the Circle Be Unbroken, the 1972 album that joined a young country rock band with older stars such as Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, and Doc Watson. Blake played Dobro on several of its tracks. Brother Oswald, the Dobro player whose records Blake heard as a boy, played on the same album.
Life and career
Blake was born on March 10, 1938, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He grew up listening to the Carter Family and Roy Acuff. Acuff’s records featured Brother Oswald on Dobro. Blake learned guitar at 11 or 12, then mandolin, Dobro, and fiddle in his teens.
In the 1960s he was a Nashville session player and worked with Johnny Cash. In 1971 he joined John Hartford’s Aereo-Plain band, which also featured Dobro player Tut Taylor and fiddler Vassar Clements. That August he added his Dobro to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken. In 1972 he began his solo career, and the guitar became his main instrument on stage. The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame inducted him in 2022.
Playing style
Blake is a multi-instrumentalist. The Hall of Fame names guitar as his main instrument and lists fiddle, mandolin, and Dobro as well. On his own records he moves among these instruments.
Influences and legacy
Blake heard Brother Oswald’s Dobro on Roy Acuff’s records as a boy. Years later the two men played Dobro on the same album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken. In the Aereo-Plain band he played beside Tut Taylor, a Dobro player who also used a flatpick.
Essential recordings
Will the Circle Be Unbroken, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1972)
Awards and honors
International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (2022)
Watch and listen
Blake plays Branded Wherever I Go on Dobro.
What to learn from Blake
Blake first heard the Dobro on Roy Acuff’s records with Brother Oswald. Find one of those old Acuff records and learn Oswald’s Dobro part by ear. Then play the song your own way.
Sources
Norman Lee Blake, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Norman Blake (American musician), Wikipedia Will the Circle Be Unbroken (album), Wikipedia
Related players
See the Dobro players hub and the Dobro guide. Blake also has a page among the guitar players. Brother Oswald and Tut Taylor shared records with him on Dobro.