>and Kokomo Arnold was one of the best ever at the Hawaiian
>style guitar playing

some of the most amazing stuff I've ever heard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5e6HV8Puy4

but yeah, the origins of slide in blues is something I've never read a distinct treatise on and would like to see. Popular thought has it as an American expression of African instrumental techniques, but when Handy first heard it he described it as being in the Hawaiian style. Either way imho it's probably a confluence of influences, like jsut about everything.

Speaking of Hawaiian style, though... I'm also a fan of not-blues guitarist Roy Smeck... a lot of his most famous stuff is on ukelele (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcQYt7xvA8M... the old cameras can't even keep up with dude's hands) but he was great at about anything with strings.

it's crazy that in terms of the record market, I've read that "Hawaiian" music outsold every other style in the 1920s.