Step It Up and Go

In early 1940, Blind Boy Fuller and his longtime washboard player, George Washington (known as Bull City Red), traveled to New York to cut an upbeat, ragtime-infused dance track. "Step It Up and Go" was heavily based on older Southeastern folk tunes, but Fuller injected it with blistering, complex fingerpicking and a rapid-fire, charismatic vocal delivery. The track was a major hit, with sales estimates varying widely. It became the definitive anthem of the Piedmont blues style and a mandatory repertoire standard for every acoustic guitar player operating on the East Coast.