Can white folks sing the blues?

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: Brendy
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 01:13 AM

But it's a real bummer when the guys can't hit that high F, Mb's

B.

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: Mbo
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 01:10 AM

Must go the opposite way on ya there, Brendy. I'm not into the whole "Mama" scene...I like the dudes with the killer voices, like Taj, Mississippi John Hurt, and Big Bill...maybe because I'm a guy and I like to pick up how other guys sing the blues, I don't know. Just give me a piece o' copper tubing and a guitar, and let's go to town! I also LOVE Darius Rucker from Hootie & the Blowfish..he's got such an awesome voice! And a lot of my natural voice comes from listening to them o'er & o'er again. Such a soulful voice. And the white guys in the band, when singing backup with him, create just like the PERFECT sound in the world. Check out "Desert Mountain Showdown"!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: SeanM
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 01:07 AM

There are some recent additions in blues who are decent... Jonny Lang comes to mind. Bit more of a modern sound, but the boy (think he was 14 when his first LP came out 4-5 years ago) can play.

And hey, what about Max? To paraphrase, I may not know all that much about blues, but I knows what I likes, and he's pretty damn decent.

M

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: Brendy
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 01:01 AM

Without sounding rascist, here, I do love to play when there's at least three black backing singers. The opportunity doesn't arise all that often, as I mostly play Trad, but the band's collective body of sound is much increased. There is something about the black female voice.

B.

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: Annabelle
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 12:54 AM

perhaps we expect a certain type of person to be playing a special kind of music, as stated many times above, but they aren't called the blacks and i dont know a persoon who looks blue. can ya dig it?

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: Brendy
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 12:31 AM

Ah, but Mbo, Isn't it much more interesting to get to that point in about 125 posts time, after exploring each and every artery?
Spoilsport!!*BG*

B.

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: Mbo
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 12:24 AM

As my ethnomusicology teacher used to say...

The Blues is not a "white thing" or a "black thing".

The Blues is a state of mind.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: Brendy
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 12:14 AM

Anybody who has experienced trauma, either in their personal life, where some great pain or injustice has move the person to words, or in their community or race, can do it.

Blues, and it's often only ever seen as a 12 bar concept, black, and American, is identifiable with any folk culture I have heard.
And if you've got pain, baby,
Go right ahead, and let those tears a-fall.

John Mayall, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee recorded a song way back called 'White boy lost in the blues'
'White' favourites (I only use the word white, because the distinction has already been made), include:

Van the Man - playing in Oslo today
Stephan Grossman
Peter Green
Freddie White (Who? - Irish acoustic player from Cork; famous enough on this side of the water)

A few others, but I haven't had my first cup of tea yet.
Can't function without that!!

B.

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: Bugsy
Date: 10 Jun 00 - 12:13 AM

I dunno, ask Dave Van Ronk, Martin Simpson, Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Joe Cocker. They may have some idea.

CHeers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: Dale Rose
Date: 09 Jun 00 - 11:55 PM

May as well ask if black folks can sing and play country music. Fact is, they can when they want to, and some do. We had a black visitor at the Ozark Folk Center a while back who played a mean old time country style harmonica, and obviously enjoyed playing it that way, too.

Can't think of anyone I'd rather hear sing the blues than Jo Ann Kelly. Trouble is, she just never got to sing them enough. Austin and Lee Allen sure could sing the blues. Of course, they got mad and quit their record label when they issued their recordings in the Race category. But that is another story altogether.

Complete recordings of the Allen Brothers, borrowed from the handy Camsco site ~~ watch those green links pile up! Allen Brothers

DOCU 8033, Complete Recorded Works, 1927-1930, $15.69

Salty Dog Blues ~ Bow Wow Blues ~ Chattanooga Blues ~ Laughin' & Cryin' Blues ~ Ain't That Skippin' & Flyin' ~ Cheat 'em ~ Frisco Blues ~ Tiple Blues ~ Free Little Bird ~ Skipping & Flying ~ Prisoner's Dream ~ I'll Be All Smiles Tonight ~ I've Got the Chain Store Blues ~ Jake Walk Blues ~ Enforcement Blues ~ Reckless Night Blues ~ New Chattanooga Blues ~ Shanghai Rooster Blues ~ I'm Always Whistling the Blues ~ Roll Down the Line ~ Old Black Crow in the Hickory Nut Tree ~ No Low down Hanging Around ~ Maybe Next Week Sometime

DOCU 8034, Complete Recorded Works, 1930-1932, $15.69

Salty Dog Blues ~ Bow Wow Blues ~ Chattanooga Blues ~ Laughin' & Cryin' Blues ~ Ain't That Skippin' & Flyin' ~ Cheat 'em ~ Frisco Blues ~ Tiple Blues ~ Free Little Bird ~ Skipping & Flying ~ Prisoner's Dream ~ I'll Be All Smiles Tonight ~ I've Got the Chain Store Blues ~ Jake Walk Blues ~ Enforcement Blues ~ Reckless Night Blues ~ New Chattanooga Blues ~ Shanghai Rooster Blues ~ I'm Always Whistling the Blues ~ Roll Down the Line ~ Old Black Crow in the Hickory Nut Tree ~ No Low down Hanging Around ~ Maybe Next Week Sometime

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 09 Jun 00 - 09:42 PM

I used to enjoy Snaker's singing and playing, but that old saw about "you couldn't tell he was white" was just silly. If you listened to a lot of blues (not just the stars) it wasn't that hard to tell that Dave was white (harder to tell if he was blonde though)

Much of the mystique about the Minneapolis boys (Glover Koerner and Ray) came from the enthusiastic pen of Paul Nelson. He LOVED those guys.

The same thing happened to Dave's carreer as a celebrity as happened to all the other fine young white blues guys....the folk public's tastes changed. Real blues fans (not folkies) didn't buy their records to begin with, but stuck with the black singers.

They were good though. So was Ian Buchannan. Never liked John Hammond jr. though.

Rick

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: simon-pierre
Date: 09 Jun 00 - 09:29 PM

Never heard about that guy, tough it seems very interesting.
I was just intrigued by the title of the thread. Does the blues is strictly limited to the black folks of the Mississippi in the 30's?... We'll have a lack of bluesmen in the very next years... I think that what this music has give to the patrimony is far larger than a postcard's picture of a poor bluesmen of the country with his steel guitar. That music became popular for his unviversal value, because every people on this earth could feel blue, and that everybody could sing a song on three chords and get understood by the others.
I'd like to hear that guy...

SP

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: GUEST,The Invisible Blazoona
Date: 09 Jun 00 - 09:17 PM

Dave Ray is an excellent guitarist,and a very nice guy, He is one of the greatest contributors to the annual "Batle of the Jug Bands" in Mineapolis, but only a fair-to-middlin' singer. I am frankly surprised that anyone would ever mistake Ray for a Black man. I have spoken to Dave about this very subject, and about the fire that Koerner, Ray, and Glover drew 35 years ago for being white guys playing the blues. Ray says that he plays this music because he loves it and always has, and didn't care if there were any "official rules of musical purism" that say he shouldn't.

I reccomend a listen to his guitar playing to anyone who likes finger picking blues. He is the goods.

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: GUEST,LNSlicer
Date: 09 Jun 00 - 09:16 PM

Saying that white people can't sing the blues is like saying black people can't play Mozart. It's ridiculous.

Subject: RE: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: TheOldMole
Date: 09 Jun 00 - 08:33 PM

Dave "Snaker" Ray has done work on his own, but is best known for his work with Koerner, Ray and Glover.

I'm surprised the guy chose Ray...most would have singled out "Spider" John Koerner.

These guys were OK. I have the CD reissue of their first album, and I've played it a couple of times. I like them. But they don't come close to the real thing.

Better choices would be Mose Allison...or Hank Williams...or Elvis.

Subject: Can white folks sing the blues?
From: Jon W.
Date: 09 Jun 00 - 08:27 PM

Here's a link to an article about a white blues singer from Minnesota in the '60s that, according to the writer, sounded absolutely authentic (i.e. like he was black, from Mississippi, in the '30s). Topics of conversation: Did any of you know or hear this guy? What do you think of the writer's premise and conclusions?