The Blues???

Subject: BS: The Blues???
From: Bobert
Date: 09 Aug 10 - 11:31 PM

So, okay, here we are in Mudville where they have this ad for some blues thing... I donno, maybe it's not an ad... Something about the "the blues"...

But then every blues thread makes it to 20 posts then it's the blackhole...

I mean, it would be nice to see the folks here that is into the blues, ahhhhhh, come on in an' say, "Hey"...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: The Blues???
From: mousethief
Date: 09 Aug 10 - 11:41 PM

Hey.

Woke up this morning, saw the blues walkin' like a man
I said I woke up this morning, saw the blues walkin' like a man
They wuz walkin' 'way from Mudcat 'cos ain't 'nuff people understan'

Subject: RE: BS: The Blues???
From: Janie
Date: 09 Aug 10 - 11:59 PM

Hey.

Too ignorant to contribute, Bobert. Just like to learn. I don't think I have ever made any contribution to a thread regarding blues. I am guessing I have read and followed most of then, however, in the 8 or so years I have been on Mudcat.

This thread ought to be bumped to above the line.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Will Fly
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 04:05 AM

I've always played blues, among other things. I did this just yesterday - whether you think it qualifies or not is up to you...

Mellow G Blues

I'm easier playing it than talking about it, but happy to chip in if someone starts a thread. :-)

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 04:17 AM

Cant remeber who , but I heard tat one Old Blues man was asked if he read music - His reply was " Hell Man ! You dont read music , you just play the stuff!"
Which is what we will be doing at Getaway !

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 04:25 AM

Lovely video, Will. Nice slow, relaxed blues..."mellow" is exactly right.

Bobert: Like Janie, I feel too ignorant of the blues to contribute, but I also want to learn more. I guess I grew up with a very narrow idea of "the blues" and it's only in the last couple of years when I've been trying to learn the guitar myself that I've started to realise just how much of contemporary music it underpins.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 04:50 AM

Hey!

RtS
(aka Tonedeaf Lime Clinton, the Washboard of Mass Destruction)

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: cooperman
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 06:15 AM

Hey!
The three question marks are the key here.
What is a blues song?
Does it have to follow the usual blues pattern?
Does it have to be about losing your lover or can it be about other sad events like your car breaking down?
I guess not many people nowadays are going to write songs about cotton pickin and totin that bale.
Someone said to me recently 'I like your blues songs but they are a bit sad'
I love folk and blues music. Luckily they seem to be happy bedfellows at the moment. They can certainly overlap in terms of style of songwriting.
Danger is making it some kind of intellectual subject for discussion and disemmination!!!
www.stevepaulcooper.co.uk
Steve

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Will Fly
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 06:18 AM

Steve - took the liberty of correcting your clicky to:

Steve Paul Cooper

(Yours didn't work) :-)

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Will Fly
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 06:20 AM

Hmmm... my "correction" didn't work either...

Steve Paul Cooper

This does!

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: cooperman
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 06:33 AM

Thanks - might write a blues song about computers!
Any suggestions for a title anyone?

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Zen
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 06:39 AM

Hey! (again!)

Zen

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: maeve
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 07:21 AM

Hey, Bobert. I'm interested, and want to learn. We used to have a mess of old blues albums on LP, CD, and cassette, but they're gone now. I always watch for Blues threads here and try to contribute.

Woke up this morning, I still have no guitar.
Some day I'll play again; those Blues will travel far.
I got them housefire blues...

maeve

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Bernard
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 07:40 AM

My computer just went down
It's done it often times before.
Yeah, my computer just went down
It's done it often times before.
So I threw it out the window,
Now it's in bits all over the floor!!

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 07:44 AM

Hey!

Love the blues, would like more discussion of it too

I'm a great fan of slighly more unusual blues, especially where it's played on the less common instruments - like banjo, mandolin, fiddle, or anything really!

I play blues on banjo, mandolin, slide guitar, and more recently I've been messing with an oud which, beleive me, is a fantastic instrument for blues.

I tried to keep the Blues But Not thread afloat earlier in the year but gave up in the end. If anyone fancies reviving it, be my guest!

Pete.

PS - Hello Steve - hopefully bump in to you soon in Lincoln...

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Will Fly
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 08:18 AM

I'm partial to the jug band end of the blues spectrum myself - mandolins and fiddles play a great part in that. Memphis Jug Band, Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, etc.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Zen
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 08:28 AM

I'm partial to both Delta blues on the guitar and players like Yank Rachell and Rich DelGrosso for mandolin blues.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: maeve
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 09:19 AM

My old friend Chris Smither is a strong favorite among current Blues musicians.

maeve

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 12:28 PM

And , of course , Brian Peters makes a damn good fist of Blues on Melodian

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Les from Hull
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 12:33 PM

I play some blues on bouzouki and melodeon, although I've been playing blues harp for many years.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 12:36 PM

I KNEW I'd mis spelt it as soon as I hit Enter

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: maeve
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 12:59 PM

Brian Peters- great music of many kinds.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: cooperman
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 05:41 AM

Nice one Pete.
I fancy a go at blues fiddle but I like a deeper sound.
I drop the string tuning on mandolin.
Was thinking about a viola with octave strings on it.
Suppose you can get any sound with electric but that doesn't appeal.
Anyone got any ideas or experience?
Steve

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: maeve
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 06:05 AM

"viola with octave strings on it." There's a thread discussing that somewhere around here.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 09:22 AM

How about blues cello? I absolutely love this: Crooked Still - Come on in my kitchen

Pete

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 09:29 AM

Well so far it looks like 24 postings and from those there is mention of just one blues musician and two jug bands. So I guess that this thread will soon die too. No surprise there.

Hoot

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 10:00 AM

I guess blues fans are just less contentious than folkies!

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Amos
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 10:34 AM

Aw sheeit, you-all. Blues is not contentious.

Blues is acceptance, man.

I learned mine from Bessie, Brownie, Sonny and Huddie. Not in person, of course except for Huddie, but from those LP things. Thank gawd for Lomax and his kind that this music did not disappear before it was supplanted by rockabilly!


A

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: maeve
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 11:07 AM

I love blues guitar, though I haven't learned to play in a blues style I am going to try. As long as I'm starting over I might as well throw in some new techniques and styles.

I've always wanted to sing some Blues. I have to relearn all of my old songs and adding in the blues songs I love best but where can I try 'em out? Who can I sing with? It's a challenge here. I'm looking for a bluesy song The House Band used to do. If I can find it again I'll relearn that, too.

As for this thread continuing on...add some good Blues discussion and links and see what happens.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: maeve
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 11:09 AM

A good friend gave me a Fender steel String guitar yesterday. Action is kind of high; makes it good for using a slide maybe?

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: greg stephens
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 11:18 AM

Blues on different instruments: the cajun style uses acordion(or melodeon as we call it here in England) to great effect. Here is Tony Weatherall in action, a lovely player
Bosco Blues

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 12:05 PM

Greg,

Do you seriously consider this to be blues music?

Just curious.

Hoot

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: dwditty
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 12:09 PM

Many think that DW Ditty comes from that Manfred Man hit (Doo Wa Ditty), but it is actually from a Blind Blake tune.

To me, blues is not a thing, but a feeling. A friend once told me that if you slow any song down enough, it can be a blues song. Try it..it even works with the Barney Theme song.

a kid, I never connected to popular songs lik emy friends did. ABout 50 years ago I started listening to WILD in Roxbury, MA, and that was it. Of course, plenty of rock n roll stuff was nothing more than a whiter shade of blue.

If you want to dig into where the blues came from - not the blues you find in stores - even vintage record stores - but the blues that was made in the fields of the rural American south, go to Juneberry78s.com and hit the listening room. Just regular folk singing and playing their hearts out.

Here is one of my imitations

dw

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: dwditty
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 12:10 PM

Link didn't work.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: dwditty
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 12:12 PM

One more try:

Hope it works - otherwise, l'il help?

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 12:14 PM

The blues ain't nothin' but a good man feelin' blue...

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 12:22 PM

There's a free fRoots article on Ian Siegal, IMHO the best British blues player around at the moment

You can view it here (hopefully)

Interesting comments on the state of the British blues circuit, and links between blues, country and gospel.

Pete

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: maeve
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 12:28 PM

dwditty- Your link works fine for me. Thanks.

maeve

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Amos
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 12:35 PM

It's a five dollar woman, tied down to a two-dollar man.


A

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: dwditty
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 12:42 PM

Max seems to have taken down the original Mudcat home page. This site was originally set up primarily as a blues site with lots of info about the blues masters. Maybe some of that information is still around. Max?

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: maeve
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 01:44 PM

This, dwditty?

http://www.mudcat.org/blues.cfm

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: greg stephens
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 02:10 PM

Hootenanny: sure I think Louisiana blues is blues. I love it. Clifton Chenier and Nathan Abshire, to name but a few, turned in some great French blues, whether zydeco-ish or cajun-ish.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 02:14 PM

Here's a quotation from upthread:

" Hell Man ! You dont read music , you just play the stuff!"

Unfortunately, if blues players don't read music (and presumably don't know any theory), then it's very hard for them to talk about how they play. It's pretty hard to discuss muscle memory.

Note the 'Hell Man.'

There's no need to get hostile. Yet if you start posting any music theory on a blues thread, you will soon get hostile responses.

As for Greg Stephen's Bosco Blues, (linked above) that is definitely blues. I like it.
=========
Maeve, go carefully with that guitar that has the strings too high. It could hurt your hands or wrists. Take it to a music store and have somebody make it right.

By the way, I don't believe that, about blues musicians not being able to read music.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 04:22 PM

By the way, I don't believe that, about blues musicians not being able to read music

I'd say some could, some couldn't. Some were completely illiterate. Didn't stop them making beautiful music though.

Also just because you don't read music, doesn't mean you don't know any theory.

And a high action is ideal for slide. Go for it Maeve!

And now for some John Lee Hooker (illiterate): Boogie Chillen

Pete

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 04:33 PM

This thread still doesn't seem to be referring much to blues musicians. There is what appears to be an English band playing a tune Cajun style and admittedly it is in a blues format. Clifton Chenier who played Zydeco which is Cajun with a strong dose of blues, Nathan Abshire who played Cajun. Someone else mentions an English musician that attempts to play the blues. Then there is a film clip of someone attempting to play and sound like a blues man (and incidentally I believe the Bland Blake song is actually "Diddie Wah Diddie).

I am not putting down anybody here but does nobody on this site listen to the real thing any more?

And Leeneia, which blues musicians have you met that read music. I am not implying that there are none but as someone with a long time interest in the music I would be intersted to know on what you base your non-belief.

Hoot

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Amos
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 04:40 PM

According to this article, recording the blues might explain whale speak, I dunno, though. It might work...

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 04:46 PM

I am not putting down anybody here

Hmmmm...

but does nobody on this site listen to the real thing any more?

So give us some examples then Hoot - what pulls your chain?

Pete

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: greg stephens
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 05:19 PM

Hootenanny: tell us what you like. Direct us to the old bluesmen that you particularly enjoy, I think the thread is for that. If you are not interested in other's comments, suggest a few yourself. I put up a clip of some cajun blues because an earlier post mentioned the melodeon as a possible instrument for playing the blues. Many Louisiana musicians used it, and the piano accordion, to play blues. Leadbelly(a great blues man) also played melodeon, though to my knowledge he never recorded a blues on it, just two or three other dance tunes.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: greg stephens
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 05:20 PM

I foprgot: in addition to Leadbelly's dance tunes on the melodeon, there is also his sensational version of John Hardy.

Subject: RE: The Blues???
From: PoppaGator
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 05:45 PM

I certainly enjoy the blues, whether strictly or loosely defined, and I usually enjoy reading what people have to say about it, but I don't really have much to say when it comes to writing about music myself.

Writing "about" music is tricky. Didn't someone once famously write that it's "like dancing about architecture"? Back in 1970, I interviewed for a job at Rolling Stone, was encouraged to submit articles as a freelancer, and got an introduction to a fellow who was already successfully contributing work as a freelancer.

Within about a week, I ditched the effort and gave up all ambitions to work as a "music writer." Instead, I began putting all my energy into playing music on the streetcorners of San Francisco ~ much more satisfying. The fact that I never achieved much success as a performer (never advancing from busking to actual paying gigs) does NOT make me regret that decision, not in the least.

*****************

I enjoy Mudcat a little less today than when I first encountered it, back when its focus was on the blues and related US folk-music traditions. Just a matter of personal taste. I still enjoy my visits here; I just find an ever-increasing number of discussion threads that I don't bother to look at.