Blues Videos and Blues History

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 07 Dec 12 - 08:59 AM

He pinches the thumbpick hard with his index finger.
I think he just uses a thumbpick because it's easier to hang onto.
He flatpicks with a thumbpick. No fingerpicking at all as far as I could see.
His little band was pretty good.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 07 Dec 12 - 08:41 AM

Yeah, I played the Sedalia Blues Festival "blues challenge" about 7 or 8 years ago and he was the headliner and I was thinkin', "How'd he get to be the chosen one?"

As for using the thumbpick as a flatpick, hey, that's okay... I do, too, when the song calls for it... No big thing... Might of fact, with claw-hammer picking the thumb does what alot of country and blue-grass pickers do with a flat pick... There's no law saying that the thumb just has to plunk on two bass strings... Check out Son House's picking style sometime and see just how many strings he picks with his thumb...

B~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 11:14 PM

I believe you, bobette. He uses a thumbpick like a flatpick.
He was ok. But not great.
=(:-( °)

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 10:15 PM

BTW, I'd take Bob M on in a blues challenge if the judges didn't know either our names and were just listening to our music... I'd beat him...

No brag, just fact...

B~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 10:02 PM

Yea. Looks glitzy and glamourous. Scratch the surface......
=(:-( o)

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 09:04 PM

Bob Margolin gets all the bookings... He's part of the chosen few... It's a crap shoot...

There are 100s of folks that can play circles around Bob Margolin who can't get booked at the local coffee house to play for free...

That is the real world of music...

B~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 08:52 PM

I dunno. Blind Willie's is the club to get booked at. Bob Margolin plays there pretty often.
Blues aren't the big thing they were 20 years ago.
Are they?
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 05:56 PM

I might just do that, Krinkx...

I've done a couple radio shows over the years... They're fun... But seriously, unless I have a pay gig to cover my expenses to Atlanta then I doubt I'd do it... People just don't pay too much for old Mississippi blues players... Shoot, people don't pay much to most musicians...

Last decent pay I got was playing at the "Water Park" bar or the "Lodge" at Massanutten Ski Lodge... Played with a harmonica player and got $250 a night for 3 hours... These days I'd bet that folks are playing there for even less...

Ya'll got any blues challenges that pay decent for solo??? I've made money at a couple of them...

B~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 11:41 PM

Another
Frank Edwards
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 11:35 PM

One of his tunes
Frank Edwards
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 11:21 PM

Probably so. Chinese copy everything. You might want to send copies of your CD's to WRFG and WREK here in Atlanta. They have blues programs and support the blues scene here. Get some extra exposure. Come down and play live in the studio. Do some gigs down here.

=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 10:29 PM

Just like the Johnson I owned... They both look alike... The fact that it is that shiny tells me that it is a Johnson...

No mater...

b~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 10:20 PM

No bobette. That's a Dobro. I recognize the truss rod cover. I have a very similar model. His is sandblasted with a Hawaiian scene. Mine is floral engraved. You can just about see the Dobro decal on the headstock.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 09:56 PM

Don't know this guy... He's purdy good... Lousy reso... I used to own the same one... It's a Johnson... Okay but lousy/okay....

B~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 09:49 PM

I was fiddlin' with a Strat at Guitar Center and looked up to see this gentleman standing over me. I'm a reserved person, or I would have talked to him.
He was well known here.
Frank Edwards
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 09:34 PM

Floyd be the shits!!! I mean, down home shits!!!

B~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 09:23 PM

Better version?
Floyd Jones
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 09:18 PM

I think Floyd Jones copied Tommy. Modernized it.
Floyd Jones

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 09:14 PM

Tommy Johnson, BTW, is the one who was supposed to have made the deal with the devil... Not Robert...

Source: John Sinclair, blues historian extraordinare'...

B~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 09:10 PM

He lived a long time. I like Tommy Johnson's stuff:
Tommy Johnson
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 08:54 PM

Cool, Krinkx...

Didja know that Willie Brown played with Son House???

Very interesting story... Willie Brown died in 1948 (I think) and when he died Son put his geetar down and moved to New York where he worked as a porter on the New York Central Line... It wasn't until '62 or '63 when a few white folkies tracked Son down where he was livin' in New York... The plied him with alcohol, promises of fame, women, etc. to lure him back to playin' the blues... That's pretty much the way it went down.... You can Google it up for the details...

Son's "comin' out" was at the '64 (might have been '63) Newport Fold Festival... I read somewhere that he was real nervous... I mean, yeah... He had never played to more than a hunnert folks in a juke joint...

B~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 08:24 PM

I saw R.L. Burnside in a little club here. About '92.
Pretty good.
I know John Hurt was Piedmont.
I know the difference.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 08:15 PM

Yea, I know. I don't have much credentials.
Worked at a community radio station in Atlanta spinning blues and western swing.
Other than that just a living room player. I had to make a living.
But here's more info:
Willie Brown

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 07:10 PM

Yo, Krinkx... Please provide us with your blues credentials...

Me??? I've played Piedmont blues at the Archie Edwards Barbershop where I was a regular for about 7 years and where my latest CD was recorded...

I have also been on pilgrimages to Mississippi three times for extended stays where I played with Mississippi blues players including the Burnsides, the Kimbros, Jessie Mae Hemphill, etc...

There is a world of difference in style...

It doesn't matter what song you are doing... Yes, it can be a n old Mississippi written song but done 100% in the Piedmont style... BTW, Mississippi John Hurt was a Piedmont style player...

For the difference Google up and listen to R.L. Burnside and then John Jackson...

End of blues lesson (for now)...

B~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 06:51 PM

Here it is:
Mississippi Blues

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 06:46 PM

It's a Willie Brown tune. It's a well known tune. And it's Mississippi.
Tommy Johnson type stuff.
Mississippi Blues

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Don Firth
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 06:12 PM

I gotta give you that one, Klinkle. Although I'll defer to the more knowledgeable Bobert as to which flavor of blues the fellow on the clip is playing, it sounds darned good on a nylon-string guitar.

A couple of things about the guitar being used in the clip:   judging from the light color of the wood used for the sides of the guitar, my guess is that it is Spanish cypress rather than the traditional rosewood or mahogany—which means that this is a flamenco guitar (although it's only within recent years that anybody is making cutaway flamenco guitars).

A flamenco guitar (I have one, made by Arcangel Fernandez in 1961—vintage, and a collector's item!), and flamencos have considerably more "bite" to their tone than a standard classical guitar, which has a somewhat more mellow, warmer tone.

Nylon (or gut) strings, as opposed to steel, is definitely not traditional for blues. But then, there are compositions such as solo pieces and song accompaniments written by John Dowland for the lute, and Bach's works such as the Chaconne for the cello that, these days are frequently played on classical (nylon-string) guitars, and although hard-nosed "purists" may gnash their teeth, I say, "Wotthehell! Have at it!!"

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 04:25 PM

That ain't no "Mississippi Blues", Krinkx... That's pure "Piedmont Blues", son...

B~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 07:08 AM

This guy has it down, I think. Good to see others see the great possibilities.
Mississippi Blues

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 03:39 PM

Nylon gives more options
this guys ok

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 12:52 PM

I was thinking slide might not do well. But now I'm going to try it.
Get my transducer out. Plug in........
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: GUEST,Matt
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 10:33 PM

I also play slide on a classical, with a bowed neck(high action), Tuned down to an open C chord. CGCEGC Low-to-high. Sounds nice to me.

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 08:18 AM

Well, gol danged!!!

Looks like I stand corrected... I might try seein' if I can slide on my wife's classical just to see what it sounds like...

Thanks, Mavis...

B:~)

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: GUEST,Mavis Enderby
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 07:50 AM

Until very recently I'd have agreed with you Bobert but I had a go on a friends cheapo classical that he's set up for lap slide with (I think) high tension nylon strings and it sounded pretty good...

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 05:11 AM

Regarding Bukka White, many of those videos are available on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bukka+white&oq=Bukka+&gs_l=youtube.1.0.0l10.363.799.0.3719.3.3.0.0.0.0.388.948.2-1j2.3.0...0.0...1ac.1.dUX8zOCi5kc

Stefan Grossman has a compilation of bottleneck and I believe its now on DVD

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 06:33 PM

Well, like a lot of blues players, I play a lot of slide geetar and you ain't gonna slide no nylon strings...

That much cannot be argued...

B~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Don Firth
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 05:38 PM

The only guitars along the Godin, La Patrie line that I've actually seen live was a Seagull (steel-string) packed around by a young woman who was busking her way around Canada and the U. S. a few years ago and who stayed a few days with Bob (Deckman) and Judy Nelson before moving on.

Good singer. Nice guitar.

As far as I can see, the Godin Mulitiac relies a lot on electronics, and that's an area where I will not go.

Years ago, I was meeting a friend one afternoon at a local bar that offered music in the evenings. The bartender, whom I knew, told me that my friend phoned and asked him to tell me that he would be a bit late. The bartender, who knew I was a singer-guitarist, asked me if I'd like to favor them with a few songs while I waited. I didn't have my guitar with me, and he said that the guitarist in the band had left his guitar on the band stand and he was sure that the guitar's owner wouldn't mind (?). He flipped the switch on the amp and said, "Have at it!"

The guitar was an archtop f-hole model, covered with more knobs and switches than warts on a toad.

I accompanied myself on a few songs and then played some classical stuff. I'd never played an electric before, and it was a lot of fun having ALL THAT POWER right there at the twist of a knob! I started thinking dangerous thoughts. . . .

. . . followed by the realization of how much $$ money $$ would be involved in electronic equipment:   guitars, amplifiers, speakers, and such, not to mention the logistics of lugging all that crap around—along with the fact that, for the kind of music I did, an acoustic guitar and/or a lute would be far more appropriate.

I quickly set the guitar aside and muttered something like, "Get thee behind me, Satan!!"

About that time, my friend walked in.

####

Right now, I have three full-size guitars, one classic and one flamenco, both made in Spain, and another classic made in Japan (which is actually a better guitar than the Spanish classic that I have), plus two Go travel guitars made by Sam Radding of San Diego, one nylon-string, one steel-string.

What I would like is a small guitar-like instrument (not a uke) that I could play comfortably while sitting in a wheelchair. A Renaissance guitar would be just about the right size, and it has the additional panache of being the kind of instrument a wandering minstrel actually might have used.

But two problems with the instrument:   essentially only four strings. Or "courses:"   first string single, second, third, and fourth, doubled like most plucked stringed instruments of that era. Kind of limited compared to a modern six-string guitar. But—the fellow in the video clip seems to get a whole lot of music out of it.

The second problem is that the only places you can get them are from luthiers who make period instruments, which means they are very expensive!!

So I'll stick with my nylon-string Go for the time being, but I'm keeping my eyes open for possibilites.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 01:41 AM

Have you ever tried a Godin Mulitiac Don?
I haven't. They seem very versatile.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 06:45 PM

True. There's no reason that one can't or shouldn't do blues with a nylon-string guitar. It isn't "traditional," but then I don't think that would bother anyone but the "ethnic purists."

Early on, I stopped worrying about the more stiff-lipped ethnic-purist types because it would be a losing battle right from the start. I was born and raised in big cities, and my father was a professional man (physician), so right off the bat, I was not a member of the "folk," as defined by Johann Gottfried von Herder, the first man to use the term "folk song" (volkslieder), referring to the songs of "the rural, peasant class."

Also, I didn't learn the songs I sing from my aged grandmother, I learned them from other singers such as myself, from records, and from song books. Also, as a teenager I had developed an interest in opera, and took some singing lessons. It was a few years later that I became interested in singing folk songs and ballads. By then, it was too late. I already sounded like a trained singer, not as if I had just fallen off the turnip truck on the way into town.

I adopted the view of Richard Dyer-Bennet, a trained singer and classical guitarist, who maintained that he was not a "folk singer" (for the same reasons I was not a "folk singer"), he was a "modern day minstrel." Minstrels and troubadours were professional singers and musicians who made their living by singing for the nobility in castles and manor houses or for anybody in village squares and taverns. These days, it's concert halls, clubs, coffee houses, and perhaps nearest to what the minstrels of eld did, it's singing in peoples' living rooms (house concerts) and busking.

I didn't try to imitate Dyer-Bennet (among other things, he was a light, lyric tenor and I'm a bass-baritone), but I felt his approach to the material is valid.

Also, I don't "classic up" the songs, I sing them straight.

It works for me and I've made a living at it, and I've introduced a lot of people to folk songs and ballads, and that's what counts. If playing blues on a classic guitar works for you, then, what the heck! Have at it!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 05:10 PM

Yes, but with nylon string guitars becoming more sophisticated,we can look forward to more than just the stereotypical musics you've come to expect.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 04:22 PM

On the Jorge Nolla clip, he's plugged in and running the sound through an amp. At first, judging from the sound, I would have sworn that he has a couple or steel strings on the top, mixed with nylon basses below. But then I figure he probably gets that steel-string sound by pre-twiddling the knobs.

Definitely a more piercing tone than one can get from bare, undiddled-with nylon trebles, even if one is playing with a lot of nail and very close to the bridge.

That bit on the oud sounds pretty good.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 01:49 PM

Very good. I liked that. Alot.
=(:-( D)

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: GUEST,Mavis Enderby
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 08:25 AM

The Arabic lute (Oud) can be an excellent instrument for blues:

One of my favorites: Bamako Blues

I think being fretless as well as very deep and moody sounding it's an instrument that is very well suited to the blues. David Lindley makes great use of his!

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 08:07 AM

Oh, we're just prattling on.
Do you ever play on a classical guitar?
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 07:55 AM

how did you get from all that stuff by the OP to the point where we're talking about nylon strings?

Please forgive for I am a bear of very little brain.

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 03:27 AM

Nice sound on nylon
nylon guitar

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 06:00 PM

A few years back the IBC (International Blues Challenge) solo winner showed up with just a violin and won it all???

Go figure???

B~

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Don Firth
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 01:47 PM

The ukulele is a Polynesian version of the Portuguese Cavaquinho, brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese explorers. The Cavaquinho was strung with either wire or gut strings. What the native Hawaiians strung them with, I'm not sure. Probably gut of some kind.

Incidentally, the lute in its various incarnations and permutations was strung with gut. Considering that lutes were double-strung in what were called "courses" and generally had at least six courses (11 strings, the top string, called the "chanterelle," was single) and sometimes as many as eighteen (or more)—and were tuned with one-to-one ratio push-pegs—must have been real fun to keep in playing condition.

Desmond Dupré, the lutenist in the Alfred Deller Consort, quoted a passage from an old instruction book for the lute, which said, "If the the lutenist lives to the ripe old age of ninety years, he will have spent sixty of those years tuning his instrument!"

CLICKY.

Don Firth

P. S. I tend to think that the lute is probably not all that suitable for blues.

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 12:59 PM

Has everyone seen Tony Palmer's blues episode from BBC's ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE? Killer footage. Doug Saum

Subject: RE: Blues Videos and Blues History
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 09:55 AM

Hey, why not???

Heck, I play a Lowebow (cigar box, two 1 1/4" dowel rods for a neck and 4 strings with 'lecrified pickups and play a 5 string 'lectric geetar made from a slab of wood so like they say, "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones"...

BTW, for anyone interested, John Hurt's daughter attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. and she stayed with Archie Edward and his wife... John Hurt later spent a lot of time in the D.C. area and toured with Archie in Europe...

B~