Over 40 & Into Delta Blues

Subject: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From:
Date: 28 Jan 98 - 11:40 PM

Folk is fine but Delta blues is a passion of mine.

Is there anybody out there that discovered blues in "mid-life?"

I turned 40 a few few few years ago and fell into the blues and I can't get out. I don't want to but I couldn't immagine not playing or listening to the blues every spare minute of the day.

Over 40 blues fans stand up and be counted this is your official roll call!

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From:
Date: 29 Jan 98 - 10:47 AM

I'm 42 but since you didn't tell me who you are I'm not going to tell you who I am. But I started listening to blues rock as a teenager (Led Zepplin, Eric Clapton, Allman Bros. and the like), real blues (Chicago style) in my 20's and Delta and other acoustic blues in my late 20's. I got into other forms of folk starting with Irish/Celtic in my mid 30's. BTW I bet you're Gene E and my initials are JW (Right?)

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From:
Date: 29 Jan 98 - 04:01 PM

We can't help it if kids like y'all discover the blues

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: Gene E
Date: 29 Jan 98 - 09:10 PM

What in the world happened to my name?

In case this name blanking continues, JW you are right, I'm Gene E. I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin and some Led Zeppelin. I got into blues at 38. Actually I listened to lots of stuff but the accustic and bottleneck Jimmy Page rang my bell.

I'm 41 now and prefer pre-WWII Delta .

Resonators are where it's at!

Gene E

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: Ezio
Date: 30 Jan 98 - 05:51 AM

I'm 47! Anyone older out here? I began to love Irish/Celtic in my first 40's.

Ezio

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: dwditty
Date: 31 Jan 98 - 10:14 AM

Well, I just turned 50 and just keep getting deeper into the blues. It all started in high school when, instead of listening to top 40, I tuned in to WILD in Roxbury, MA - true rythm & blues station at the time. Ever since then, give me a guitar, voice, and possibly a harp, and I'm satisfied & tickled, too.

BTW, Gene, if you haven't seen it, seek out a video called Searching for Robert Johnson. Any delta freak should get it. In it, John Hammond tours the delta interviewing people who knew Robert - including Willie Mae! Some great moments with Honey Boy Edwards, too. Check it out.

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: Max
Date: 31 Jan 98 - 10:28 AM

I'm 25 and have been in love with Delta Blues for 5 years. I too started my delta blues love with Led Zeppelin and Clapton. Soon got to Robert Johnson which led me to the rest. Delta Blues and Folk come together with the likes of Leadbelly and Mississippi John Hurt and Rev. Gary Davis. Makes perfect sense to me. Needless to say, my peers don't commonly share my passion.

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: Jack mostly folk
Date: 31 Jan 98 - 11:07 AM

I guess I've always been a blues fan but never knew it.When some one pointed out that the Rolling Stones were playing and imulating the Chicago style blues I simply thought the guy was nuts. I couln't begin to compare those rocked out crazies to our American originals. UNTIL Eric Clapton blessed this world with his unplugged talents.Ah Yes ! Thats the blues....And once attended a "Blues" concert and was blasted right out of the place by over electrified rock sounds. Many of our young blues players are trying to sound like the Stones. Is it fair to say "acoustic blues"? Then there is the label I guess I can say I began enjoying the blues at forty. But I passed 40 some 13 years ago. Spider John Koerner, Taj Mahal, Brownee McGee have been around for a lot of people to discover at any age. The important thing is that you found it at age 40 and not later. Jack mostly folk

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: Gene E
Date: 31 Jan 98 - 01:50 PM

I hadn't thought about it for a while, but I think I went hard core after Clapton Unplugged. At that time I was playing harp, doin' some jams and I had to have one of those Dobros. Bought it even though I had never played guitar.

dwditty, thanks for the tip on the video.

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: Barry
Date: 31 Jan 98 - 11:44 PM

dwditty, you only got bout 3 yrs on me & you must've been in the neighborhood too if you could pick up on WILD, I grew up in Roxbury & by the time I was a teen I was going to hear alot of the old greats, Victoria Speavy, Muddy Waters,Sonny & Brownie, John Lee Hooker & I can't remember how many others. Back in the 60's all the blues people hit Boston & the younger groups came too, Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton, Charlie Musselwhite, John Hammond, Spider John & they gave due & brought the older names into the lime light. Funny, those younger days were my blues days, I guess I've followed the blues into other areas of the folk tradition & left the blues behind. There were alot of clubs in the Boston area that were great for the talent they brought , Club 47 & the Plough in Cambridge, Psyadelic (sp?) Circus, Pauls Mall (part of the old Jazz Workshop) & some big club, I think on Beacon Hill, where they were always bringing greats like Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, BB king, Albert King, Howlin Wolf, Big Mama Thornton & countless others. I don't know if it's as big a place for the blues as it was back then but it always was & still is as big a place for folk & I suspect part of it lays with it's musically diverse roots. When my father was dying I brought him some Billy Holiday tapes to listen to, back in his beatneck days he'd hang with her & others that liked that stuff, while in Boston or New York. both places have always been great for keeping a lit torch while the music dimed elsewhere. Barry

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: joemando
Date: 01 Feb 98 - 08:17 AM

I just turned 43, and I've been into acoustic blues and folk music for ten or twelve years (at this age the memory gets fuzzy). Listened to a lot of rock in my younger days (now it's classic rock). I play guitar and mandolin and it's great not having to plug in. I like to play the blues on my mando.

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: Earl
Date: 01 Feb 98 - 05:46 PM

Like a lot of people I started out listening to Cream, John Mayall, Paul Butterfield and bands like that. At the same time I was listening to Tom Rush, Dave Van Ronk, Koerner, Ray and Glover. These days I'd much rather hear the original recordings but I did learn a lot from the white boys.

I also play blues mandolin. With so many great blues guitarists now, it's nice to be able to add a different sound.

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: Gene E
Date: 01 Feb 98 - 10:46 PM

Earl, joemando

I'd like to hear that blues mandolin, I bet it sounds great.

You know my ability is limited to resonator guitar and harp but blues is great in a cazoo, jug or what ever.

I got ramblin' on my mind . . .

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: dwditty
Date: 02 Feb 98 - 06:16 AM

Barry, you might be trying to remember a club called the Boston Tea Party - out near Fenway somewhere. In fact, I caught BB there one night. - BTW, I grew up on the Cape - could only get WILD at night from my home on the north side of the Cape.

Gene, check out Ry Cooder's Boomer's Story and Into the Purple Valley albums for some very tasty blues mandolin licks.

DW

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: Earl
Date: 02 Feb 98 - 07:56 AM

"Paradise and Lunch" is another good Ry Cooder mandolin recording. A lot of Sleepy John Estes records include nice mandolin playing by Yank Rachel. Yank died last year after making one last recordin with John Sebastian's J Band.

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: hanrahan
Date: 02 Feb 98 - 08:39 AM

...saw the Greatful Dead, Traffic, Fairport Convention, Buddy Guy at the Boston Tea Party...and it must have been 1968 when i saw BB King at the Newport Folk Fest and '69 Newport Jazz Fest had an unbelievable jam with BB and Johnny Winter and then Led Zepplin finished the night. We also heard Gerry Mulligan and Buddy Rich ...it took me & a buddy all night hitch-hiking to get back to New Bedford...seems like yesterday.

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: Jon W.
Date: 02 Feb 98 - 12:39 PM

One of the few blues mandolin songs I ever heard was Charlie McCoy, "That Lonesome Train Took My Baby." I believe I posted the lyrics in another thread some months ago. It's a great song. If anyone has mando tablature for it, I'd be ever grateful. I've got a homemade resonator mando that would be perfect for the song, but I don't really know how to play it.

BTW I'm the 42-year-old who posted the second message in this thread.

Jon W.

Subject: RE: Over 40 & Into Delta Blues
From: Bob Landry
Date: 03 Feb 98 - 06:00 PM

I'm pushin' 51 and a blues fan, too. Didn't get to hear much of it as a lad since the radio stations in Cape Breton were predominantly C&W with smattering of hit-parade and celtic shows. I did listen to some of them far away Amurican stations like WKBW and WNEW after the sun went down on my trusty old transistor radio and got my start with rock-a-billy and R&B ...when I could find it. I am catching up with the rest of you guys - my cd collection is expanding, along with my repertoire and my mid-section.