Question about Blues artists

Subject: Question about Blues artists
From: Susan of California
Date: 24 Sep 98 - 12:35 PM

I have always enjoyed music that has a "bluesy" feel, and I am starting to buy actual blues stuff, but I am don't like to spend $15 on a CD when I know nothing about the artist. I love Muddy Waters & Keb' Mo', does anyone have thoughts on other blues stuff that I might like?

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Paul
Date: 24 Sep 98 - 01:09 PM

Susan:

Almost everyone who ever played with Muddy is fabulous. Try Otis Spann, Pinetop Perkins, Little Walter Jacobs, "Steady-Rollin'" Bob Margolin, Jimmy Rogers, James Cotton, Big Walter Horton, Junior Wells. Also try Sonny Boy Williamson, and Howlin' Wolf.

Any Keb' Mo' I've heard has seemed a bit experimental to me, but I haven't heard a lot. But here are some good acoustic blues: John Hammond, Rory Block, Jackson Delta, Roy Rogers (but not THAT Roy Rogers). There are also a lot of good old bluesman from the early part of the century (Son House, Robert Johnson, Yank Rachell), but this stuff might be a little intense for a new blues fan. It's best to start in the '50's and '60's, then work your way back from there.

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Dave T
Date: 24 Sep 98 - 01:34 PM

Seems to me there was a thread a while ago called "Favourite Blues Artists" or something similar. Try searching for the thread; there are many suggestions. If you're not sure of the CD, ask to listen to it in the store; many place will let you do this. Blues has such a wide range of styles, it's difficult to recommend something. Muddy Waters is usually assocviated with the elctric Chicago Blues even though he was born and raised in the Delta. Try other chocago blues artists like Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, etc. Also B.B. King is pretty accessible blues. If you want hear some of the real roots of this music you'll have to listen to older artists and recordings: Robert Johnson, Son House, Missisippi John Hurt, Blind Willie McTell. But beware, the recording quality isn't always great and it's somewhat of an acquired taste (like good scotch). As I said earlier, try to listen before you buy.

Dave T

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Allan C.
Date: 24 Sep 98 - 02:33 PM

Take a listen to the selections you will find at:

http://www.island.net/~blues/

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Earl
Date: 24 Sep 98 - 03:17 PM

One of the features of Keb Mo's first album is that it made country blues a little more accessible to mainstream audiences. Two other contemporary artists who do this are Guy Davis and Corey Harris. Both of these guys are truer to the material than Keb Mo but are just as easy to listen to.

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Jon W.
Date: 24 Sep 98 - 04:24 PM

A multi-volume set of albums of Chicago style blues called "Living Chicago Blues", which came out in the late '70s-early '80s, is good if you like electric urban blues. The performers are lesser known and they tend to do blues standards mostly, so it's a good foundation. It is available on CD.

For a classic, authentic, first-generation blues performer who is easy on the ears, get some Mississippi John Hurt music. Also even the earliest Big Bill Broonzy stuff would appeal to modern ears. Both of these guys were first recorded in the 1920's, I think.

Subject: Question about Blues artists
From:
Date: 24 Sep 98 - 05:52 PM

I have always enjoyed music that had a "bluesy" feel, and I am starting to listen to real blues, but I worry about spending $15 per CD when I no nothing about the artist. I really like Muddy Waters and Keb'Mo', does anyone have any recommendations for me?

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Susan of California
Date: 24 Sep 98 - 05:56 PM

oops! I'll eventually figure this out! Sorry...

Thanks for all the suggestions-I will try some of them!!!

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Zorro
Date: 24 Sep 98 - 06:50 PM

My personal favorite is (was) Lightin' Hopkins. He was a country blues singer, great down home sound. My suggestion is to get or listen to CD's & Tapes that have various performers, Time Life has some, other names escape me and see what you like.

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From:
Date: 24 Sep 98 - 09:14 PM

I agree that both Lightnin' Hopkins and Big Bill Broonzy are good "transition" artists from the old country to the newer urban blues.

I would also add Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. They played right through and beyond the folk boom of the 60s

They represent the lighter hearted Carolina-style blues. Sonny Terry (harmonica) was right in ther at the beginning, accompanying Blind Boy Fuller.

When Fuller died suddenly, Brownie McGhee inherited his National Resophonic and Sonny Terry. That, of course is an over simplification; but Terry does provide a bridge.

Both were friends of Leadbelly and even lived with him for a while. Terry recorded with him on the Folkways label

McGhee's father was also an old-time guitarist--I have read of the ragtime school.

And speaking of Leadbelly, he was a general songster and didn't stick to the blues; but he does a good job with them and tempered his style to be palatable to his urban white listeners of the 40s and 50s. He is worth listening to.

Murray

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: neil lowe
Date: 25 Sep 98 - 10:18 AM

Although Jimmy Reed isn't in the "Chicago Blues" genre, I think you would enjoy his music. He developed what came to be known as the "Memphis sound." His sound and style still remain contemporary even though his stuff was recorded in the fifties. "Rockin' with Reed" has an (you guessed it) up beat fifties rock'n'roll sound about it. A la American Bandstand, it has a good beat and it's danceable.

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Jon W.
Date: 25 Sep 98 - 10:33 AM

If you play Jimmy Reed double time, you get Chuck Berry.

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 25 Sep 98 - 11:37 AM

I would heartily second Murray's suggestion for anything by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee; they've always been favorites of mine.

And for good-time Chicago foot-stompin, house-rockin music, be sure to check out some of the following:

Elmore James (there's a good 2-CD set from Capricorn; reissues of sessions produced and recorded by Bobby Robinson in the very early 60s.)

J.B. Hutto and the Hawks. J.B. was an Elmore protege and carried on his tradition of electric slide and howling vocals in fine style.

Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers. Several albums out on Alligator; every one worth picking up.

Howlin Wolf. Another of the greats who moved from the Delta to Chicago and electrified the post-war blues world. Many, many recordings to choose from for the Wolf, but a good place to start might be a 3-CD boxed set from Chess that covers virtually every phase of his career.

I love Koko Taylor ("The Earthshaker"), too. She's a terrific performer with a great big voice and a sly sense of humor. Check out her classic "You Can Have My Husband...(But Please Don't Mess With My Man!)".

A few other blues musicians I've always liked: Earl Hooker ("Two Bugs and a Roach" on Arhoolie Records), John Lee Hooker (tons of things from the 40s to the present), Willie Dixon (tremendous songwriter and fine performer in his own right), Roy Buchanan, David Bromberg.

Such lists being arbitrary, highly idiosyncratic and liable to go on forever, I'll leave you with these for now.

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Paul
Date: 25 Sep 98 - 01:10 PM

Oh yeah, Zorro. How could I have forgotten about Lightnin'? But it's a good idea to start with his later stuff, then work back to his early days. It's all good.

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Susan of California
Date: 25 Sep 98 - 05:14 PM

Dang, I guess I had better start a list for Santa soon! I ordered a couple, but now I have another question. From what I can gather from the suggestions, Chicago blues are more "rock like" and how would any other "schools of blues" be categorizied, even if the generalizations are sweeping?

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: harpgirl
Date: 25 Sep 98 - 05:34 PM

..but don't forget Susan...you've got to SUFFER if you want to SING the blues....harpgirl

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Roger Himler
Date: 25 Sep 98 - 06:26 PM

Susan,

The blues developed an an African American art form. It is difficult to categorize prior to the 1920's because there were no recording capabilities and no one was writing this down the way Bach was written down.

Many blues musicians were itinerant, but there seem to have been some styles that developed within a locality. Areas well-known for their blues are: the Missiissippi Delta area, Texas, the Piedmont area, and Florida (this is not an exhaustive list). The music was spread both by the itinerant musicians and the development of the Juke Box. The early recordings of blues were either by collectors like Lomax or by for profit companies servicing the Juke Boxes.

In the 30's and 40's, southern African Americans moved toward the factory towns of the north, primarily Chicago. There they were introduced to electric guitars and the Chicago blues were developed.

It is hard to categorize to a novice (as you present yourself), but I will give it a shot. The blues are primarily (but not exclusively) a guitar based music. Often the solo performer is trying to imitate the work of the bass guitar, the rhythm guitar, and the lead guitar all at once.

Delta blues is characterized by a strong persistant muffled bass beat. Frequent use of a slide and open tunings is also common. The guitar leads are independent of the bass and frequently feature a repetitive melodic figure with minor variations.

The other styles tend to utilize a rhythmic figure created using both the bass and treble strings of the guitar. The emphasis on improvisation continues throughout the song, and there maybe less repetition than in the Delta blues.

Many individual performers developed personal styles that are immediately identifiable to the practices ear. Mississippi John Hurt and Reverend Gary Davis come immediately to my mind.

Susan (and others) this is really off the top of my head. Others more learned than I may contradict this information with veracity.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Anne
Date: 25 Sep 98 - 06:47 PM

Lay your $15.00 on a CD by Chris Smither "Happier Blue." He's new-blue and oh so sexy... Anne

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Roger Himler
Date: 26 Sep 98 - 12:31 PM

Susan,

I must have given you such a good description that no one had anything to add. I am shocked. I am also shocked that I didn't think to mention the Blues Museum on the Mudcat Cafe main page. It will tell you some about individual artists and give you some links to blues information. It is really a treasure trove!!!

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Peter T.
Date: 27 Sep 98 - 12:24 PM

Dear Susan,

H

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Peter T.
Date: 27 Sep 98 - 12:33 PM

Hi, I haven't been here in awhile, mostly because I haven't felt I had anything to contribute. I noticed this thread, and I thought that I would put in my two cents about buying records, as I went through this personally some time ago. I spent a lot more than 2 cents, and had a lot of fun, and some frustration.

I think the history can be told in a number of ways, but there are worse ways than working back down the line earlier discussed in this thread that goes through Muddy Waters who was the pivot between the earlier blues and the later blues. Muddy came out of the matrix of the Mississippi Delta Blues whose most famous masters are Charlie Patton, Son House, and Robert Johnson, who in turn synthesized and created material borrowing from people like Blind Lemon Jefferson (of "Matchbox" fame) who were around in the 1910s-20s. It was said to me once that Charlie Patton was the Father, Son was the Son, and Robert was the Holy Devil. That is more or less the historical sequence anyway, though there were other borrowings and lots of other stuff going on elsewhere in the country. Much of the history is rhythmically if artificially divided by the cycles of the recording industry, which was in turn dependent on the Depression. So if you go looking for records, what you will find is a lot of late 20's material, and then almost nothing until 1939 41, when Alan Lomax carted his tape recorder south and made the extraordinary tapes that are usually available as Smithsonian or Library of Congress recordings, or slightly repackaged. As well as blues singers, he and colleagues also taped prison farm workers and others who were still singing early work songs. Leadbelly is the most famous of these prison workers, although other blues singers like Son House were in and out of prison.

The two best compilation records I know -- and cheap!!-- of this whole period are: Yazoo's "Friends of Charlie Patton" (Yazoo 2002 CD) which is recordings of people just before the Depression hit; and the Columbia "Legends of The Blues, Vol. 1" in their Roots and Blues Series (WCT 46215 -- that's a cassette number). The Columbia compilation is an amazing bargain that has a selection of practically everybody who mattered (well, there is no Tampa Red, and no..., But anyway). It also has one very valuable cut (for reasons to be explained shortly) that is practically unobtainable: "Hard Day Blues" by Muddy Waters, which was recorded but never released in 1946.

The next great divide in the sequence is when Muddy Waters joined the migration north to Chicago in 1942 (war work meant that there were lots of jobs there). When next he appears on records, he has gone electric, and is about to start on the sequence beginning with "I Can't Be Satisfied (1948 to the present day). The part that is missing (next empty nonrecording cycle) is what happened between 1942 and 1947 when Muddy and others went seriously urban electric -- except for one or two pieces like "Hard Day Blues" that catch the shift as it is happening. The harder, electric blues being born. You also get a taste of it on the Big Joe Williams piece, "Don't You Leave Me Here" (an early version of "Baby Please Don't Go") from the same time, with Sonny Boy Williamson on harmonica. The same problem happened in Jazz at exactly the same moment, where the shift from swing music to bebop happened while the recording industry was shut down from the war, embargoes on the use of vinyl, and strikes. So the early Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie are virtually all on dreadful recordings from people with portable tape recorders in noisy bars. But that is another saga.

If the earlier blues stuff interests you, apart from the Columbia Robert Johnson albums and a Charlie Patton collection, the two famous Library of Congress Sesssion albums are: Muddy Waters, the Complete Plantation Recordings (1941- 2) and Son House, Delta Blues (1941-42). You frankly have to be really hooked on this stuff to work your way through all of it, but for fans these are critical. Of related interest in Alan Lomax's book The Land Where the Blues Began (1992) which not only gives you the history of the blues, but tells you how the records came to be made. It makes them all the more precious. The story of how Son House gets recorded is utterly terrifying -- virtually clandestine recordings in a humiliating police state.

Legends of the Blues, Vol. 1 also has, as its last piece, Son House's Death Letter Blues, the great classic blues song that he sings with unrivalled passion (I am biased!). It was recorded in 1965, after Son was rediscovered living up north, where he had been living in complete obscurity for 30 years. There is an album of all that session, which is also fine, but a bit much unless you are hooked. You might also be interested in a blues compilation from the Newport Festival -- "Blues What a Feeling" -- on Vanguard I think -- don't have the reference. Also any books by Robert Palmer and Paul Oliver. Women blues singers is another whole issue: Yazoo has a two CD compilation called "I Can't Be Satisfied", but one problem is that the material most of these women worked with was bluesy in terms of their voices and the content, but the music is usually more jazz or pop-oriented, because of the demands of the market. But the hard core stuff, of which there is some, is powerful all the same, and often nicely filthy. Legends of the Blues has Memphis Minnie!

Hope this helps, or is at least interesting. Didn't want this thread to die too soon! Didn't want you to get the "Buying Blues Records Blues".

Yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Gene E
Date: 27 Sep 98 - 01:35 PM

Susan,

You've gotten lots of good advice and all I can add is that it is helpfull to buy compilation CDs with many performers. That's how I discovered Missippi Fred McDowell . . Get his "First Recordings" CD, and you'll discover a whole new world.

To find out what the bluEs has done to me look HERE

Gene

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: Roger Himler
Date: 27 Sep 98 - 07:18 PM

Peter T.,

Thanks for the information.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Question about Blues artists
From: BSeed
Date: 27 Sep 98 - 08:08 PM

It's more than just African rhythms, isn't it? I don't think blues harmonics are of european origin. has anyone determined the source of the 12 bar structure? --seed