The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #75521   Message #1328928
Posted By: Big Al Whittle
16-Nov-04 - 03:02 PM
Thread Name: Why doesn't anyone talk about Leadbelly?
Subject: RE: Why doesn't anyone talk about Leadbelly?
Hmm...not quite that simple, Lonnie J was one of the greats no doubt....but Robert johnson was something else again.

All I can say is look at any one of the great players around nowadays who can play the Robert Johnson songbook. There are two or three that approach genius standard..... Kevin Brown in this country, Scott Ainslie over in the states. Not just banging out a robert j blues and knowing the words, but guys who can get all the rhythmic complexity.

listen to their own songs and then listen to them doing one of roberts. And suddenly you get measure of the man - the first thing that strikes you is the economy and richness of his use of language. What he had was a vision.......a whole landscape in his head and his hands, and he got it out, got it down. Like Picasso or Shakespeare. there is a completeness about rj. Someone said that great artists create alternative universes - for me that was robert johnson.