The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #152354   Message #3570484
Posted By: Bobert
27-Oct-13 - 10:36 AM
Thread Name: Traditional Music: Where are we going wrong?
Subject: RE: Traditional Music: Where are we going wrong?
You're welcome, CS...

I remember lots of discussions back when I was a regular at Archie Edwards Barber Shop Saturday afternoon jam seesion about the blues... Some folks feel that all blues are the same... Even blues players and, I guess if you strip all the layers off then I kinda see that thinking...

But to me, it's the layers and the rhythms that make the different styles different... I kinda but the blues into several different categories that vary from region to region...

*Chicago Blues: Lots of horns and with them a jazz feel... B.B. King, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Buddy Guy...

*Piedmont Blues: Played mostly in the Mid Atlantic with more intricate finger picking style and less emphasis on a hard back beat... John Jackson, Mississippi John Hurt, Cephas & Wiggons

*Delta Blues: Mississippi Blues with strong slashing beat played mostly on metal bodied resonator guitars with a slide (or not) with generally 1-4-5 chord structure... Son House, Johnny Shines, Muddy Waters, Lighnin' Hopkins

North Mississippi Hill Country Blues: Similar to Delta Blues but with foot stomps and less 1-4-5 structure... Some are just one chord "Miss Maybelle" by R.L. Burnside... Some 2 chord 1-4-1-4-1 like "Catfish Blues" that lots of folks have recorded... Some with 1-4-5 like "Good Morning Little School Girl"... Mississippi Fred McDowell, T Model Ford, R.L Burnside

Texas Blues: Hybrid of country rock and blues: Stevie Ray Vaughn, "Waymore's Blues" by Waylon Jennings, Joe Richardson...

Then there are a number of blues players who kinda hybrids of the above styles: Elmore James, Little Walter, Lightnin' Slim...

Hope this is helpful but it might just "muddy the waters"... lol...

B~