the shadows playing is just rather unimaginative music, it is nothing to do with being grumpy, but more to do with being factual. i think the fact they inspired anyone is amusing , but if i was to accept your statement it does not mean that their music has any more worth,they were promoted and hyped and we were fed a diet of their music and were not able to discover better music until a later point. they were commercial, in culinary terms they were like spaghetti served in tins or white procea bread and of their time, just like the aforementioned food , unimaginative boring and bland
They remind me of stefan grossman a man who was technically good but lacked musical soul a mathematician posing as a musician
however grossman exposed guitarists to finer players like john hurt and robertjohnson, in my opinion he inspired more people to and exposed many europeans to brilliant guitarisrs such as missipi john hurt robert johnson.blind blake
the shadows were musicalprocessed white bread