The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #31334   Message #648961
Posted By: GUEST,Iceboy
13-Feb-02 - 05:55 AM
Thread Name: Modern Blues Players, your thoughts.
Subject: RE: Modern Blues Players, your thoughts.
Does anyone here agree that Lonnie Johnson is the missing link between country blues and late-sixties B.B.? His brilliance in D/C position and his focus on that position box based around the g-b-e strings with root on the b is something you never hear B.B. talk about, but Lonnie Johnson mapped it out and used it like he owned it! The late sixies to present are not my favorite era of B.B., but I think his style in that period owes Lonnie Johnson a huge debt that's never beeen acknowledged. Re: Bloomfield; he got a lot from the Westsiders, yes, maybe from Otis Rush more than anyone, but he was so damn busy most of the time! He lacked impact and focus for this reason. Duke Roillard's an outstanding guitarist, no doubt. Seems to balance technical proficiency with passion, imagination, taste, and an encyclopedic stylistic knowledge as well as anyone I know of. B.B. influenced hugely by T-Bone? Hard to buy. I'm sure he was a great admirer of T-Bone's, but his sound and phrasing don't sound similar. I'd put him closer to Joe Willie Wilkins, Pete Lewis, and Willie Johnson.