Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?

Subject: BS: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: Steve.Bramer
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 01:59 AM

Can blues be contemporary? Is blues updateable? If you mix blues with, say, rock - is that really blues. Or is it bluesy rock?

Subject: RE: BS: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 02:55 AM

Blues has no definition. If your soul feels a groove and you want to call it a blues groove-then it is.

Subject: RE: BS: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: Peace
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 02:59 AM

This looks like 'what is folk music'. IMO, it's not a contradiction, and blues IS updateable. If not, we're gonna end up with only 500-year-old songs to sing in a half millenium from now. And where would THAT be at?

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: The Shambles
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 04:18 AM

All music is made in the moment.

Yes you can record it and write it down but the real thing - live music -is always in the air for that moment in time. It may not be in exactly the form that it may have existed in he past, mainly because even with the same elements in place - to exactly reproduce it is not really possible anyway.

It may also be in a different form at some point in the future (let us hope that it will) but all live music - by definition is made in the air at that moment. There has always been, there is NOW and there will always be - only contempory blues.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: M.Ted
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 09:44 AM

Also, rock is based on blues--the rock beat is one of a number of different blues beats, so when you mix rock with blues, you are really aren't mixing at all--

However, with no disrespect to Rustic Rebel, musically, blues is pretty clearly defined--otherwise no one could learn to play it--

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 10:00 AM

"Contemporary blues" is a lot easier to say than "contemporary music based on and reflective of, but not limited to, the generally accepted conventions of the blues genre".

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 10:01 AM

Please read the following. Is it contemporary? yes. Is it blues? Yes. That should answer the question.

When I first met you, baby
You fed me on chicken and wine
It was steak, and potatoes, and lobster
And babe, I sure felt fine
But now all you give me is seaweed and alfalfa sprouts
And sunflower seeds, and I got my doubts
Babe, you left me here with the chicken cordon bleus

My stomach's so empty
And all I got is food for thought
And I've been sittin' here thinkin'
'Bout the twenty pounds of groceries we bought
We bought ten pounds of brown rice, and five more of beans
And five pounds of granola, and you know what that means
I'm just a regular fella with the chicken cordon bleus


I'm starved for affection
And babe, I can't take no more
You know this stuff is so weird
That the cockroaches moved next door
Babe, can you see that old dog? He's out in the street
He's got a big smile on his face 'cause they let him eat meat
I've got you, baby, and I've got the chicken cordon bleus.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: GUEST,Frank
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 03:00 PM

The blues goes on. It has various forms. One of the greatest in my opinon was Charlie Parker. He advanced the blues. KC bands such as Jay McShann were playing the blues. Louis played the blues. Count Basie and the Duke. Larry Carlton played blues too.

It is constantly growing and changing.

Frank

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: GUEST,Clint Keller
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 03:10 PM

No.

If you play it now, it's contemporary, and it'll sound contemporary.

Anything you play -- anything you do has the mark of the time upon it. You cannot play historical Blind Lemon Jefferson because you ain't there, you're here, and unfortunately there's nothing you can do about it.

clint

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 03:24 PM

That's what thgey call a non-sequitur. It just doesn't follow.

As Shambles pointed out, live music is always contemporary, or it wouldn't be live. Contemporeary just means happening right now. And any musician is either going to be trying to copy note for note something they heard, or they'll be creating something out of their own lives. Or something in between.

The thing that makes music blues is the structure, which is always there to be adoted or adapted, and the mood and the attitude, and the same goes for that. The bottom line is, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 03:24 PM

That's what they call a non-sequitur. It just doesn't follow.

As Shambles pointed out, live music is always contemporary, or it wouldn't be live. Contemporeary just means happening right now. And any musician is either going to be trying to copy note for note something they heard, or they'll be creating something out of their own lives. Or something in between.

The thing that makes music blues is the structure, which is always there to be adopted or adapted, and the mood and the attitude, and the same goes for that. The bottom line is, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: Eric the Streetsinger
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 03:26 PM

I haven't heard "Chicken Cordon Bleu's" in an awfully long time.
Was it Steve Goodman who wrote it? I have a friend who occasionally
dabbles in the blues (Poor Howard Stith) who plays that tune as a
humerous break in the midst of more serious blues fare. Nice to
see it quoted!

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: M.Ted
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 12:58 AM

I was just thinking about Steve Goodman the other day, Leeneia--thanks for thinking of him too--

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 11:14 PM

Thanks, y'all. According to one website I saw, Steve Goodman wrote it in collaboration with two others, whose names I didn't note.

I've been singing it lately while working in the kitchen.

Somebody said it was Steve Goodman's most famous song, but I suspect "The City of New Orleans" deserves that title.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: GUEST,Peter A
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 02:58 AM

Once Charley Patton was a contemporary. The question that started this thread has a wrong perspective. In fact it's a question of music style, content and time.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 08:17 AM

No ..'contemporary blues' is not a contradiction. Blues, as a style of music, will evolve, just like other styles have evolved. The form or the shape may change, but the basic element, the feel, if you will, is what remains throughout time.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: GUEST,Normal
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 08:26 AM

What a load of shite!

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: Wesley S
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 10:06 AM

There are some wonderful contempory blues singers out there right now. Steve James from Austin Texas, Geoff Muldaur, Rory Block among others are all covering classic blues songs and writing new ones of their own. As long as you have people and emotions you'll have the blues.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 06:45 AM

I tend to agree with "Normal"

It would appear that several people on this thread need to do some listening to some serious blues.

Steve Goodman ??? good writer,singer and musician but BLUES ??
and sadly he is no longer with us, hasn't been for some years so hardly contemporary.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 05:25 PM

I don't think anyone was contending that Steve Goodman was primarily a blues artist. The song "Chicken Cordon Bleus" was mentioned first -- admittedly, not a hard-core blues classic, but a novelty/parody in the blues form -- and then Mr. Goodman was identified as the songwriter.

But I do agree with Normal and Hootenanny that the original question is meaningless or moot or whatever. Whatever we sing and play today is by definition "contemporary," whether or not we're trying to emulate an old historic style.

I think the mentality that differentiates between "contemporary" and "authentic" forms is closely akin to a mentality that tries to slavishly duplicate every accidental variation of a lyric, every dropped beat, every spoken aside, etc., of the "real version" of a song (that is, a particular reveared or "historic" recording).

It's more intelligent, I believe, to approach any recording as one of many possible interpretations of the song, as performed by a given artist on one particular occasion; to make an informed judgement as to which aspects of the performance are accidental variants and which are integral to the song; and finally to create one's own interpretation of what one perceives as the essential "core" of the song.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: John P
Date: 01 Sep 04 - 08:26 AM

I play the blues. I'm contempory. I wrote a new blues song last month. It's brand new and it's the blues. How not?

John Peekstok

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 01 Sep 04 - 09:26 AM

I've always thought of "Blues" as more of a way of feeling or looking at life, rather than a specifically historically based artform. People have similiar problems today with their lifestyle - probably in many more ways than were available in the past. I therefore see no contradictiction in terms.

An argument can be made about the term "contemporary folk music", but I see folk as living tradition and I don't even support that one.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 01 Sep 04 - 01:06 PM

Steve, you started with the wrong question. A better question: How do I define "blues" and does my definition allow for something called "contemporary blues"?

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: M.Ted
Date: 01 Sep 04 - 02:34 PM

Poppagator, you are the man!! I have taken your little essay an pasted it into a stickie post-it note on my desktop---a blue note, of course!

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 01 Sep 04 - 05:13 PM

Gee, thanks, M. Ted. It feels GREAT to get a little positive feedback like that!

I suppose that paragraphs 3 & 4 can stand alone easily enough; the first two 'graphs are just introductory, referring to earlier passages in the thread. I feel like I was able to state an opinion I have held for a *long* time in a fairly nice, concise manner.

(I'm just a bit embarrassed to have misspelled "revered.")

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 May 06 - 06:44 PM

Wow. I started this question and then didn't come back for two years. I'm amazed at the number of responses. I see also that no one else has added to this thread in a while - so this may go out into the ether that I thought would receive the original question.

I agree that there is no contradiction. I'm from Chicago and I've played the blues circuit here a lot. Not everyone here shares my opinion, and that's really what led me to enter the question. I've heard many Chicago musicians debunk the idea that anything contemporary can really be blues. And those are guys playing in the blues bars! So what is Buddy Guy then dudes???? Not to mention B.B. King.

To me, blues is a style and a feel. Both are timeless. You nail either and you've got a blues. I think that blues are best expressed as a personal statement at a moment in time. A good recording captures that moment, but no recordings of the past invalidate what any musician might express today or in the future.

The argument is really around whether the blues is a dead form. Whether it ran its course with Blind Lemon, or with Muddy ... etc. I say its alive and well. Learn from the past, but don't hesitate to move forward. If it feels like a blues, it will be a blues.

and on the other hand ... if it aint, it don't matter. Express yourself anyway.

Sleping Dog Records





[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: Peace
Date: 11 May 06 - 12:09 AM

People today have the blues as much as people back when and then did. For all I know, the first real blues singer was a woman who lost her man to a pack of hyenas somewhere in Africa. Just because she didn't have a guitar don't mean she didn't have the blues--and sing about it.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 May 06 - 12:50 PM

Did anyone last night see Conan O'Brien, late night talk show host, play electric blues? At the moment his show is emanating from Chicago and he played with a blues player whose name I didn't catch.

I enjoyed it.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: GUEST,DB
Date: 11 May 06 - 02:56 PM

In my experience many of the people who seek to 'update' traditional forms, like the Blues, end up performing Rock music. And the trouble with Rock music is that it is all-pervasive and has completely saturated contemporary Anglo-American popular culture. So, by all means seek to 'update' traditional forms but WE DON'T NEED ANY MORE F***ING ROCK MUSIC!!!!!

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 May 06 - 03:26 PM

this is how it is.

you play, you gig, you do your thing

if it helps your sense of what you're doing to call yourself blues shouter, a gregorian chanter, a folksinger, .....its allowed.

Its a democracy. Call yourself anything except policeman, or a doctor. there are laws against that.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: Steve.Bramer
Date: 19 May 06 - 12:28 AM

Ebbie - Don't know. Didn't see it . But I'd bet my life it was Buddy Guy. They probably played Legends afterward. That's were all the celebrities go to be seen with a famous bluesman in Chicago. Its like a pilgrimage.

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: redsnapper
Date: 19 May 06 - 05:47 AM

No it is not.

RS (blues player: both "traditional" and "contemporary")

Subject: RE: Is 'contemporary blues' a contradiction?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 19 May 06 - 04:44 PM

I'm sure this short ditty by Steve Goodman is known by all, but here it is anyway:

      My baby came to me this morning, and said, "I'm rather confused.
      If me and B.B.King were drowning, which one would you choose?"
      And I said, " Oh baby, Oh baby, oh baby. I ain't never heard
      you play no blues!"