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20 Jul 99 - 09:17 PM (#97521) Subject: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: j0_77 I began in the '60's and the older I get the more I love this yummmie stuff. Heard the Rolling Stones - researched *their* sources and found Charlie Patton. I had to stomp ma feet :) 'Oh lordy Momma - whoaaaa Mule geee ...'
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21 Jul 99 - 06:09 AM (#97600) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: To answer your first question - Martin Simpson . . For 'just' blues, his Smoke and Mirrors CD is an essential (and the shortcomings in attributions weren't his fault, honest . . ). Check out: http://www.watershed-arts.com/msimpson.html As for why? Well, how long IS a piece of string? G. |
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21 Jul 99 - 07:46 AM (#97611) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Steve Parkes I started looking up the names on Dylan's sleeve notes ... thirty years on, and I'm still amamzed by it all. I wish my fingers would try and keep up a bit better though! Steve |
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21 Jul 99 - 09:13 AM (#97625) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Easy Rider I do (acoustic Country Blues). I started playing Folk, in the mid sixties, and, when I discovered Rock & Roll, I found that they were listening to people like Robert Johnson, so I discovered Country Blues. Then, I discovered Mississippi John Hurt, and I was stuck on the Country Blues. It was downhill all the way from there! I play fingerstyle, and the Blues is more interesting to play. It's got soul. EZR
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21 Jul 99 - 10:42 AM (#97650) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Neil Lowe I grew up listening to all the (now) rock legends who cut their teeth and cultivated their chops in the "psychedelic" bands of the 60's. Surprisingly enough, I don't idolize these players now as much as I did then; it seems like they deconstructed themselves over the years. People like Clapton who, although he still claims he's nothing more than a blues guitarist, have remade themselves in the image of pop icon. I think he played better thirty years ago. Less finesse, more raw feeling and power. I started reading liner notes and discovered, like EZ, that these guys were borrowing heavily from "old timers" like Robert Johnson et al, as well as from more modern practitioners like Jimmy Reed, Howlin' Wolf, and John Lee Hooker. I am still amazed at the influence these guys had on rock music - how the essential, "raw" feeling imparted to the music by the old blues artists combined with the amplified, high volume chops of the hard rockers. I was listenin' to a Howlin' Wolf compilation of greatest hits or some such, and realized that every song on that cassette had been covered at one time or another by some rock band. I still seek out the emerging groups who like to keep it simple: just guitar, bass, drums, and stacks of amplifiers cranked up to about 110 db; musicians young enough to still have the stamina to play as well as listen to set after set of music so loud as to actually be physically exhausting, who are not worried that the music they play and style of life they have chosen to lead will make them old way before their time, or cut them down in their prime. Like Janis Joplin, who poured a little part of her finite self into blues arrangements like "Summertime," or Big Mama Thornton's "Ball and Chain," until eventually she used herself up. For me, Blues is an existentialist-driven attitude; a relentlessly hard and apathetic approach to life; a grim acknowledgement that we were kicked out of The Garden Of Eden a long time ago, on our own and clawing our way up the walls of a godless universe. With our "there-ain't no-guarantees" commandment shadowing all our intentions and purpose. In other words, I like the uplifting and inspirational message of the blues ;-) Regards, Neil (who forgot to take his medication) |
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21 Jul 99 - 10:51 AM (#97655) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Peter T. You play the blues when you have the blues. -- Son House. |
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21 Jul 99 - 11:04 AM (#97661) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Steve Latimer I found the blues the same way that Neil did. At about thirteen years of age I heard Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Johnny Winter and a few others through a friend's older brother. I was originally drawn to Johnny for his rock stuff, but then started to pay attention to his electric blues, and finally started noticing his acoustic slide stuff. Johnny did some wonderful originals (if there really is such a thing in the blues post 1935), but I began to notice that a lot of the stuff that I really liked was written by a guy named Robert Johnson. I then was given a Robert Johnson album for Christmas and realized that EVERY song on the Album had been covered by 60's rock bands. I expanded my search and have heard Son House, Bukka White, Charlie Patton, Blind Willie McTell, Tampa Red, Blind Willie Johnson and some others. I now find that this is the music I prefer, just pure, unadulterated music with loads of passion. I like many diferrent forms of music, but it must have feel or I'm not interested. Interestingly enough, I rarely listen to Clapton or page any more, but I still listen to Johnny as he returned his focus to the blues and continues to have the true feel of the music. I recently discovered Taj Mahal and find he stays true to the form as well.
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21 Jul 99 - 11:16 AM (#97667) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Art Thieme Comin' from Chicago, it was hard not to get the blues---musically or otherwise. Little Walter, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters---later the white kids found it the way Bix & Hoagy learned from Afro-American giants of jazz.----Kids like Butter- and Bloom- (the 2-Fields) ;-). Jim Schwall, Corky Siegel, Barry Goldberg, Steve Miller, Charlie Musselwhite, Nick Gravinitis. Only a few blues were in my repertoir, but they usually popped out when I was in the appropriate mood. Sure did enjoy being with friends, drinking boilermakers and listening to ALL OF THE ABOVE (except Bix & Hoagy) at Big John's on Wells St. in Chi---mid-60s. Art Thieme |
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21 Jul 99 - 04:50 PM (#97745) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Doctor John Why is it always stated that the early blues players had a big influence on modern rock and roll and other such stuff. The early blues men - McTell, Blake, Jefferson etc etc - were the REAL thing; just a man and guitar who did more than all these "influenced" pale attempted copyists who need a whole band, electicity, synthesizers, the lot. It's rather like me saying Van Eyck had a big influence on my art, when the fact is I try but I'm crap. Why even bother listening to them: just go out and buy the Document catalogue! Don't forget to pay your royalties!! From another aspect we probably have a false slant: early on there was plenty of other music being made (John Hurt and - later - Lead Belly show this) but the blues sold better and this is all the commercial record companies wanted and recorded to a great extent. Listen to Lead Belly's ARC recordings and then compare them with those he made for the Library of Congress and for Moses Asch. Dr John |
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21 Jul 99 - 06:53 PM (#97769) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: j0_77 Hi guys - Neal - very intersting and much inspiration- I must agree 'rawness' - its a must - adding clever licks only confuses me! Steve - me 2 - cept I got spoiled once :) by a kind blues man - Thanx for the ref Steve L seems like I seen a recording of Johnny somewhere. Now I must get it ..... Hi Easy - I love the older country style - but I cannot get them licks off grrrrrrr. Art you were thoroughly spoiled :) Notice Blind Lemon - etc have their own style - all these guys had a very unique style - Doc you got the right stuff there. I have listened and tried lots of songs - In the end I go back to the simple tracks like Huddie or some of them Florida blues men, - J Hurt grrrr I wish I had more recordings. "kingfish blues" gureat. Seems as if all the 'quotes' off of Johnson et al, only make me wanna relisten to the original and not as I thought the next release by the producer. Also I love Credance Clearwater - Rolling Stones - and Jimmy Hendrix - a genius and pity he is not still with us :( Seems to me that each Blues Person has to have their own thing - style - song - music - whatever, and in that there must be originality. Also kinda looks like it is restarting all over again seen lots of beginners playing blues recently as opposed to 'grass' or regular folk. Anywho I like this trend - I get to show off some of my weird chords. I still love that stompy Patton stuff .... Enjoyed all the posts - could read all day on the Blues ...and play all night ... neat point too bout burn out, once you get the method right, guess a player needs to take breaks. :) |
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21 Jul 99 - 07:27 PM (#97776) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Mark Clark Unlike the "sad songs" in another thread, the blues takes you up, not down. It takes a big bite of agony right out of reality and serves it up in a way that gets both the listener and the singer past the hurt. Often much better than wallowing in the pain of an old country tear jerker.
"People come and ask me, how does a poor man do, - Mark |
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21 Jul 99 - 10:46 PM (#97826) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Art Thieme jo_77---I'm still spoiled---not proud, but it's a fact. Dr. J---Sure, you're right--- the old country blues guys & gals were seminal and "the best". Lightnin' Hopkins was at his best when he was acoustic. The realist in him used electricity so he could satisfy the audiences in the jook joints where he made his living. Muddy too. But the Libr. o' Congress things Muddy did down on Stovall's Plantation in Mississippi were sure wonderful. But it was great fun to see my friends (not me) really get good at playing some of the stuff. If they were lucky to survive long enough, a few of 'em even learned the restraint that allowed 'em to quit trying to play all the notes they knew as fast as they could in every song they did. I guess that's called taste! (To mention just two mod pickers: Mike Bloomfield really was, and Paul Geremia still is, an amazing guitar player!)
Big Joe Williams wasn't I don't think, but he did put his songs across. Sheer emotion. Robt. Johnson was. Bukka, Skip James, Tommy Johnson, Lemon too. So very many... Art
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22 Jul 99 - 10:02 AM (#97988) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Steve Latimer j0_77. If you want to check out Johnny, you might want to start with his "Nothin' But The Blues" CD. This was recorded in the late seventies as was his return to the blues after playing hard edged stadium rock. |
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22 Jul 99 - 07:06 PM (#98244) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Roger in Baltimore Blues, blues, blues. I sing the blues because they touch me somewhere deep inside. The blues have a "feeling" and they pass it along. They are the music of the beat down, twisted, rejected underdog who just refuses to take it lying down. Just like some drinkers can "drink themselves sober", when I'm down I can often sing enough blues to make me happy again. And the blues are a challenge. They are varied and range in difficulty just like good jazz music. I like "feeling" more than speed. It seems few modern blues players have both. I like the spaces the blues player leaves for you to fill up anyway you want. Sometimes I am embarassed to play the blues, because I fall so short. But I play them because I love them. I learned my early blues second hand from the likes of John Hammond, Jr. and Koerner, Ray and Glover. I worked my way back to the original sources. Roger in Baltimore |
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23 Jul 99 - 01:01 AM (#98358) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Tucker I love blues, the first notation in the photo album my mom made is" Tommy loves Ice cream and Music, He loves Mule Skinner Blues". Guess what, I still love them both! Spider to the fly? Heaven. Love BB too, throw in a milk shake and we are cookin"! Give me a good electric guitar to make some riffs and I am dangerous. A shot of whiskey and a beer, Good God! Anyway love the blues. It's not that I like being down, I just love the music pattern and lead runs. |
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23 Jul 99 - 01:26 AM (#98364) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: j0_77 Interesting to see the reference to Jazz - me 2 - in fact it's my second initiation into the universe - BTW I am a wannabe bass player - :) Yup the Blues gives you back time (me anyhow) :) no they don't bring me down but up. Filling up the spaces ..hmmm i try not to do that but it's because my pickin hand is too slow. |
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23 Jul 99 - 01:32 PM (#98528) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: LEJ The Blues is a spare framework on which to build a structure of sound. The Blues is a sheet of canvas for painting soul-pictures. The Blues is a lifeline across a fault-line. The Blues is Robert Johnson sitting in the dust with an old acoustic guitar with a broken string. The Blues is Stevie Ray wailing on a Strat in front of a bank of Marshalls, and taking a helicopter ride to eternity. The Blues is the main street of Metairie, Louisiana, and the East end of London. The Blues is an echo, and a forecast. The Blues dies and is reborn every day. |
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23 Jul 99 - 03:50 PM (#98579) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: dwditty I, too, connect to the country blues - a man, a guitar, and maybe a harp. In addition to those listed above, I latched on to Willie Brown and Willie Brown and Willie Brown and Willie Brown - yes, there were at least four of them. For modern players, I still seek out the solo voice and guitar guys - John Hammond, Paul Geremia, Roy Book Binder,etc., and my personal favorite - Van Ronk. For you fingerstylists, pick up Joseph Spence - Original 1958 Field Recordings. This can't be called blues, but I guarantee you will be amazed by the synchopation of this guy. I constantly find myself listening to the spaces between the notes as much as the music itself. A word of caution - Joseph was not, in my opinion, a great vocalist - mostly grunts and groans. I have determined that this was actually part of his genius as his singing makes you listen to his guitar all the harder. BTW, there is a book of transcription for this CD - mostly dropped D. Enjoy. DW |
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23 Jul 99 - 04:24 PM (#98590) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Fadac This was going around a few months ago. --------------- 1. Most blues begin "woke up this morning" 2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line. "I got a good woman - with the meanest dog in town..." 3. Blues are simple. After you have the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes, sort of Got a good woman with the meanest dog in town. He got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and he weights 500 pounds. 4. The blues are not about limitless choice. 5. Blues cars are Chevies and Cadillacs. Other acceptable blues transporetation is Greyhouse bus, or a southbound train. Walking plays a major part in the blues lifesytle. So does fixin' to die. Don't sing the blues in a BMW. 6. Teen agers can't sing the blues. Adults sing the blues. Blues adulthood means oldenough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis. 7. You can have the blues in New York City, but not in Brooklyn or Queens. Hard times in Vermont or North Dakota are just a depression. Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City are still the best places to have the blues. 8. The following colors do not belong in the blues: Viloet, beige, mauve. 9. You can't have the blues in an office or a shopping mall - the lighting is all wrong. 10. Good places for the blues: The highway, the jailhouse, the empty bed. . Bad places for the blues: Ashrams, gallery openings, week end in the hamptons. 11. No one will believe it's the blues if you wear a suit, unless you happen to be an old black man. 12. Do you have the right to sing the blues? Yes: if: Your first name is a southern state like Georgia. You're blind. You shot a man in memphis. You can't be satisfied. No, if: You were once blind but now can see. You are deaf. You have a trustfund. 13. Neither Julio Iglesias nor Barbra Streisand can sing the blues. 14. If you ask for water and Baby gives you gasoline, it's the blues. Other blues beverages are: Wine, Irish Whiskey, Muddy water. Blues beverages are not: Any mixed drink, any wine kosher for Passover. 15. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is a blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse, or being denied treatment in an emergency room. It is not a blues death, if you die during a liposuction treatment. 16. Some blues names for women: Sadie; Big Mama; Bessie. 17. Some blues names for men: Joe; Willie; Little Willie; Lightning. (Persons with names like Sierra or Sequoia will not be permitted to sing the blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.) 17B: Other blues names (starter kit) Name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Asthmatic) First name (see above) or name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi) Last name of President: Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.) ---- Well, that at least is a starter kit. I don't know who wrote that, I'm just passing it on. -Fadac |
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23 Jul 99 - 04:28 PM (#98592) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Joe Offer I was quite pleased to hear my teenage son say, "Now I understand why people like to play the blues - it makes you feel so good." -Joe Offer, who wishes he could play guitar like his kids can- |
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23 Jul 99 - 07:04 PM (#98641) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Legal Eagle Feeling a bit upstaged by Fadac, but remember the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band Can Blue men sing the whites/ or do they have the right/to even try? |
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24 Jul 99 - 12:13 AM (#98740) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Res There's two kinds of music. The Blues and Zippity do dah" Townes Van Zandt-- (Now what the hell did he mean by that?) |
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24 Jul 99 - 01:37 AM (#98779) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: The Resonator I'm like a lot of late 1960s early 1970s folks. I started with Cream, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and The Stones. The liner notes led me to Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Elmore James, the world of electric guitar slingers. I ended up in the Delta with Skip James, Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, et. alia. The music just grabbed by soul. It was so raw, so powerful. Just a man( or a woman, let's not forget Memphis Minnie) and a guitar. I really liked the old recordings before digital cleaned them up. The scratches, etc., gave the songs a "deep space" sound to my ears. You knew this was music from way, way back in time. Sometimes I get a deep, ancestral, roots feeling. The blues fills my soul, speaks and laughs. "I'm gon' get me religion. I'm gon' join the Baptist Church. I'm gon' act like a preacher, so I sure 'nuff won't have to work." -- Son House. I love that line! It has all that bragging and signifying that I love about the blues. And not just blues, but ragtime and all the other styles of acoustic music black folk played in the early part of this century. People like Rory Block, Paul Rishell, Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart and God knows how many other "names" are keeping the music alive. Not too long ago some friends and I started the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation (www.acousticblues.com). Check it out! Peace. |
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24 Jul 99 - 02:08 AM (#98791) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: WyoWoman I love the blues. Nothing else works like they do. I wish my voice were more suited to the blues, but as I said in another thread, when I sing the blues, it almost always comes out sounding pretty much country. Love Robert Johnson's "Come on in my Kitchen," which I"ve adjusted a bit for female voice: "The man that I love, Skinny and kinda tall. He moves his body, Unh, like a cannonball... You better come on in my kitchen Because it's bound to be rainin' out there..." WW |
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17 Apr 02 - 11:17 AM (#692139) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: GUEST |
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17 Apr 02 - 11:50 AM (#692166) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: mooman I grew up in an Irish traditional music household and that will always be in my blood. However, like a lot of posters here I started getting into a variety of blues and R&B in my early teens. Notable influences were John Mayall, The Yardbirds, The Rolling Stones (all relatively local then and who I saw live regularly in their early days), Chicken Shack, Spencer Davis group (with Steve Winwood), Cream and early Fleetwood Mac (with Peter Green), Johnny Winter plus quite a few others. A bit later on I was introduced by musical friends to delta and other acoustic blues like Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Robert Johnson and others. Still later, the late Jo-Ann Kelly introduced me to the joys of Memphis Minnie and others. So now I enjoy playing a bit of blues, though I'm no great expert, and appreciate it even more. Best regards mooman |
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17 Apr 02 - 04:54 PM (#692341) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Stephen L. Rich dwditty -- How about this for a Blues Battle to remember: All the Willie Brown's against all the Robert Jonson's? |
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17 Apr 02 - 11:44 PM (#692580) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Tweed I play the blues because blues makes me move around, inside and out. After thirty five years chasing it I'm better at it than I used to be but nowhere as good as I want to be. There's always some little "thing" that you've heard that you want for your own and that keeps me hungry for more, whether it's the Memphis Jug Band, Booker White, Muddy Waters, Lightnin', BB, Albert "the Iceman" Collins or whoever. They'll bring you up and never let you down. There are so many of 'em that died before we found them but their music just goes on and on. Blues popularity goes in cycles. It fizzles out of the public eye and you think it's down and then outta nowhere it's back again with new players building on the old foundations. Always reinventing itself but never going too far beyond the line and the tradition that the first players layed down. It's got an unwritten constitution that separates the real thing and the phony thing and if it grows a rotten branch that branch usually rots off the tree, the tree drops it's leaves for a while but the roots and the trunk still live and bloom again when it knows it's time to give us some shade and keep us all real cool when times are getting hot. Here's an idea. Go out and listen to some live blues this weekend. It's gettin' hot out there and the BluesTree is bloomin' ;~) |
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18 Apr 02 - 09:27 PM (#693309) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Rolfyboy6 Just can't help it. It's natural to me. And it was from the beginning as a little boy. And it's a different thing from pop or rock music--there's a tradition, one which requires that it be reinvented and made new, but stay rooted. Bluegrass, which contains a lot of blues and the earlier string band music, has the same tradition. And the apparantly simple words which should carry a wealth of 'understood meaning' and which are almost always in the first person. And the blues scale which doesn't conform to Western European ideas of scale and harmony. And the rhythm and meter. Rockers try to play blues in 4/4 time when the blues is usually really in 12/8 with accents placed oddly due to african 3 against 4 rhythms. And the quiet traditions of instrumentalism. Almost all great 'electric' guitar players record with acoustic guitars at some point because of tradition. And the great sense of playing at lower volumes for at least part of every show. And the entirely different tradition about electric amplification: small tube amps with no 'effects'. And the continuing acoustic instrument tradition which is seen as having the same validity as amplified instruments. Sitting in the dark and singing with a few friends feeling good feeling bad feeling good. "How long, how long, has that evenin' train been gone, how long, how long, baby, how long. |
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18 Apr 02 - 09:51 PM (#693328) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Amos Especially, because sometimes it is the only alternative to screaming and disturbing people who deserve better!! :>) A |
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18 Apr 02 - 10:19 PM (#693353) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Dicho (Frank Staplin) Nice reading. A good thread to revive. A friend from New England was at my house once. I was playing lps of blues which he had never listened to before. He smiled and looked up, saying "There's something about that stuff that makes me happy." This echos Mark Clark's remarks of an early posting. |
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18 Apr 02 - 11:39 PM (#693385) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Tweed It's the world's finest most underrated music. It's the blues and it Will make you feel good. You can't help but be better from hearing it. |
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19 Apr 02 - 01:36 PM (#693800) Subject: RE: Who plays Blues and Why ? Just wondering From: Steve-o Wonderful bunch of responses....fascinating, heartfelt, and true. Want to hear BB King's answer?...check out his song "Lucille", recorded quite a while back. He just talks and plays for about 10 minutes- heavenly! |