General Music Chat

Since I grew up around the blues, I will jump in. It's about 50% technique and 50% feeling. My problem with people have been guys studying a few Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters records and then acting like they understand the blues. There are different types of blues, some of which are:

Barrelhouse Blues from the 1920s - generated from the piano Ragtime era. Everything sort of branched off from this.

Mississippi Delta Blues - slide guitar and all, which some people mistakenly think is the only blues there is and judge everything based on this.

Rockabilly & Country Blues - Hank Williams era

Electric Blues - Bo Diddly, Albert King, BB King - more Chicago sound

Louisiana Piano Blues - Fats Domino, Professor Longhair (since Jamaicans could get Louisiana radio stations in the 50s, these are the roots behind what is today Reggae)

Rhythm & Blues - Joe Simon, Johnny Taylor, Dorothy Moore, back in the 70s era, you go into a black music store, these people were considered flat out Blues while Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes were considered R&B.

Most old blues lyrics were political songs. Since black people didn't have a voice back then, they voiced their angst at the system via love song lyrics.

My husband plays blues and I've sang with him, but I don't really care for it, I guess because I prefer Rock. My husband likes Hendrix and Stevie and I can't get enough of it, really, but if someone wants to play blues, then explore all areas of it and decide which one you enjoy playing the most and interject your own flavor to it. My husband did an original CD and he went all over the place as far as writing. He didn't limit himself. http://www.myspace.com/ciscorobles. There songs and videos on there.

There are no real rules and with any kind of music, there's always room to do it your way.

Chaeya

So where does an act like Gary Moore, or The Allman Bros, fit into the blues? Surely they play the blues. So did the Beatles, occasionally.

I hate the over-categorization, myself, but I guess I can understand the need for it, to purists.

I tried sending a tape to a producer in Nashville, once. I'd gotten his name through a relative of his. He was kind enough to rate my stuff (he was very complimentary), & offered to introduce me to some ppl, should I ever make my way down there (I haven't). But the thing that got me was when he said that the only thing he produces, is Mississippi Delta Blues.

No other sub-genre, only Delta blues.

All I could think at the time (1992), was "how odd."

I think it was then that I began to realize how caught up in genre we've become, & how difficult it would be for someone like myself, as a multiple genre personality type, to "make it."

I find myself liking virtually ALL the blues types, for a bit. And the more closely a person sticks to a single sub-genre, the quicker I find myself getting bored.

I wish we could start to be a bit more open-minded as a society, & as music appreciators...oh well...it is what it is, eh?

Shoot Philby,,, This girl does her homework. You gonna get yourself in trouble.

Aah, second thought we are all just a bunch of flubbering fools.

It isn't over-characterized to me if you study it from a historical perspective. If a guy just wants to produce MS Delta, then oh well. We all have our preferences. But for every guy that wants to limit themselves to just that, there are some other open-minded people who don't. I don't wish to knock a guy because he only wants to play Delta, that's his choice. But if someone wants to come to me and tell me that Delta is the only REAL blues, they're full of sh*t. Blues is what blues does. A black man singing in the cottonfields would think differently, he didn't need a guitar.

Duane Allman, Eric Clapton and the Beatles, the Stones, would fall in the category of the Electric Blues inspired by Muddy Waters and Bo Diddly.

Me, I do what I do. It's Rock, plain and simple. A person either likes it or they don't. If they want to get all technical and try to classify me or they don't agree with my expression of Rock, that's on them. It isn't going to discourage me from doing what it is I do.

For instance, I love The White Stripes. Jack White is definitely inspired by Mississippi Delta Blues with his rendition of Death Letter Blues by Son House. He plays his way and they do their thing and I love them for it. My husband couldn't stand him at first but after watching a video on them, has started to respect them, but still doesn't care for his playing.

With anything, you're going to have people who have to over analysis and over classify everything, I just ignore them.

Chaeya

AMEN!!!!!!!

:lol:

K. Poor choice of wording. I shoulda said "before interjecting when it's obvious you aren't aware of the content of the original conversation," I suppose...

Well you can correct me where I'm wrong, but one of the things a lot of blues fans like about the blues is it's simplicity. They don't particularly care for jazz just because it is more complex. And yes I did kinda come back to this thread after it's early subject matter was introduced. It's just kind of a head scratcher that it morphed to the elite jazz players. Elite compared to blues players but also bypassed by blues fans for just this reason. Some of the most famous blues songs ever marketed are extemely simplistic. "I'm a man spelled "M.A.N.". A jazz player would balk at it's simplicity, yet the blues fans ate it up. I suppose that is my point. Since there is a huge audience for simple, it really is beside the point how the simple blues players stack up against Victor Wooten...


I guess maybe I need to go back and read how it morphed into that from the topic of "Blues Oiginals Anybody". It didn't start out about the comparrisons.

Ok now I am stating an opinion and you can rip me....

I don't necessarily fit in to the definition of a blues purist. I've been in blues bands for almost thirty years. Each band has branched slightly into related genres. One person's definition of a particular blues song may be another person's definition of a jazz song. Most of what I've played and performed is probably a cross between Chicago and Texas style blues. Then the people I've been in blues bands with over the years have come from different musical backgrounds. The drummer that I have been playing with for many years has played a lot of country and jazz. He's not a "stock" shuffle drummer. The typical shuffle drumming gets old IMO. Ther's only so many shuffles you can perform in one night before every song sounds the same. Then there's the many variations of the 12-bar progression that some people might not define as "pure" blues. Some of the people who have heard us say we are a rock band, some call us jazz, some call us blues. I consider myself a blues performer. I really don't care what anybody calls me as long as they call me and offer us a paid gig. Like the one we're doing tomorrow...

I don't necessarily fit in to the definition of a blues purist. I've been in blues bands for almost thirty years. Each band has branched slightly into related genres. One person's definition of a particular blues song may be another person's definition of a jazz song. Most of what I've played and performed is probably a cross between Chicago and Texas style blues. Then the people I've been in blues bands with over the years have come from different musical backgrounds. The drummer that I have been playing with for many years has played a lot of country and jazz. He's not a "stock" shuffle drummer. The typical shuffle drumming gets old IMO. Ther's only so many shuffles you can perform in one night before every song sounds the same. Then there's the many variations of the 12-bar progression that some people might not define as "pure" blues. Some of the people who have heard us say we are a rock band, some call us jazz, some call us blues. I consider myself a blues performer. I really don't care what anybody calls me as long as they call me and offer us a paid gig. Like the one we're doing tomorrow...

One good thing about doing originals is that you get to take it where YOU want it to go. In cover bands a lot of times you have to play these shuffles just because that's what THEY want to hear. There is indeed a certain appeal to that freedom.

I basically echo what you've said at the start of this thread. I've played in cover bands for 35 years. Then all of a sudden I said "Been there done that", and it was little more than a social gathering at that point. Social gathering to jam is fine, but there has to be more to it. I had been thinking that for awhile but then I finally acted on it.

white guy has "blues" soundz on his profile!

Then there's the one genre title that bob hates - "blues rock."

I maintain that Steppenwolf was a perfect example...heh heh heh

Fred - just yanking your chain, man...I tend to do that sometimes...it never translates well in print, though. No harm no foul, I hope.

I can't really say that I'm a "blues fan," but I've played one heck of a lot of it. I've managed to avoid the standard 12-bar, in my writing, thank heavens...cuz I just think it's been done to death, & it bores me to tears to play more than one a month or so...or to hear it more than once a month or so...or to think about it...ugh!

Then there's the one genre title that bob hates - "blues rock."

I maintain that Steppenwolf was a perfect example...heh heh heh

Fred - just yanking your chain, man...I tend to do that sometimes...it never translates well in print, though. No harm no foul, I hope.

I can't really say that I'm a "blues fan," but I've played one heck of a lot of it. I've managed to avoid the standard 12-bar, in my writing, thank heavens...cuz I just think it's been done to death, & it bores me to tears to play more than one a month or so...or to hear it more than once a month or so...or to think about it...ugh!

No harm indeed. It's true that as we play covers we are playing to the audience wants rather than our own. When we jump to originals that reverses.

I don't hate the genre "blues rock." I don't think the genre exists. Or maybe I hate the term blues rock. People create all kinds of new "genres." Most of them really don't exist.

Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Cream, Savoy Brown, Canned Heat, The Allman Bros, Cactus, Hot Tuna - the list goes on and on. Blues Rock is indeed a genre and a real thing.

Thats the truth Jimmy. I still like Phils 5 page categorization of music.
That was more fun than listening to someone calling some screaming death metal song..... The Blues.

So where does an act like Gary Moore, or The Allman Bros, fit into the blues? Surely they play the blues. So did the Beatles, occasionally.

I hate the over-categorization, myself, but I guess I can understand the need for it, to purists.

I’d put these guys into the “Chicago Electric Blues sound” recorded it at Chess Record at first.