I just came across the following video. I don't believe it's ever been posted here. (I'm sure folks will be quick to let me know if it has.) To me it represents the north Mississippi style at its purest. It's just a guy, a guitar, one chord, and two fingers. It's a song, a dance groove, and a couple of blue notes repeated for the duration. Great stuff.
I saw Junior Kimbrough in 96 and he had a harmonica player with him...He played in a tent and then in a more intimate type setting...I remember feeling the blues heavily and really enjoying the music and atmosphere, everybody was havin a good time!
I couldn't agree more, Adam. For me, this sound is the sound I got into Blues to find. I've seen this video probably 50 times, and I can't get enough of it. I've probably spent several hundred hours watching every clip of R.L., Jr. Kimbrough, Robert Belfour, Hooker, T. Model Ford, and others that I can find on YouTube. This is THE sound for me.
This music takes a fundamentally different technique to play than "standard" 12-bar, Chicago, Delta, etc. Blues. There isn't much of that "wizardry" on display like when you see BB King and others, but the music grooves like no other. Yes, it is supposedly "simpler" than the other style, but out of simplicity comes complexity. Comes interest. Combination of simple movements leads to amazingly diverse and rich tones and riffs. The magic is in that right hand, and how it syncopates with the left. R.L. was THE master of that style (but Hooker and the others were damn good at it too). Notice how he almost NEVER uses more than one fretting finger. Yeah. ONE. It's damn amazing.
And, FYI, if you have been wondering where the Black Keys got that sound from, it was this music. Specifically, it was Jr. Kimbrough. In fact, Dan Auerbach was so stricken and obsessed with Jr.'s music, he probably has become the most proficient player of Jr.'s style in the world. Don't believe me? Beleive Jr's widow. You can hear her, on the last track of the Key's album "Chulahoma", which is an album of Jr. Kimbrough covers. She called Dan, and left a message on his machine that said he is the person to come closest to Jr.'s sound. And that's the sound that Dan has used to gain main stream success in the Black Keys...
Here's a great one in this style from the Alan Lomax archive YouTube channel by Belton Sutherland:
If you haven't checked out the Alan Lomax archive YouTube channel yet, you should. They are digitizing and uploading his WHOLE collection of videos like this and more... ----------
Thanks guys, I like this stuff a lot! This music is all about The Groove. Entrancing, with just enough change in the licks to keep it fresh. This is the kind of stuff I'd like to see more of at open jams, but very few guys will stray from their standard 4 minute covers, at least in my neck of the woods.
@markdc70: I couldn't agree more. I went out to this local blues joint called Martha's Midway Tavern last night, just to see what the scene was like, and it was the same 12 bar shuffles all night. Throw in a boogiewoogie here and there for "variety". At one point a guitarist got out a slide, and started doing some stuff closer to this style, and my ears started to pick up! But then, no one else could play along with him 'cause they were all too used to just playing shuffles, and he stopped. IMO, that was the most interesting bit of music I heard all night, but unfortunately, it's just not the type of thing that most of the players--and most of the audience--want to play and/or hear...
@Zazodica and swmoemer: Yup, that's one way for sure. Tongue block style with BIG syncopation. IMO, the one dude who can REALLY do this today is Dan Kaplan(check this thread to see what I mean: http://www.modernbluesharmonica.com/board/board_topic/5560960/3414353.htm). The other way to do it is to pare it back, and separate the bass line from the melody. You can only do it with a few select songs where they are separable. Adam did it in his version of Goin' Down South (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_PZCiiJdyo). I've worked up a version of Bird Without a Feather where I've tried to take this approach. Here's a fairly bad quality "working demo" I recorded while working this song up: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/7325374/Bird_w_out_a_feather_solo_take.mp3. It's not the final version, but it'll give you an idea of what I've tried to do to translate that song and this style to the harp. ----------
i have done a harp part on r.l.'s version covered by bluesboy jag. not easy but worth it when one hits it right. i think i either did very minimal 2nd or a more rhythm-y 3rd part. we do several hill country songs and they are a lot of fun and can be very infectious to a crowd undertaking to consume libation and dance their cares into submission. ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
