Frank
4449 posts
Jun 02, 2014
6:57 AM
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Nice Isaac, thanks for the heads up on shakey comin thru town... I see he is at the Thunderbird on a Sunday, definitely going to try and make that show...Dennis Gruenling is coming to Moondogs in a couple weeks too. Sister Sparrow played the Thunderbird last year i'm pretty sure:)
Last Edited by Frank on Jun 02, 2014 6:57 AM
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Ugly Bones Ryan
77 posts
Jun 02, 2014
7:00 AM
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No one wants to move away from tradition, THAT is what is keeping blues on the back-burner. If you listen to Cotton Mouth Man by James Cotton, it's amazing, but it isn't revolutionary. Joe Bonamassa (is AWESOME) is still playing god knows how many COVERS at his shows instead of originals. We're stuck in the twelve bar blues, 1,4,5's, and repeating stuff that has already been done! THAT is why Charlie Musselwhite and Ben Harper won the most recent Grammy, what they did was old-school but not too traditional. I don't mean to be blunt but this is the truth. The Blues is stuck in the past, we need to move it forward.
Last Edited by Ugly Bones Ryan on Jun 02, 2014 7:01 AM
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isaacullah
2776 posts
Jun 02, 2014
7:07 AM
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@GamblersHand: Yeah, I'd put that right in there as a modern extension of the Blues (in this case mixed with modern pop-ish R&B and Hip Hop). Very cool stuff! I hadn't heard of Son Little yet, so thank you for passing that on!
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isaacullah
2777 posts
Jun 02, 2014
7:08 AM
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Frank, I'll be there for sure! Hopefully I'll see ya there!
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kudzurunner
4734 posts
Jun 02, 2014
7:09 AM
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@Ugly Bones: I've beat the drum more than most forum members for modern rather than traditional blues, but I have to disagree with you about Joe Bonamassa. He strikes me as an excellent example of a modernizer, and most of his tracks that get played on Bluesville are originals, not covers, including the following, which is absolutely true to the spirit of the blues. In fact, I thought the first time I heard it, and still think, that if you were looking for a recording to illustrate the concept "an authentic white blues," something written from the soul of an upstate New York guy that digs deep and true, with some danger in it, this is that song:
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Jun 02, 2014 7:45 AM
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isaacullah
2778 posts
Jun 02, 2014
7:09 AM
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@UglyBonesRyan: Couldn't agree with you more! Well said...
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isaacullah
2779 posts
Jun 02, 2014
7:14 AM
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@Adam: The original Joe Bonomassa stuff is okay. I find it quite listenable, but I wouldn't buy any of his albums. I think it's too backwards looking, and aimed at the "PBS Crowd" rather than the younger generation (who really set the trends in new music). While it's not "the same" as a classic Blules sound, It doesn't really integrate with current music in a way that I can see it as being a really innovative approach to modernize the Blues.
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Last Edited by isaacullah on Jun 02, 2014 7:15 AM
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kudzurunner
4735 posts
Jun 02, 2014
7:33 AM
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After listening to the Bonamassa song again, I'm tempted to say: Thread over! Here's your answer, Heath.
People are free to say "I just don't like modern blues," but they're not entitled to say "This isn't blues." It's blues. It's one important and vital kind of modern blues.
Isaac, I'm fascinated by the fact that you see this as not modern ENOUGH. I suspect that some forumites will disagree with you and see it as, in effect, too rocked-out and not traditional enough.
I like it precisely because it's not a 12-bar, it takes real gambles with form, it invokes the (black) blues past quite pointedly and yet it's also, quite pointedly, Bonamassa's story, or the story of somebody he knows. It doesn't just want to retreat to the roots, but it acknowledges them; yet it's filled with the anxiety of the here-and-now struggling to figure out what it is. It verges on grandiose, but it's anchored in troubled feeling.
I love the little coda at the end where he talks about how he wrote it. It was a gift from the spirits--or the spirit of the blues.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Jun 02, 2014 7:45 AM
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isaacullah
2782 posts
Jun 02, 2014
8:09 AM
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@Adam: If I'm being totally honest, the reason that that Bonamassa track (and much of his other original tunes) don't resonate with me, is that it's too close to that "Nu Country" sound that's inundating the airwaves these days. So, I guess I'd concede that he is integrating a "bluesy" sound into a current genre, but not a genre that I find particularly compelling or interesting, or in a way that's actually all that different than what other nu country bands are doing...
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clyde
376 posts
Jun 02, 2014
8:12 AM
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Well, to me, it sounds a lot like what they are playing on country stations.
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chromaticblues
1577 posts
Jun 02, 2014
8:32 AM
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I saw Joe banamassa live a couple weeks ago and Nothing about the show I saw was blues. I thought it was a very good show, but it wasn't a blues show and he wasn't trying to put on a blues. I know he does play blues, but I didn't hear any.
Now I saw Anthony Gomes about a month ago and that was blues with a hard Rock twist. It was Heavy Metal meets the blues, but done in very enjoyable way (and I don't like most heavy Metal)!
@ Blind Ray
I like the video of the two girls and the guy playing guitar and singing. To me that is COOL!
You don't have reinvent the wheel. Just put new tires on once and a while. What they were doing is fun to watch and it sounds cool. IT ISN'T BORING!!!!!!!!
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Ugly Bones Ryan
78 posts
Jun 02, 2014
9:17 AM
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@kudzurunner Satan and Adam is exactly what I want the blues to grow into. Dislocated Boy, Riding Toward The Daylight, Dust Bowl, THOSE are song by Joe that push the blues forward. BUT if you look at Bonamassa track listings, too many covers. I think covers are one of the things that hold us back. There are only so many ways to play Sweet Home Chicago and Born Under a Bad Sign.
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chromaticblues
1579 posts
Jun 02, 2014
9:38 AM
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@Ugly Bones
I don't know if even worry about the song choice as much as what I play to what I hear.
I think the thing that gets old is not the song, but the way the song is played. If you practice to play songs note for note your whole life you can only get good something that has already been done and only when you get great can you play songs better than the original and stand out somewhat. Even then you just got great at imitating. That's not easy to do and I know there are more those musician's than the other.
Satan and Adam did cover a lot of songs and totally did them their way! Sterling's foot work still blows me away today! I've listening to "CC Rider" for years and the part where he starts changing the beat to lead into the next verse out of a solo I think? But that is the good stuff! cover song. Ode to billy Joe the harmonica part in that song is nothing like any other harmonica part I have ever heard. It so different I just had to learn that one note for note! I make it a point not to do that. Some things are perfect the way they are and I'll probably never play that song in my life, but I have play along every time I hear! Why? It was new, creative and good! Not a new song. A new and (to me) exciting approach to an old song.
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mastercaster
33 posts
Jun 02, 2014
10:37 AM
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For my 'modern' limit .. and 2 of my favorite song's, Corina & Good Morning Miss Brown ... One of only a few who have played across several genre's binding them together into his unique style of modern blues, Taj Mahal ...imo he has for decades played outside or on the fringes of traditional, timing , syncopation , chord changes etc ......
Last Edited by mastercaster on Jun 02, 2014 10:40 AM
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Goldbrick
469 posts
Jun 02, 2014
1:42 PM
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Guess your haring somethin' I dont Isaac.
One chord and shaky timing and mumbled lyrics are just an imitation-sounded like bro just heard a few records-
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atty1chgo
954 posts
Jun 04, 2014
6:24 AM
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Ronnie Baker Brooks is a blues artist who IS revitalizing the blues. Here is an excellent performance that I shot at the October, 2012 Blues Cruise.
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Suffering Heath
70 posts
Jun 04, 2014
7:18 AM
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Wow - Bror Gunnar Jansson and the others sound fantastic - thanks for the head's up.
I'm feeling less blues today, because my hopes for this thread have been met: community, discussion, arguments, and - ultimately - discovery of new examples of blues music.
Who says blues - and the blues community - is dyin'?
Thanks all -
Heath
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