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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Blues categories as defined by harmonica
Blues categories as defined by harmonica
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walterharp
1509 posts
Sep 05, 2014
8:03 AM
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Since this board seems set on lists, I thought maybe categories would be interesting way to subdivide lists, so as not to compare apples and oranges. And this got me thinking as harmonica players we might define blues genera differently based on our instrument. So a crack at that for your pleasure.
Amplified traditional blues- Kim Wilson being a current example, BBQ Bob
Acoustic old time blues- Phil Wiggins springs to mind, but not just Piedmont, but Delta and other old time country blues
Modern Blues- at core blues, but fusing in funk, rock, jazz with use of OB and OD... Ricci, Gussow, DelJunco come to mind
Rock Blues- Rock first with some blues background - John Popper comes to mind
West Coast Jump- definite jazz influences. Paul Delay et al.
do we define styles differently based on our instrument? Are these at all valid sub categories?
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nacoran
7983 posts
Sep 05, 2014
10:00 AM
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I don't mean this in a mocking way- it seems that, in the world of YouTube and computers there be a new genre emerging- backing track blues (or just backing track harp). There are people out there who get millions of hits playing over backing tracks. Sonically, it features one instrument pushed way to the front- taking all the solos, and seems to be mainly an instrumental form, although there are some, I guess who sing too, but the singers seem, at least in what I've seen, to be singing and not playing, and the instrumentalists seem to be playing and not singing. It tends, I think, to feature a hyper-personalized sound.
In one sense it might even be a form of outsider music- it's a community of musicians without their own bands who figure out a way to make it work anyway. Since it's born of YouTube it often has a wide array of influences. Sometimes it's health, sometimes it's location, sometimes it's time, sometimes it's personality, but for whatever reason, at least some of the time, these people are doing it unidirectionally. They can draw inspiration from the backing track, but the backing 'band' isn't feeding back with them.
In the harp world, the most successful example that jumps to mind is Christelle Berthon.
Hakan Ehn plays over backing tracks sometimes, but plays in a band too, but I think you could make an argument that he is playing in two different genres when he does, because he restructures the songs for the backing tracks.
The reason I suggest it as a genre is that it really does have a different sound to it in the way one instrument takes over the song.
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Nate
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Diggsblues
1530 posts
Sep 05, 2014
10:37 AM
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Chromatic blues players and third position only blues
chromatic players.
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walterharp
1510 posts
Sep 05, 2014
11:21 AM
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but 3rd position chromatic blues is one of the hallmarks of the west coast sound...
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Diggsblues
1531 posts
Sep 05, 2014
11:31 AM
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so category 3rd position chrom west coast sound.
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Frank
5220 posts
Sep 05, 2014
5:01 PM
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The best of best harmonica Pros have made a name for themselves by remaining true to a particular style of harmonica playing...
In other-words, they are not a jack of all trades/styles.
They would rather be "exceptional" at something, rather then mediocre at a lot of things.
So yes, I agree that harmonica players can be categorized because of the music that they choose to (excel at) when playing the harmonica.
Last Edited by Frank on Sep 05, 2014 5:04 PM
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