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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Why I like ' The Blues '
Why I like ' The Blues '
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Gipsy
145 posts
Apr 25, 2015
8:59 AM
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Over the past couple of weeks, due to my father in law's illness, I've had plenty of time for reading and self reflection. One of the things I've pondered is why I love blues music. I've not been able to come to a conclusion. Perhaps my lack of formal music education has hampered my thoughts processes, I don't know. What I do know however is that blues music grips me and moves me deep inside in a way nothing else does. Perhaps it's a primal thing, perhaps it's just its basic rhythm. Maybe it's because it's grown out of people's struggles to get by, and often chronicles the harsh conditions they dealt with, giving an insight that here in the UK seems remote in the extreme from our experience. Whatever, I failed to come to any great conclusions.
Today however I felt a connection however tenuous with some of the blues men's music I love. Father in law has passed on. The funeral is in a couple of days and even though he was 96, he was a young 96, mowing his own lawns until last summer. To help pass the time and try to cheer myself up, I went to my local music store and bought my very first MB 1896. Back home and it was almost unplayable. So out with my knife, cover plates off, and a bit of gapping and now it's wonderful. I was struck by a simple connection between what I had done and what countless blues harp players, some famous, had done going back 100 years or so. In a strange way I felt almost a coming of age. It certainly is nothing to do with an improvement in my playing, more a feeling that if/when this harp breaks, I can do what a bluesman should do, walk into a local music store, buy a Hohner MB, if necessary fiddle with it for a bit, and then continue to trudge down my dusty road, carrying my own personal harp. Papa who was a civil engineer I'm sure would have approved. It's what he would have done!
Last Edited by Gipsy on Apr 25, 2015 9:01 AM
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tookatooka
3737 posts
Apr 25, 2015
12:21 PM
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Nicely said Gipsy. I was messing with the harp and blues when my Dad died. I wasn't that good but I played a short piece at his funeral (my first public performance). I was scared but an energy filled me and helped me to play it perfectly. It was appreciated by all the family and it helped me come to terms with the loss. If you haven't got the Blues in your life, you're missing out. Condolences to you and may Papa Rest in Peace.
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MichaelMc
14 posts
Apr 25, 2015
2:31 PM
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My condolences to you and your family. May he rest in peace.
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Glass Harp Full
24 posts
Apr 25, 2015
3:33 PM
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My condolences to you and your family.
I found your story about the MB inspiring. I have one myself that's almost unplayable but haven't been game enough to take it apart and gap it in case I break it. Your story has inspired me to give it a go. As you say, through the blues we can connect to something bigger than ourselves and that helps us through tough times.
Thank you and all the best on your journey down that dusty road.
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jbone
1939 posts
Apr 25, 2015
11:23 PM
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He sounds like a real man Gipsy. Hold him in your heart.
My first harp was a mid 50's 1847, which I inherited in a roundabout way from my mom's dad via my own father. Both were long gone before I ever attempted to play.
The actual blues gripped me I think at an early age. Age 4 saw my father passing away suddenly, and I was inconsolable. Mom's dad played harp and sang for me and it brought me out of my depression somewhat. He did play some blues along with a lot of other stuff. He had emigrated from England in the late 19th or early 20th century.
I believe the feeling we call "blues" is universal. We encounter loss in our lives and we feel lost ourselves. One must find a way to carry on but that feeling never really leaves. But the I-IV-V form, played with conviction, seems to be a balm for a wounded heart or a tortured mind. Those of us lucky enough to learn to play blues can then share it with others and it is sometimes and somehow transmuted to a joy.
I am not one to mess with a harp. It either plays out of the box or I get a different one. Unfortunately Hohner lost me for the most part some years ago. One day I may try them again and I do use a couple, a MB and a couple of Sp20's as backups. I also acquired a couple of custom MB's which work well.
The fact of realizing a feeling, and putting it to music via harmonica, is the real deal. It's how bluesmen are born.
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Gipsy
146 posts
Apr 26, 2015
1:28 AM
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We've just been choosing music and hymns for the funeral. Papa's music of choice was Welsh Male Voice Choirs, singing both hymns and secular pieces. It struck me that I wasn't sure if he'd ever heard of ' The Blues '. Is suspect he had, as he was a highly intelligent man with a first class honours degree, who read extensively in later life.
However what did strike me was a similarity in the origins of the 2 types of music. The various Welsh male voice choirs mainly sprang from groups of workers around the time of our industrial revolution. It was a release from the daily round of hard, physical, often dangerous working lives. The canny factory and mine and iron foundry owners soon realised the benefits of having workers minds diverted from the daily hard grind, and began to sponsor the choirs. This was often from funds retrieved from the workers when they spent their earnings in the only way allowed: at the company shop! My point is that Papa was in his own way identifying with and supporting the struggle of working people.
However bad conditions were over here in the UK, I'm sure they can in no way be compared to the oppression and subjugation suffered in the USA by so many innocent people. Then the realisation came to me. We had our own protest music. We had our own musical release. We had ' the blues '. It's not blues as most everyone understands it. It's certainly not of the 12 bar variety, and it's mostly sung, often without musical accompaniment. However the gut feeling inside that gave rise to our Welsh musical expression, surely rose out of similar internal feelings and emotions that gave rise to ' the blues ' as most of the world recognises it.
I'm left believing that Papa did indeed know ' the blues '. It's just not 'the blues' as we know it.
Last Edited by Gipsy on Apr 26, 2015 1:31 AM
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