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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > I Am The Blues documentary - trailer
I Am The Blues documentary - trailer
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GamblersHand
601 posts
Apr 18, 2016
5:11 AM
https://vimeo.com/144133836

http://iamthebluesmovie.com/index.html
Larrystick
108 posts
Apr 20, 2016
10:00 AM

I AM THE BLUES Trailer from EyeSteelFilm Distribution on Vimeo.


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1847
3388 posts
Apr 20, 2016
10:26 AM
when i watch something like that it reminds me....
can a white man play the blues? no not really. it's just a natural fact.
but hey.... we can always pretend.
Killa_Hertz
1114 posts
Apr 20, 2016
11:20 AM
Play it? I think so. Sing it? Nope.
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Tiggertoo1962
99 posts
Apr 20, 2016
12:45 PM
Man, I've read some bull in my time, but - with all due respect - you guys take the biscuit :P

Can white guys sing/play the blues like black guys? No... but why would they? There are, when all's said and done, physiological differences that make us NOT all the same, like it or not.

Can white guys sing/play the blues? When I hear Gary Moore, Peter Greene, hell, even Eric Clapton, I just HAVE to say yes. It just doesn't sound like some black guys playing/singing the blues, but IMHO that doesn't make it any less real or valid.

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1847
3389 posts
Apr 20, 2016
1:02 PM
1847
3390 posts
Apr 20, 2016
1:24 PM
first of all i love eric clapton. he got the ball rolling for me with born under a bad sign.
however: blues is about self expression. i would bet money he never had a black cat bone, or for that matter a mojo hand.
although i would have to agree... he was born for good luck, i'll give him that much.
Goldbrick
1391 posts
Apr 20, 2016
1:38 PM


One of my favorites
Killa_Hertz
1117 posts
Apr 20, 2016
2:15 PM
I don't want to turn this into a thing. Because to be honest, i don't care.

Sure there are some exceptions, but it was a generalised statement. Made half-heartedly at that.

Im not sure what you consider Blues and what you consider Rock. But shit ... im not here to shove everybody in little boxes and label it either.


I was just saying that (in my opinion) alot of white blues singers just dont do it for me. Not All, but Alot.

So whatever floats your boat man. Its all good to me ... if it sounds good to you.

Its a matter of preference.
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Last Edited by Killa_Hertz on Apr 21, 2016 5:21 AM
Tiggertoo1962
100 posts
Apr 20, 2016
2:21 PM
Good track, 1847, even if it's not as bluesy as some of his stuff. Wonder why the vid is 9:29 long, but the song finishes at the 4:40 mark.

TBH I wouldn't be surprised if Clapton had gotten himself a black cat bone from somewhere earlier in his career. The state his head was in back then, I wouldn't have put anything past him, but I suppose he can consider himself lucky to have survived those times at all. Can't say I'm in any way jealous of some of the bad luck which has come his way either, though. OK, I may never have experienced QUITE the same highs as he has (people don't offer you merck in my line of business ;) ), but I've also never experienced the utter heartbreak of losing your own child. I can live quite happily without that one, thank you very much.

@ Goldbrick - great stuff from the Bonzos there. Thanks for posting, sooooooooo long since I heard that one :)

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One of the last of a dying breed.

Tiggertoo1962
101 posts
Apr 20, 2016
2:36 PM
Course it's all a matter of preference, Killa, but keep your hair on. I put a ":P" after my initial comment to indicate it was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but maybe you missed it. There are a load of white "blues" artists who don't do it for me either, but I just don't think that should be used as an excuse to tar all white blues artists with the same brush. I'm maybe just a bit sensitive on the issue of stereotyping, but not without reason...

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One of the last of a dying breed.

Goldbrick
1392 posts
Apr 20, 2016
2:45 PM
Hasil Adkins could sing and play the blues with the best of 'em
And lived and died the blues life fo'sho'

Killa_Hertz
1118 posts
Apr 20, 2016
2:59 PM
Gotcha. That's cool. No i caught it. Why does everyone take everything i say so seriously? Lol. Not directed at you specifically Tigger.

"I'm maybe just a bit sensitive on the issue of stereotyping, but not without reason..."

Anything worth sharing? Maybe you ll change my world view. Lol.


But to the point. What's the deal with the Trailer. Any more details?
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Tiggertoo1962
102 posts
Apr 20, 2016
3:20 PM
"Anything worth sharing? Maybe you ll change my world view. Lol."

Not really anything that's likely to change anybody's Weltansicht, buddy. More an accumulation of circumstances - some endured by me, others perpetrated by me - that have brought me to the conclusion that stereotyping leads, more often than not, to negative outcomes ;). A bit like if you were to say that Erdogan isn't the only Turk who likes goats, or that all Scots wear wellie boots cos of the sheep...

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One of the last of a dying breed.

1847
3391 posts
Apr 20, 2016
7:08 PM
bonzo dog band.... i like that!
kudzurunner
5954 posts
Apr 21, 2016
4:49 AM
It should go without saying, but this video foregrounds a particular kind of 70+-year-old black blues elder, playing (with the arguable exception of Bobby Rush) a particular kind of long-outmoded, non-commercial blues that appeals to a particular kind of white guy. From the perspective of younger black Mississippians, this is grandpa's music--or great-grandpa's music.

But there are a lot of other kinds of blues being made in the world--including, it should be noted, by younger black and white Mississippians, native and naturalized. Some of it has an older sound; some of it is more contemporary. Anybody who says that white guys can't sing blues is grossly overgeneralizing. Some can't; some can. These guys can:









This last video is typical of what non-superannuated Deep South black southerners call "blues" these days:



Here's a longer playlist:

Last Edited by kudzurunner on Apr 21, 2016 4:55 AM
Killa_Hertz
1125 posts
Apr 21, 2016
5:18 AM
It was said in jest. Lol.

I would never really say someone CANT do something. It's all subjective anyhow.

Plus there are quite a few black singers that don't do it for me either.

But im just digging this hole deeper ... so .... lol.
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Last Edited by Killa_Hertz on Apr 21, 2016 5:25 AM
1847
3392 posts
Apr 21, 2016
7:55 AM
i watched a documentary on chuck berry.
when his first record was released the public
thought he was white.

some radio stations stopped playing it once they realized he was black.
Goldbrick
1396 posts
Apr 21, 2016
8:31 AM
Yep they thought Chuck was white and Elvis was black

No MTV then

Maybelline was originally titled Ida Red but Chess thought it was too country sounding so the name was changed

Ray Charles forced the record company in to releasing his country record

If you only had a juke box- music is color blind

Music has no color

As Duke Ellington said- only 2 types of music-- Good and Bad





Killa_Hertz
1127 posts
Apr 21, 2016
9:04 AM
Personally I Just find alot of white singers voices to be .... a little stiff? ... maybe is a good description. Idk. Surely not ALL. And it depends on the music. If they make it their own it seems to sound better than if they force it to try to be something it isn't. It has nothing to do with the quality of their voices. But to me its almost like listening to a white guy rap.(not that i listen to rap, but you know what I mean.) Surely there are some great white rappers, but as a whole......

Having said that ... It's not exclusive to White guys. Im just picky about singers in general. I have a hard time listening to Slim Harpo, for example, because his voice gets on my nerves. I know I'll probably catch hell for that one too. But it is what it is.
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Last Edited by Killa_Hertz on Apr 21, 2016 9:08 AM
mlefree
655 posts
Apr 21, 2016
10:57 AM
Back to the OT...

I'm offended by the title of the documentary.

I'm sorry but the title, "I Am The Blues" was taken long ago in both autobiography and album. Willie Dixon was his name and if anyone lays true rights to the title, it is he.

In my opinion the phrase, "I am The Blues" is unassailably, and forever owned by Willie Dixon. It is hallowed ground that should not be tread upon.

Especially by a commercial product!

Michelle

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Last Edited by mlefree on Apr 21, 2016 10:58 AM
mlefree
656 posts
Apr 21, 2016
11:01 AM
And thanks for the education, Adam. Those are some fo' sho' bona fide bone-conducting bluesmen if I ever did hear one!

Michelle

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kudzurunner
5955 posts
Apr 21, 2016
2:13 PM
"Personally I Just find alot of white singers voices to be .... a little stiff? ... maybe is a good description. Idk."

Killa, I agree with you. When I listen to Bluesville these days, I spend half my time growling like Clint Eastwood in GRAN TORINO. Grrrrr! I can't stand it when guys and gals with my pale skin reduce the blues to karaoke, a minstrel show, or just not-very-good stuff. The music deserves better. And I'm as hard on myself as I am on others. I keep trying to up my game as a singer, one small step at a time.

By the same token, there ARE some really good blues singers who happen to be white. They've struggled to find their own voices, they've somehow managed to steer clear of the pitfalls of a) minstrelsy--trying to sound "black" in a stagey way; b) derivitiveness (having only one major influence that is hugely audible, and c) lack of talent, which is often lack of the ability to hear and hit microtonal pitches combined with lack of the ability to move naturally, idiomatically, BETWEEN such pitches. This last point is probably what you're hearing as stiffness.

When I hear a guy like Lightnin' Malcolm in the video I posted above, I hear a guy who has moved far, far beyond me in his ability to sound real, natural, and in the tradition. He makes me feel that the music is in good hands. But he's moved deeply into black culture in every respect, a total immersion experience.

Magic Dick isn't a great blues singer. I'm not a great blues singer. Carlos del Junco, I think, is quite a bit better than both of us. And guys like Kim Wilson and Mitch Kashmar are way beyond us. But to my ears, Lightnin' Malcolm and Gabe Carter and definitely Tab Benoit have moved way beyond ALL of the aforementioned singers. They're really got it, whatever "it" means.

This doesn't mean that they're the equal of a master like Johnny Taylor or even Bobby Rush. There's something else going on there, an element of black cultural centrality, that you get--occupying a certain social role and working it hard--that does indeed seem forced when white performers try to go there.

My point is simply that there are many kinds of good blues these days, and white performers--white American performers--are contributing to some of them. As for white NON-American singers: hmmmmm. No comment. :)
tf10music
267 posts
Apr 21, 2016
2:28 PM
"lack of the ability to hear and hit microtonal pitches combined with lack of the ability to move naturally, idiomatically, BETWEEN such pitches. This last point is probably what you're hearing as stiffness."

This is such a good description for what I refer to, in my private idiom, as the 'lilt.' I find that when I relax into notes, it comes, but when I tense up, my throat tightens and it becomes a struggle not only to hit them but to also to hit the tonic of a vocal line nicely. Is there a method for nailing this stuff down? I'm tired of having to do 10, 15 vocal takes on my songs before my voice warms into that phrasing and those little microtonal changes that make the delivery feel right.

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