Actually Bee, given that a number of the objections to the track are variations of "that's not the blues" I'd say that question is central to the discussion. I was going to ask it myself, but then I realized I really didn't care what the answers were going to be. I figured either I liked it or I didn't, whatever one wants to call it.
Last Edited by Honkin On Bobo on Jun 12, 2015 6:01 AM
OK, OK: thanks guys! I had a hunch that this specific recording, and composition, might prompt exactly this sort of conversation, but this thread has exceeded my expectations.
So here goes.
I tend to agree with those here who can't stand Gomes's vocals; who call this recording things like "hair-metal blues" and the equivalent. I don't enjoy this. It's not the kind of blues I like--and that's mostly about the vocals. Gomes's aesthetics are drawn from rock, not "blues," and from a particular subset of rock where overemoting in a particular kind of way is a GOOD thing. In other words, I disagree with the aesthetic choice that he's made as a singer about where to be rooted; about what influences to incorporate and transform.
But given that he's rooted there, he's actually a pretty good singer in THAT specific hard-rock tinged idiom. He's not pitchy. One almost might say that he's the Adam Lambert of the blues.
I like--or don't mind--the guitar playing. I like the riff-based form of the song.
As for the lyrics: well, when you write a song with this title and this theme, and you sing 'em like this, you're full-frontally courting people who....well, who agree with you and who cite your song, your vocal aesthetics, and your heavy guitar riffing, as Exhibit A. So I admire his balls! (so to speak.) He's asking for it. He's asking for exactly this thread, in fact. If he isn't trying to provoke an agitated, sometimes snarky conversation, what sort of reaction IS he hoping for? I can almost hear Mike Myers doing a WAYNE'S WORLD: "Hey, dude, I LOVE your music! That's sooooooooooo rad!!"
Since I've been writing a lot about the specific crossroads in Clarksdale that he speaks about, I thought that was a funny line. But if you actually take the lyrics seriously, you have to wonder: does he think it's a good thing that "the blues ain't the blues no more"--i.e., that Wolf and Muddy are both dead, and that he, Anthony Gomes, is in charge of the music--or is he saying that something important has been lost?
Which is to say, I think that the song raises several interesting questions. I plan to use it in my future teaching. I can imagine a lecture that pauses to play it and then talks through the issues it raises.
Here's another thought: I believe even more strongly than when I started this thread that we're living at a transition moment in which two different conceptions of the blues held by WHITE aficionados (and musicians) are in conflict. These might loosely be called "traditionalist" and "modernist." Interestingly, Ted and Duane usually both find themselves in the modernist camp, but here, Ted sounds more like a traditionalist--as do I. Duane (Mr. Catfish Frye), though, is a modernist here; a Gomes fan.
In this case, I believe that the traditionalist/modernist divide tends to be a generational thing. I think that older blues lovers who grew up in a world dominated by black elders, or the long-lingering traces of black elders, tend to hear Gomes's metal/rock aesthetics as the absence of something crucial--some transcendent (black) grounding, if you will. He sounds like a white blues guy who has learned blues from white blues-rockers.
I think, or suspect, that a younger white blues generation doesn't miss what I miss. They just hear the energy, the competence, the freshness (in a way)--or maybe NOT the freshness: maybe they HEAR Gomes's recapitulation and redeployment of "old" blues-rock styles (rather than old black blues styles)--and are attracted to him for that reason. In other words, maybe part of what sounds "modern" in him is the 70's hard-rock sound he's remaking as his own sort of modern blues.
Yes, I'm wildly overthinking this. But if you go back through the reactions his song has gotten, I believe you'll begin to see a generational divide.
Meanwhile, I can just hear Sugar Blue, Billy Branch, and, yes, Corey Harris going The Horror! The Horror!
FYI, here's a recording I heard on Bluesville a couple of days ago. I pulled out a pen and paper, wrote down the title while I was driving, and bought it on Amazon when I got home. THIS is the sort of blues, and blues singing, that I like. I'm going to learn the song by doing my best to copy Cray's vocal lines and inflections. It would be fair to say that my own aesthetics as a blues singer (such as they are) are rooted here. That doesn't mean I can sing like this. (If I could, my fees would be higher!) It just means that the choices Cray makes as a singer about how to emote, how to express energy and emotion, are ones that move me in a way that Gomes doesn't begin to move me. (BTW, I would love to hear Cray's version on "the blues ain't the blues no more.")
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Jun 12, 2015 6:31 AM
Hmmmmm . . . I can't speak for others, as I don't know their ages, but the generational divide wouldn't apply in my case. At (almost) 56 I tended to like Gomes's tune (not a classic by any stretch, but not something I'd turn off while driving). Really, I wasn't putting much brain-sweat into whether it was traditional, modern, rock-based, blues-inspired, or some mesh of all (or of none).
Maybe I'm a dense sort of hillbilly, but I just couldn't imagine anybody getting worked up about whether the lyrics were disrespectful to the blues. I just lack the gumption to be offended on behalf of a concept/music form. I tend to either like or dislike music based on simple criteria. Does it sound good to me? Is it pleasing? Is it interesting? Is it played well? Does it make me feel something?
Again, just me, but music (or any art form) is not really something I analyze for motive. I want feeling, not thought. I'm not so much about honoring traditions and memories as I am about honoring individuals (be it for ability, character, contributions, sacrifice, innovation, etc) in the present.
Oddly enough I can remember three albums I played to death during my freshman and sophomore years of college. They were Meatloaf's "Bat out of Hell," Styx' "Grand Illusion," and one of the many "Best of Lighting Hopkins" variations. it seems not much has changed in my listening approach. ---------- Marr's Guitars
Offering custom-built Cigar Box Guitars for the discriminating player of obscure musical unstruments
To my ears, Gomes sounds like a white rocker trying to sing the blues...not my favorite. He lacks the subtlety, feeling, and funk that a "real" blues singer (white or black) would deliver.
I used to play in a band that had a lead vocalist and guitar player (name was Jeff, now deceased) who sounded very much like Gomes: he was a very good technical guitar player, playing blues tunes always with a bit of a rock influence - and a mediocre vocalist with a loud and growling voice. He also had an aversion to leaving any space/silence in the music; he would tell me "Rusty, If I leave a little space between lines, I want you to be right there to fill it!" Again, not my philosophy of blues - space is good.
I don't know Gomes' bio, but my impression of guys like him (and Jeff) is that they built their musical foundations on rock music very early in their lives/careers and then transitioned to blues later. So whatever they play tends to have an echo of rock to it. Incidentally, I don't see this as a white/black thing: I know a black drummer in my local area who does his best to play blues but always comes across as rock and roll. When it comes to improvisational music forms, your foundations will always shine through, whether rock, blues, jazz, etc.
The Cray tune I like a lot better - it sounds like blues played and sung by someone steeped in blues from the beginning.
