Good question. I think music should be all about feeling and being immersed in the groove and expressing what's inside whether you're improvising or copying phrases and that's not just for blues of course but for all music.
There are a lot of bands and artists that probably do this in all genres. The blues world is not immune. If I listen to a blues show, I'd say half the stuff sounds canned to me. My wife (a kick butt bass player and radio host) and I talk about it all the time. Why is one player, who may still be playing a straight 12 with some pretty traditional overtones, sound powerful, fresh and full of life...and the next one--maybe even playing roughly the same changes, etc.--sound like he or she is phoning it in? Been working on this question most of my life. Can't say I have an answer yet... ---------- www.bigroadband.com
When I was a kid I wanted to be a writer. I liked telling stories that made people feel something. There are some of my songs that are definitely pieces of me, but there are other one's I've written that are just stories I've written down. I think, when I write them, I manage to put my mind in a place where I feel them so they 'sound' authentic, but that's a different form of authenticity than cultural authenticity. The best I can do, sometimes, is pick an emotion I have felt and feel it while I write a story.
There certainly are tropes I borrow, but I try to be careful not to pick ones that really do seem to belong to a particular culture by right. I've never picked cotton in the fields, so I don't write songs about having picked cotton. I may (and have actually) written about seeing the fields as I drive by in a car. Other things I do appropriate. I've never been a drinker, but I've got a couple songs about drinking (songs about Xanax & Prozac just don't have that same ring!)
Oh girl I miss you I think I'm gonna die Oh girl I miss you I think I'm gonna die You've been out drinking Hanging round with that other guy
I've never lost a girl to another guy, at least not one I really had, but I've been crazy about a woman who was with someone else.
I've been down at the old ballroom Drinking Whiskey-rye I've been down at the old ballroom Drinking Whiskey-rye I've been down at the old ballroom, baby Gonna find that other guy
Like I said, I've never been a drinker, but it sounds better than, "I'm gonna pop a xanax and sleep it off".
I'm gonna tell him he can have you Come by, pick up your things Gonna tell him he can have you Come by, pick up your things Only thing I want back baby Is my grandmomma's diamond ring
Like I said, I've never lost a girl that I had to another guy, and actually, never proposed to a woman, but when I wrote it I was telling myself a story in my head and that's where it went. There is a little cultural appropriation going on in the last line. We were a grandma, grandpa family, not grandmomma, grandpappa family. I'll cop to a little appropriation there, but it fit the meter better and sounded better.
Then there was the last stanza, which I don't sing anymore, pending fixing it...
I thought about acting badly I thought about my gun But I ain't doin' time for you If you ain't the one If you ain't the one baby, Hurry up, git, go on...
And I don't sing that version anymore, because this is a blues song, and it sounds like a blues song, and in my mind I didn't want someone to mistake it as one more 'song that maybe a black guy wrote about contemplating violence' (written by a white guy). I wanted to make sure if someone was going to misinterpret this as a piece of culture I didn't want to be piling on with negative stereotypes. I wanted my protagonist to be a good guy who just got punched in the guts but who is taking the high road.
So, is it cultural appropriation? A little. I (like to) think I did it with good intentions to tell a story. It was the story in my head that came out on the page.
A good performer communicates the feel whether or not they are actually feeling it at the moment (think of stage actors who make an audience cry every night -- depending on their acting style, they may or not be "feeling it." Some of it (as a blues player or whatever) is natural ability to communicate and commitment to communicate. My 2 cents.
Willie Dixon has always been my favorite blues song writer, mainly because he wrote songs and used creative language to explain a situation that may have used old worn out metaphors or images. So we have Dead Presidents as a way of talking about money, Taking out some insurance as an argument against your woman leaving, etc. Vs. the common thing. Plus...many of his songs had hooks and chorus sections and didn't exactly follow the standard 12 bar format.
Nacoran...I actually like a couple of the little things you did there. The diamond ring line and the refusing to do time for you are interesting. ---------- www.bigroadband.com
I guess what I mean is when you play a note is it YOU or is just a note. So many people are hung up on technique but dont really make soul- full music with it. And maybe their goal and enjoyment is just that,
When I do a recording session - I alwys ask somebody who knows me well if they can tell it is me playing.
That is my goal and I try to work with people who like the way I play whether its guitar, drums or harp. If they want a by the chart guy I point them to people I know can do what they want.
Obviously if you take a money gig outside your real interest it is just that and like they used to say-" play for the money boys"
But thats another form of day job
I mean when you play your music do you make it yours?
Or do you string together a buncha licks you heard somewhere and memorized?
Goldbrick...I always make it mine. I have to. I just am not a by the numbers player. I've also never been big on sitting around learning licks from other players. Sure it's impossible for Freddie King not to creep a tad into my guitar work, or Paul Butterfield or Delbert McClinton into my harp playing...but it's my own twist. There are certain solos and lines I listen to over and over again too and it's all because of what the note or phrase conveys to me. One that comes to mind is the first note in Little Walter's harp solo on I Just Want to Make Love to You (Chess Studio original) by Muddy Waters. He's playing in 3rd position I think and he slides up and hits that one note...Damn! It's the city...and can hear feel and smell the streets. Kills me every time. I want that...But my own version, from my own life and experience. ---------- www.bigroadband.com
I don't really feel like gettin that deep right now .. lol, but i know what you mean. However. I never heard this origional. (I assume this is the origional ) Sublime does a few versions of this. Very cool. I love hearing the origionals. Almost every song sublime did was a cover. But it is Dub afterall. ---------- "Trust Those Who Seek The Truth. Doubt Those Who Say They Have Found It."
Last Edited by Killa_Hertz on Feb 11, 2016 2:45 PM
Killa...I always assumed most Sublime songs were originals...Santeria, What I Got, The Wrong Way...Covered by other people like Blues Traveler for sure. ---------- www.bigroadband.com
Sublime had about a 50/50 mix in their short recording life of covers and originals. The band only had 3 studio albums and Brad just passed the 27 club when he died at age 28
They didnt leave a big body of work so pretty much everything was put out on posthumous releases
I am a reggae guy ( I did a reggae radio show out of Atlantic city in the 80's) and I like what they did with that Long Beach style ( Aggrovators and Perro Bravo do similar Long Beach style reggae)
I guess what I was trying to say in my post was that I think it's important to think about the question of authenticity, and it sort of turns a lot of songwriting into a meta activity, where you are thinking about not just the thoughts in your head but the way the audience will perceive what you are saying, whether it's how you intend it or not.
One of the weird things I've found writing is that when I'm happy I'm more likely to write something happy, and when I'm happy I'm more likely to write something depressing. (If I get really depressed though, then all bets are off). Sometimes writing something depressing is a way of whistling in the dark and writing something happy is a way to dig yourself out of a funk.
It's sort of funny, some of my bad habits come out the most when I'm the most into what I'm playing- playing too loud, holding the harp too tight. There is a balance between giving yourself over to the emotion to the point where you are wallowing and portraying the emotion, music as a tonic versus performing. You want a bit of both, but too much wallowing and you get 15 minute solos that go nowhere. :) (I've never done a 15 minute solo, but man, there was this one guitar player who used to show up at open mics...)
Nate I see where you are coming from- I think the key is to let your emotions run while practicing and then use the parts that are coherent when you perform.
Thats why taping yourself is always good- so you can see it with a clear head later and extract the parts that work.
15 minute solos are just a run on sentence that should have been edited for public consumption
Last Edited by Goldbrick on Feb 11, 2016 5:39 PM
I do not think it is an issue of either/or logic, excluding the middle. It is not yes or no, feel or not feel.
I think it is a question of "to what extent" you feel the blues while performing in the blues format.
"To what extent" do you feel the blues on any given night, in any given song, in any given passage, in any given note.
Music is dynamic, in the NOW, and we always are in flux with regard to our emotional investment into our music at any moment. The more we are congruent with the emotional content of the music we are performing, the more rewarding it is to perform, and I think, the better we convey emotion while making music. My experience is that this varies from performance to performance and within each performance.
But if you spend too much time thinking about it, and are always evaluating emotional content, you are separating yourself from the music and building barriers to playing it with feeling. ----------
I'd say it's like any other art form . . . sometimes you really feel the emotions of what you're doing, sometimes you feel it a little, sometimes you're just doing a job for the money. I can't give you a harp example - I'm strictly the enthusiastic amateur - but I can give an example from my primary gig.
Early last week I wrote two columns (one ran as an op-ed for USA Today, another was for a regional magazine). The former just about ripped my guts out to write (it was about dealing with my dad's Alzheimer's). The latter . . , I honestly can't even tell you what the topic was; I'd have to go back and look.
I agree that it's not a "feel OR play" scenario. It's all a matter of degres. That's just life; sometimes you're deep in it, and sometimes you're just going through the motions.
Last Edited by Rontana on Feb 13, 2016 4:26 AM
Any music (not just blues) is played with a mixture of feeling and technique. You need both. When strong feeling flows, performances can be exceptional... yes, you need to feel what you play.
Last Edited by A440 on Feb 13, 2016 4:35 AM
I been playing harp and guitar since 1968,i haven`t played one scale on harp,though many on guitar.harp has always been a language instrument for me.there are many licks in blues that are like words in the language.also some speak the language,others sing it and there are poets too.......
Definitely feel. I have had the blues since early times in my life but it was when I was in my 20's I began to figure out how to express with a harp. Still many years later before I began to learn some of the techniques my heroes used. The Walters, SBII, Wolf, and many others have informed my playing, but it's never been about a set piece every time. There must be a balance, but for me the scales are tipped to feel every time. The mechanics are as good as the heart behind their use. ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
I am aware of and have worked on internalizing the blues format and that has helped me to let go and play the feeling. I don't think it's fair to imply that theory knowledge kills the ability to feel and express. If anything theory can significantly shorten the journey to getting to that feeling place while making sense within the blues genre. And I'm not talking about reading music or formal education necessarily, even the blues greats got plenty of schooling, I'd be willing to bet, to help them fit in and shape their expressions. ----------
Last Edited by mr_so&so on Feb 14, 2016 9:11 AM
Well, I'll say that if I try to play when I have a powerful, bluesy emotion I make sounds that I doubt people would want to hear. It ends up as repetitive draws/blows, incredibly sloppy warbles, and way too deep and uncontrolled bends, all way to loud and obnoxious.
nacoran...I get ya. Interesting about bad habits. I noticed it Saturday night when I was sitting in with a band, using my mentor's gear. I know I started a bit tight and the first song was one I'd never done. The nerves come in and I tense. I feel it with everything I do sometimes when I'm on an unfamiliar stage or in a high pressure situation. It affects my harp and singing the most...I push to much air, fall into habits. I have to consciously slow myself down internally, feel what's going on and let it flow. It's hard work to relax...at least I think so. I spend a lot of time on stage with my eyes closed trying to find the heart of things. Odd...but that's what works.
Goldbrick...thanks for the info and songs. I know Sublime only a bit obviously. I've done Santeria...but that's where things kinda end. I do love that vibe and sound--but deep knowledge is not as great obviously. Brad was a huge powerhouse from what I know about . Interestingly I do a fair amount of Reggae in my sets--No Woman, Three Little Birds, Harder They Come...and Santeria when the mood hits. ---------- www.bigroadband.com
