Well, it's the blues, for sure. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for these "child prodigy" type acts. When they're young everybody raves about 'em, 'cuz they're young. And when they reach about 20 years of age they're in the same pool with all the other adults and their success level can change overnight... unless they're Michael Jackson,Prince, Stevie Wonder, or some other freaking genius.
I feel sorry for these kids. The adults that are around them don't usually do them any favors by telling them how great they are. It's a hard world out there. Very few people get rich playing Blues. Next year there will be another kid out there to take his place and someone else will be posting another video of some other 13 year old kid leading a blues band.
Hopefully, this kid's parents do their job and make sure he stays in school.
not just another wanker, and he sings pretty well also. makes me look back and wish i'd gotten a start much earlier than i did (i was a fairly late bloomer).
Joe_L: I can't remember how many 13 year old "the real deal to be" kids I have seen over the years. I haven't seen a one make famous in adulthood but have watched a top heavy number of them get caught up in the addictions of being around adults in music/clubs/entertainment. Often times the parents are living thier unfullfilled fantasy. Also many older folks on these forums praise the heck out of this stuff and again many wish they had persued music further......... Plus who would want to subject their child to the club scene? It is top heavy in addictive substances to start with. Kids need to be kids. I am a school teacher and I see how burnt out kids get from sports nowadays. It is a year round committment to make it to college sports. Lots of great talent just gets tired of it all. My niece is a great example. She is a star softball pitcher and soccer player from NJ. She is a senior this year and told her parents she will not be playing sports in college. They are bummed (finacially) because top schools around the country have offered her a full ride. She plain told them she is burnt and just wants to focus on being a student. We are forcing kids to do more than they can deal with today on so many fronts. Music is just another one. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Jonny Lang put out his 1st album at 14 back when he was Kid Jonny Lang. I know, that's the exception in that he has been pretty successful. Still one of my favorite vocalists.
Walter - We see eye to eye on this one. Out of every one kid that has "made it", I can think of ten that didn't and didn't end up better people for the experience. One kid that I know was a phenom as a teenager and addicted to drugs before his 21st birthday. Now, he's a messed up dude in his 30's. It's a sad thing to see.
I knew a teenage phenom guitar player and singer. Fabulous and gigging regularly at 18. Drug addicted two years later and playing for quarters on the street. He never lived to see his thirtieth birthday. That's sad stuff.
The "child plays the blues" thing has never done anything for me. I know that technically he's playing all the right notes and it's a nice little solo. But a thirteen year old doing Champagne and Reefer? Really?
I'm just not buying that, and for me realness and believability is almost everything in the blues. I want to feel sombody's emotion whether it be pain, joy, despair, whatever...when they're singing the blues. I mean his voice hasn't even dropped yet and I'm listening to him sing those lyrics? I laughed out loud.
Yeah, champagne when he's thirsty and reefer when he want's to get high....and then a telephone call to child protective services.
I realize that he can play...and he's gonna play what he likes to play..good for him. I'm just saying I would have no interest in watching or listening to him perform old blues standards.
BTW I'm not saying that there aren't 13 year olds who are already drinking and smoking pot, I'm not that naive, just saying this kid has got nothing to say to me on that subject.
This topic sort of dovetails with the eternal question: Who can authentically sing/play the blues? I don't think there's an easy answer. I know it has been debated ad nauseum on here, so i'm not suggesting the forum open up THAT can of worms again.
I'll just leave with...for whatever technical skills the kid has...this performance does nothing for me.
He's got pretty good tone and a good sense of blues tonality. That's a plus.
It's a bad choice of song for a 13-year old--Where ARE the parents on this one?! Do they think the lyrics are just a joke?--and he can't sing. Little Stevie Wonder at the same age could really sing, and Michael Jackson could, ah, really sing.
When it comes time for the solo, I expected the kid to bust loose. He doesn't. I don't really feel his heart, his intensity, at all. There IS no intensity. He's just figured out the secret to making a certain kind of sound. At this same age, (well, at age 14, when I saw him live) Monster Mike Welch was a much better singer and a much better guitar player. He's now a solid mid-level blues performer, but in no way a star. And he was a legit child prodigy.
This kid has a long way to go. But I'd encourage him to see where the music takes him. I'd also encourage him to figure out why he's playing the music. If he doesn't know, the audience won't know.
Last Edited by on Feb 18, 2011 11:36 AM
I saw Johnny Lang play at about the same age, he truly was a young gunslinger, with a powerful voice to match. This kid is ok, but nothing near the raw talent of Johnny Lang. ----------
The Drummer is as young as the guitarist,.. Kids today are way far advanced then those born before the age of computers,. Anyone born from the 40-50-60's could never learn as much as todays kids,. They just have way more talent than kids of yesteryear !! ---------- Simply Unique Kustom Mic's By Rharley
I think you are all making way too much of this. He's 13 and can sing and play guitar at the same time. That is HUGE!!!
So many people are so focused on the wunderkid phenomenon they forget that your average 13 year old kid can't tie their shoes, musically speaking. I've been working with 11-14 year old kids for almost 10 years, you know how many 'wunderkids' I've seen? 0.
Did you all see the video of Jason Ricci playing when he was in high school? Many of you would have said, hey, that's neat, but the kid can't play the harmonica. While this kid is a little smoother and plays more 'right' notes, this video is a record of a starting point.
I would say to this kid: "Good job, keep working, find a good voice teacher"
Not, 'hey you are pretty good, but not as good as _________'
And I wouldn't worry about the negative effects of this kid barking up the road to fame.
Ah, but was Jason (or his parents) posting that video for public consumption right after it was shot? I didn't think so.
You're quite right. I'd say exactly the same thing to this kid that you'd say: Good job, keep working, find a good voice teacher. What I wouldn't do--and what our contemporary culture encourages us to do--is to say, "Amazing! Incredible! Wow! You should be on AMERICA'S GOT TALENT!" True child prodigies have always been with us, and they've always rightfully attracted public notice. But child prodigies in the blues, of all things, are a somewhat more recent phenomenon, and a widespread one--or at least the hunger to produce and applaud them is only about 15 years old--and many of us here aren't sure it's a wholly good thing. Some of us think that superior blues singing and blues musicianship takes some seasoning in the School of Hard Knocks, and that that the current hunger for Boys Wonder of the Blues has more to do with the anxieties of aging Baby Boomers and their progeny than with a grounded appreciation of what blues performance is really about.
I'm not saying that a virgin bluesboy CAN'T play incredible and moving music. I'm sure that a few of them can. I'm just saying that when an affectless and relatively spiritless 13 year old sort of sings a song about champagne and reefer, I'm more inclined to ring up Child Protective Services than wave a banner proclaiming him the latest and greatest. And I don't think that's just me.
What did they play next, 'Let's Go Get Stoned' by Ray Charles? ---------- Todd, the conservatively liberal moderate of the moderators Eudora and Deep Soul
Phogi made a good point-Even though the kid doesn't have a golden voice, he IS playing guitar and singing, which is no easy feat for most. In my early days of playing harp, I took bass lessons for a couple years and could play okay, but put it aside when I realized I just couldn't sing and play at the same time(never mind play harp). And hey, these kids probably don't have peach fuzz yet. Give them a few years. I don't see any guns being held to their heads to play-I bet they're enjoying it. ---------- Todd, the conservatively liberal moderate of the moderators Eudora and Deep Soul
Here is Jake Bishop from Detroit Metro area,. Now living in Nashville,.
I've seen him play in many Blues bars an clubs around the Detroit area when he was 13 -14 yrs old sitting in jammin with Local Blues bands ,.yes,.his Dad was with Him & they could not stay past I believe 12:00AM ,. The kid is a SRV Clone//Awesome !!
Like I said: Kids today just have way more talent than kids of yesteryear !!
Jake Bishop is great ,..I've seen an heard him play Blues ,Blues Rock,. Rock ,& Country,.. Point is ya gotta give these Kids the Respect/Credit they are Due at their young age! ---------- Simply Unique Kustom Mic's By Rharley
Last Edited by on Feb 20, 2011 12:34 AM
