Blues School

[nodehopper]

Elijah Wald tells this story in Escaping the Delta: at a festival' date=' Dave Van Ronk finished his set with a macho, blustering, raging version of Hootchie Cootchie Man. He comes off stage to see Muddy Waters watching. The Mudd says "you done good , Son. But you know, that's supposed to be a[i'] funny[/i] song."

 

In a nutshell, the difference between blues and hard rock. JK

 

Great Story...I need to read that book!

 

I have seen threads like this many times. There are always a few who seem to think that unless you grew up a poor black sharecropper in Mississippi .......you simply cannot play "The Blues" That seems a bit overboard to me...but then I have to confess there aren't many middle class white guys who, to my ear, can capture that certain essence of the blues.

 

Guys like Clapton, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Beck et. al. have great chops, technique, tone and can probably play better than many of the old originals.....but still can leave me a bit cold.

 

It is sad that to this day there are still some original blues guys living in almost obscurity playing music they learned from the greats. Many of the rockers have thrown some bones...paid tribute..etc., but just as consumers flocked to Pat Boone's versions of songs ...so still the majority of consumer cash goes into the pockets of the "knock offs".

 

Go buy these guys albums. I really like John Dee Holman "Bull Duram Blues" album

 

 

 

Cootie Stark

 

Here is someone doing something about this!

 

[onewilyfool]

I never even heard of this guy til yesterday when I stumbled onto him on the web.....this guy has to be one of the FASTEST blues players on the planet.....Guthrie Govan

 

 

[jefleppard]

"As far as I'm concerned AC/DC is a blues band"

 

 

lol! i don't feel that allegence to the pentatonic alone, makes a band a blues band.

not that the idiom that the blues is a yearning or a musical way to weep or pine over what's been lost or never had doesn't apply to them in some way. i never thought of them as blues. i've just seen the excrementally painful look in albert collins' face and said "yep, he's got the blues. no doubt about it."

[onewilyfool]

I think John Lee Hooker said it best when he sang, "I'll never get out of these blues alive...."

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOX-od_S-fo