I owe Bluesnik a favour for giving me the heads up regarding country blues and I think it was largely through his recommendations that I have listened a lot to the likes of Blind Willie McTell and his contemporaries. The music seems most "authentic" in it's late 1920's and early 30's incarnation when the social conditions of the time seemed to ensure that blues was the musical expression of black, American society. The notion of the blues artist as a solitary and wandering master of his guitar and poet of social expression is core to most people's perception of this music even if Elijah Wald's exceptional piece of research "Escaping the delta" explained how much of a myth this was with country musicians largely having a far wider repertoire than generally understood and often simply picking up on the then current fashion for more "urban" blues artists like Bessie Smith. Wald goes on to describe the likes of Leroy Carr as someone who increasingly transformed the blues in to something more commercial (I don't think necessarily less potent) and this led to the even more commercial stuff such as late 1940's R n' B.
Picking up on this "commercial" element, it's really fascinating when you encounter live blues that the social history than makes tracks by the likes of Charley Patton appealing doesn't matter. I've seen the likes of Robert Cray, Eric Bibb, Lucky Peterson, L'il Ed and the Blues imperials, Taj Mahal, Magic Slim, Buddy Guy, Keb Mo' and B B King in concert and loved every moment of their music. However, I don't think the "social" commentary was big on their agenda even if someone like Eric Bibb share that poetic quality with some of his influences. The only time I've heard a more politicized blues group I found the experience pretty unsettling and outspoken in a fashion that was more akin to Rap. For biting social commentary Rap is probably today's replacement for blues yet there is a bit gap in musical technique and the language is pretty unsophisticated even if you consider something like McTell's "Your southern can is mine" which is pretty explicit / unsavoury once your realise that the can in question isn't a tin of beer!
Until earlier this month I had only ever read about their music but the gig by the Tedeschi Trucks Band last month really opened by ears. This is just about the best blues band I've heard but their music is effectively performed by a big band and their material includes music that includes funk, C&W and a heavy dose of rock. Susan Tedeschi even sounds like Bonnie Raitt. That said, her husband is probably one of the best slide guitarist's around, plays in the current version of the Allman brothers band yet is an avowed John Coltrane disciple. After playing a CD of their in my car all week, I'm not convinced that this is really a blues band or is even a jazz group despite the musicians have the kind of chops that would make most rock bands sound like little school boys jamming away in their garage. Their music is pretty impressive none-the-less and the band extremely tight with plenty of room for extended improvisations in concert. Are their any other TTB fans out there?
No one of this board seems to be on to the current blues scene and there aren't too many musicians playing blues who aren't on the shady side of 60. The blues audience is pretty different to the jazz audience and they are not quite so snooty if inclined to be more tolerant of the kind of rock that most people on this board would find tedious.
Curious to see what other board members think....
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Picking up on this "commercial" element, it's really fascinating when you encounter live blues that the social history than makes tracks by the likes of Charley Patton appealing doesn't matter. I've seen the likes of Robert Cray, Eric Bibb, Lucky Peterson, L'il Ed and the Blues imperials, Taj Mahal, Magic Slim, Buddy Guy, Keb Mo' and B B King in concert and loved every moment of their music. However, I don't think the "social" commentary was big on their agenda even if someone like Eric Bibb share that poetic quality with some of his influences. The only time I've heard a more politicized blues group I found the experience pretty unsettling and outspoken in a fashion that was more akin to Rap. For biting social commentary Rap is probably today's replacement for blues yet there is a bit gap in musical technique and the language is pretty unsophisticated even if you consider something like McTell's "Your southern can is mine" which is pretty explicit / unsavoury once your realise that the can in question isn't a tin of beer!
Until earlier this month I had only ever read about their music but the gig by the Tedeschi Trucks Band last month really opened by ears. This is just about the best blues band I've heard but their music is effectively performed by a big band and their material includes music that includes funk, C&W and a heavy dose of rock. Susan Tedeschi even sounds like Bonnie Raitt. That said, her husband is probably one of the best slide guitarist's around, plays in the current version of the Allman brothers band yet is an avowed John Coltrane disciple. After playing a CD of their in my car all week, I'm not convinced that this is really a blues band or is even a jazz group despite the musicians have the kind of chops that would make most rock bands sound like little school boys jamming away in their garage. Their music is pretty impressive none-the-less and the band extremely tight with plenty of room for extended improvisations in concert. Are their any other TTB fans out there?
No one of this board seems to be on to the current blues scene and there aren't too many musicians playing blues who aren't on the shady side of 60. The blues audience is pretty different to the jazz audience and they are not quite so snooty if inclined to be more tolerant of the kind of rock that most people on this board would find tedious.
Curious to see what other board members think....
.
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