One For The Blues Lovers

[blue]

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1427309588' post='2728745']
Chantel Mcgregor has a reasonably big tour of the UK. She is good in my opinion. She isn`t in here 30`s yet, and been doing blues for a few years. There are probably loads more i don`t know about.
[/quote]

I like Chantel.

I must have sent out 50 resumes and she was the only artist to personally respond. I thought that was pretty decent of her.

Blue

[blue]

My band is playing Mamie's Friday Night, 9:30-1:30 a long night and you can guess what time I get home. No worries,It will be a fun night.


[i]Ask blues musicians, fans and experts around town and you'll quickly find that Mamie's, 3300 National Ave., is generally thought to be the sole remaining "authentic" blues bar in town. [/i]

[i]Folks credit the Milwaukee Ale House, the Up and Under Pub, Painted Parrot or Kochanski's Concertina Beer Hall with providing the occasional stage, but in the end Mamie's is the only stop completely dedicated to the blues. [/i]

[i]"Mamie's is probably the last real blues bar in the city. Owner Deb is a true believer and all they play there is blues. If you don't play blues, you can't play there," says musician Reverend Raven, who fronts Reverend Raven and the Chain Smoking Altar Boys. [/i]
[i]Mamie's is what you expect a blues club to be. Located on 33rd Street and National Avenue, the bar represents its South Side neighborhood with good deals, no frills and great music. The patrons are regulars and the bartenders know everyone by name. [/i]

Edited March 26, 2015 by blue

[paul j h]

I previously subscribed to Rock n reel magazine, regularly there was articles on UK blues bands and visiting overseas blues artists. So it it does appear that there still is a, all be it smaller,thriving blues community you just have to seek it out. Incidentally if anyone wants a number of copies of the mag and the accompanying CDs for free, just cover the postage then PM me. Cheers Paul.

[Len_derby]

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1427309588' post='2728745']
There are probably loads more i don`t know about.
[/quote]

To me, the term blues is a bit like classical music. A broad umbrella term that covers a lot of variations.
In the last few decades the style most popular has been electrified Blues/Rock but there are many different styles. It just takes a bit more digging to find them.
As for Skank's accurate observation that a middle-aged white bloke in a waistcoat singing about the chain gang can be ludicrous; well, doesn't the singing of a song usually involve a degree of make believe? Some acting is convincing, some less so.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Len_derby

[pfretrock]

[quote name='Bloodaxe' timestamp='1427302053' post='2728606']
Didn't catch it, but one of these?

Skip the first three minutes:

[/quote]

Thanks it was Bonnie, but not that live recording, but studio with guitar + bass. It's still on listen again for a few more hours.

[pfretrock]

No one mentioned Joanne Shaw Taylor yet.

I suspect most of the blues followers are 40 something to sixty something, very few young kids follow it. In this connected world, no one learns to play Key To The Highway anymore from a record when there is so much other stuff around.

[jonnythenotes]

I am in a funk influenced band, and In our set, we do a few blues songs that we have kept pretty much to the original format, and they are going down a storm. What I am trying to say is that to push blues out as still being an still extremely valid part of modern music, sometimes you have to mask it with smoke and mirrors. If we even mentioned the word 'Blues' in our advertising, most of the non instrument playing public would instantly think Hoochie Coochie man, and promptly discount the band. It's just a preconception that most people who were born, I would say sort of 70's, that blues is boring, repetitive, played by old guys, and has a compulsory guitar and harmonica solo in every song. However.....once you have got an audience in front of you, the visual excitement of blues comes into play. If you are playing a pretty much mainstream set, and then fire into an up tempo bluesy format number, and by this I mean the 12 bar,3 chord formula, even something as simple as Route 66, My Babe, or Little By little, you will get a great response, and a lot of the time, this is to songs people would never normally listen to, or have never heard before. I am certain that people respond to the visual of a band giving it big licks, just as much as they respond to the safe and familiar feeling they get from songs they know all the lyrics to. Some venues thrive on pure blues, or very blues influenced music....check out The Blues Bar in Harrogate..... but by and large, you won't get a look in at a lot of venues, private parties, weddings etc if you smell remotely of blues...you have to sneak it in the back door. Then it's a simple case of dropping in a few more of the right songs that lean it a bit more towards a R n B set list. This might not appeal to the purist blues players among you, but when you are whacking the blues out, you have got to make it visually appealing and exciting, just as much as it must be played well, and sound good. And at the end of the day, the most used and abused loved/ hated song of recent years, that never fails to drive a crowd nuts...( one way or another) is Mustang Sally.. In the past, it was the artists and their personalities who made Blues a huge part of music culture, but it seems now its Joe Public who justifies its existence, which is a shame as they are quite happy to digest processed and studio engineered crap that they are force fed by commercial TV, radio and advertising, yet are unaware the real stuff is still out there. Blues still sits perfectly in this day and age, but an hour and a half of it spred over two sets is still a bit much for some folks...It's a case of all things in moderation, unless you run a Blues Bar..

[AntLockyer]

Interesting the purist Blues thing came up. We are a blues band, we play blues songs and we only take gigs with large audiences that we fancy (we don't play much as a consequence). What we are doing is not re-enactment, we are playing a bunch of songs that people will know, we are playing a bunch of songs that only the hardcore blues fan would know but we are doing it from our perspective today.

Personally I want people to feel dazed, confused and wrung out by the end of or set. It should be heavy, it should showcase the talent of the song writers and definitely make people dance.

[timmo]

I see many comments about Joe Bonamassa being uninspiring and just a generic blues showman with no real talent. It shows that you can`t please people.I think he is great. I know he is no Gary Moore, Alvin Lee, etc, etc, but so what, it doesn`t matter as those two are sadly no longer with us. It is good to have someone still out there selling big venues out.That is the problem with blues, everyone wants to compare everyone.
Blue, glad Chantel replied to you. I have only seen her once, and she seems real down to earth.

[EliasMooseblaster]

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1427359984' post='2729232']
No one mentioned Joanne Shaw Taylor yet.

I suspect most of the blues followers are 40 something to sixty something, very few young kids follow it. In this connected world, no one learns to play Key To The Highway anymore from a record when there is so much other stuff around.
[/quote]

She was one of the first people that came to mind when I read the blog post! A really excellent player, and her last couple of albums have managed to do "blues" (albeit more at the rock end of the spectrum) without re-treading too many 12-bars.

The first person who came to mind was Ian Siegal. A guitarist friend got some lessons from him at some guitar camp, and reported that the lessons focused more on the background of the blues, and trying to do something different with its generic form, than on flashy soloing. Apparently they were accompanied by a very interesting rant about Stevie Ray Vaughan and many of his disciples who made the mistake of focusing on the guitar solo rather than the quality of the writing. I had this confirmed in a more polite form when I heard him interviewed on Radio 2, talking about how he'd made an active effort to write songs which didn't fall back on those standard I-IV-V changes. [i]Meat and Potatoes [/i]and [i]Swagger [/i]are both great examples of how to write a clever and inventive blues album and, being a bit more "rootsy" than JST, he's also unlikely to offend the Blues Police.

[AntLockyer]

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1427371624' post='2729430']
I see many comments about Joe Bonamassa being uninspiring and just a generic blues showman with no real talent. It shows that you can`t please people.I think he is great. I know he is no Gary Moore, Alvin Lee, etc, etc, but so what, it doesn`t matter as those two are sadly no longer with us. It is good to have someone still out there selling big venues out.That is the problem with blues, everyone wants to compare everyone.
Blue, glad Chantel replied to you. I have only seen her once, and she seems real down to earth.
[/quote]

Really love some of his records, live was dull I'm afraid. Robert Cray was absolutely riveting though.

[timmo]

[quote name='AntLockyer' timestamp='1427374729' post='2729508']
Really love some of his records, live was dull I'm afraid. Robert Cray was absolutely riveting though.
[/quote]I liked Bonamassa when i saw him live. Can`t comment on Robert Cray though. Never seen him

[louisthebass]

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1427375391' post='2729523']
I liked Bonamassa when i saw him live. Can`t comment on Robert Cray though. Never seen him
[/quote]

Have seen Robert Cray a few times over the last 25 years. He's not a flashy Blues guitar player by any stretch of the imagination, but what he does play is always tasteful and appropriate to the song. He's also a more soul / R&B type vocalist as opposed to the more Bluesy guys like John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters.

Got a nice tight band behind him too, have always been a fan of Karl Sevareid and Richard Cousins' bass playing .

[louisthebass]

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1427359984' post='2729232']
No one mentioned Joanne Shaw Taylor yet.

I suspect most of the blues followers are 40 something to sixty something, very few young kids follow it. In this connected world, no one learns to play Key To The Highway anymore from a record when there is so much other stuff around.
[/quote]

Have just checked out some of her videos, really like her playing and singing - thanks for the heads up!

[ead]

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1427371624' post='2729430']
I see many comments about Joe Bonamassa being uninspiring and just a generic blues showman with no real talent. It shows that you can`t please people.I think he is great. I know he is no Gary Moore, Alvin Lee, etc, etc, but so what, it doesn`t matter as those two are sadly no longer with us. It is good to have someone still out there selling big venues out.That is the problem with blues, everyone wants to compare everyone.
Blue, glad Chantel replied to you. I have only seen her once, and she seems real down to earth.
[/quote]

I think JB is a talented guitarist. I took the kids to see one of his shows before his popularity exploded and they were both blown away. More recently I went to see him again (maybe 2 years ago) and the show seems to have turned into a 'look how many guitars I own' fest. He can still play a bit though!

Edited March 26, 2015 by ead

[jonnythenotes]

The very word 'Blues' has never been re-invented, so to speak over time. The word itself almost suggests oppressive, moody music, all to do with how you lost your job, the car, the misses etc. It still suggests 50's and 60's guitar based music, played by deep and meaningful people, who have got the blues over how tough life is. Recently, Duffy had enormous success with 'Mercy' which is out and out blues, but has been re invented by a young person, and given a modern feel... Years ago, 'heavy' music appeared...this then became 'heavy metal' then 'death metal' then ''black metal' etc... It's the same basic music, with different and extreme variations on the original theme. This is where Blues has failed miserably....not in the variations available, but the continued use of a 100 year old description of it... Call it Blue Metal or something a bit more inspiring, show a few young bands or kids playing it, and it's appeal may change. It's not that Blues music is crap, it's just that the name, and is original meaning is hopelessly outdated, and inspires nothing in today's mainstream music listeners.

[chris_b]

You don't seem to be aware of the music has been played for the last 100 years under the umbrella term "The Blues".

It has gone through significant changes since the 1890's and is continuing to evolve on a yearly basis.

[jonnythenotes]

That's what I am saying Chris... I have been playing Blues, or 'The Blues' for 40 years, so I think my understanding of it, and who has come and gone in this time, is as good as most folks. It is continually evolving, and will do, but that one word which covers all...'Blues' is only enough for existing blues players, listeners or whatever you call us. To all others, it has no appeal, and actively discourages interest in the genre. I am very much aware of the hundred years blues has been about, this is why I mentioned it in the first place, but as long as I am trying to get gigs for a Blues band, I will continue to be greeted by venue owners or agents with the look of someone sucking on a lemon..

[EliasMooseblaster]

[quote name='jonnythenotes' timestamp='1427382755' post='2729700']
I am very much aware of the hundred years blues has been about, this is why I mentioned it in the first place, but as long as I am trying to get gigs for a Blues band, I will continue to be greeted by venue owners or agents with the look of someone sucking on a lemon..
[/quote]

This possibly alludes to the problem I mentioned above, where a lack of imagination from a number of artists has left people with the impression that "The Blues" is just a one-trick pony of a genre - and if they've sat through enough half-arsed "Blues" bands at their local, you perhaps can't blame them for thinking that. I've run up against it myself on occasion - the following is from a review of Cherry White's first EP:
"[color=#333333][font=Georgia,]Blues rock is well-charted territory, and when a band claims it as their own I tend to steel myself for a restatement of the themes that made for gig-going tedium in my teens; at one time only blues bands could get gigs, and their licks? I know them. [/font][/color][b]Cherry White[/b][color=#333333][font=Georgia,] play bluesy material, rather than just twelve-bars, which helps a lot (knowing [/font][/color][i]exactly[/i][color=#333333][font=Georgia,] where the harmony is going tends to undermine narrative tension a tad), and while their approach is hardly a radical departure from the traditions of the genre, they strike pretty much the right balance, bringing enough novelty (and enthusiasm) to proceedings to sound fresh. "[/font][/color]

We both know that there is more to Blues than just the few popular variations on the 12- and 8-bar structure, but how many other people know that if they're not already fans of the genre? Country and Folk will have suffered from people assuming similar sets of clichés in all examples of the music, but now they've managed to re-establish themselves as "cool." I can think of plenty of artists who steer clear of these clichés and are proud to fall under the "Blues" umbrella - what else do we need to happen for it to become acceptable again?

[pfretrock]

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1427306449' post='2728668']
It was Bonnie Raitt [url="http://www.planetrock.com/music/?date=2015-03-19&time=19"]http://www.planetroc...5-03-19&time=19[/url]
[/quote]
Thanks! did not know this list existed - but my internet is busted at the moment.

[pfretrock]

[quote name='jonnythenotes' timestamp='1427382755' post='2729700']
.... with the look of someone sucking on a lemon..
[/quote]

I guess the juice just did not run down his leg.

[Tullfan]

Could I suggest Keb Mo and include this link as a taster. One of my favourite of his.

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=002fnC7cO80"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=002fnC7cO80[/url]

[chris_b]

Good version. Great band and with Vail Johnson playing some fantastic lines.

[blue]

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1427316092' post='2728905']
This potentially such a huge topic I'm going to restrict myself to a few observations.

* Too many under-rehearsed hobby blues bands with predictable setlists and arrangements are clouding perceptions. Not all blues is tubby old white guys (like me) knocking out the same ploddy rhythms. But the kids don't know that.[/quote]

And that's the perception, which is too bad.

My point or question is, how can you get younger people to listen to blues/rock? I think they would need to want to listen to live music first, I think that's the big hurdle.

We are are a blues / rock band all older guys my age with a young female lead guitarist so it's a little easier for us.

Blue

Edited March 27, 2015 by blue

[Mykesbass]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1427419268' post='2730284']


And that's the perception, which is too bad.

My point or question is, how can you get younger people to listen to blues/rock? I think they would need to want to listen to live music first, I think that's the big hurdle.

We are are a blues / rock band all older guys my age with a young female lead guitarist so it's a little easier for us.

Blue
[/quote]Interesting point Blue, I'll have to see if there's any research on audience ages - I'd hazard a guess they've got older.