Advice from the Blues guys...

[cytania]

Lets not forget the women. For me Etta James is Queen of the Blues. Irma Thomas is superb and when Nina Simone does a blues it gives me tingles. I even have a soft spot for Big Mama Thornton and Big Maybelle.

[MacDaddy]

[quote name='PTB' timestamp='1417467537' post='2620722']
For a slightly different flavour, try Hollywood Fats, John Nemeth, Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers and The Fabulous Thunderbirds.
[/quote]

Blues for El Salvador _ Carlos Santana

[PTB]

[quote name='cytania' timestamp='1417471584' post='2620815']
Lets not forget the women.
[/quote]

Quite right! Sister Rosetta Tharpe is cool too.

[cameltoe]

Some of my favorites;
Junior Kimbrough
Skip James
Blind Willie McTell
Son House

Depends if your after rootsy blues, or club blues.

Never been blown away by Robert Johnson, but always a good place to start and understand the genre.

[JamesBass]

BB King, Albert King, Albert Collins, Elmore James, Gary Clark Jr., JJ Cale, Howlin' Wolf, Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, John Mayer and the John Mayer Trio, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and even Steely Dan (Peg is a 12 bar)

The blues is wide and varied and exceptionally exciting and just as equally boring at times. Having a wide exposure will help kick all the boredom away no matter what the style you play!

[Wonky2]

Stevie ray Vaughn and double trouble .......Texas flood.
Early Peter green fleetwood mac.


Quality music.

[Horizontalste]

Thanks for all the advice folks, my Spotify 'blues' playlist is already over a hundred songs. I'm gonna be a busy boy.

[blue]

Cool direction, however I think it's going to be tough, unless you grew up playing blues. I did,

I was fortunate to grow up in the 60s and 70s when Blues was huge with even the 16-25 year olds. It was what was happening and I spent thousands of hours jamming and playing in blues bands. It's actually why I don't jam today. I had enough of it back in the day.

I play in a popular local bar level blues band, I have been with the band for the past 3 years. I would like to try and see what the top 40 cover side of the business is like, however, I play with good people, good consistent bookings and good money. Now that I think about it, why rock the boat.

Blue

Edited December 2, 2014 by blue

[Guest]

Try these out for size.
Slightly different than the more "traditional" stuff you've been directed to. Work on your shuffle styles too.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72KO0Dl_uPo[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuRvRE6Jy4U[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lE1LrsPszE[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXxsPZ-wpCs[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxH2JMwHNeQ[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI9piTIBiZQ[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NLTuEZRFNg[/media]

Edited December 2, 2014 by kennyrodgers

[Horizontalste]

Thanks for those Kenny, I feel like a kid in a sweet shop with all this music to listen to.

[DrBike]

That last one reminds me of when I saw Robert Cray at Rock City in Nottingham some time in the first half of the 80s I think.

I know that John Mayall was mentioned above and probably the Blues Breakers "Beano" album is the one that initially springs to mind but something else I'd recommend to check out (for a different take on things) is his Jazz Blues Fusion album with Larry Taylor on bass. I think that I first heard that when I was 15/16, I was already familiar with quite a lot of blues stuff already but hearing that LP just made me go "Wow!"

Here's one of the tracks "Exercise in C Major for Harmonica"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC0J8S59GEE

[Bikenbass]

How could I forget to mention Robert Cray? DOH!

[KevB]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1417435671' post='2620238']
Of all the blues purchases I've made (which is a very silly number, BTW), the best value I ever got was from the 3-volume "Coming Home To The Blues" set - here's Vol.1: [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coming-Home-Blues-Vol-1-Various/dp/B0000242VQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1417435528&sr=8-3&keywords=coming+home+to+the+blues"]http://www.amazon.co...me+to+the+blues[/url]

If you can't find at least a dozen change-of-musical-direction tracks across those three CDs, you're just not trying.
[/quote]

I missed this originally, concur with Jack and you can get all three vols s/h in good condition through Amazon for less than £3 [i]delivered [/i]total[i]. [/i]You can also pick up loads of blues compilations/box sets very cheaply in places like Fopp but there's a lot of overlap in some of them and you soon start duplicating tracks if you're not careful.

Edited December 2, 2014 by KevB

[peteb]

[quote name='Horizontalste' timestamp='1417430401' post='2620152']
After over a decade of playing rock covers I've decided that a new band is in order after Christmas with a new direction. I'm at the point now where if I have to play sex on bloody fire again my head will explode.
That said, I'm interested in looking at the blues (I know, it's a feeling not a genre) as there is something about the idea that I like. There are a few bands around here that are respected and I'm going to make time to go out and see them over the next few weeks to get a feel.
But in the interim, I guess the advice I'm looking for is who should I be listening to and what do you blues guys consider to be the Standards that work in the pub/club environment?
I intend to fully emerse myself in it over the whiskey fuelled festive period and to build up my blues repertoire to give me a shot at auditions in the new year.
Cheers Steve
[/quote]
As someone who has always played rock but in the last few years has started playing a fair bit of blues, I would suggest that you listen to a few of the new guys on the circuit rather than just exclusively to the old classics. You might pick up on how things have subtlety changed in terms of tone and approach, etc. You could start by searching for guys like Travis Carlton playing with Kirk Fletcher on YouTube (picked purely as I was listening to him today) or many others who picking up the blues gigs today.

You will find that the arrangements in blues are a lot more fluid than rock and that you will rarely play a song the same way twice. Also, you will need to learn how to play a walking bass line and keep it going for as long as necessary (I used to practice by playing a simple song like ‘Boom Boom’ for 15 minutes or so at a time and changing the line every second chorus). I would suggest that that you memorise a library of riffs and also work out as many different ways that you can think of playing the changes from the I to the IV, the IV back to the I and then up to the V, etc so that you are not just relying on simple chromatic runs all of the time.

There are some decent blues gigs out there and I have had loads of fun and played all over country on the blues circuit (from the south coast up to the Orkneys)! However, be aware that in many places a decent rock band will tend to draw more people to the average pub gig than an equally good blues band. The better gigs are in blues clubs, pubs that have a specialist blues night or the many festivals up and down the country…

Edited December 3, 2014 by peteb

[Horizontalste]

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1417565988' post='2621927']

As someone who has always played rock but in the last few years has started playing a fair bit of blues, I would suggest that you listen to a few of the new guys on the circuit rather than just exclusively to the old classics. You might pick up on how things have subtlety changed in terms of tone and approach, etc. You could start by searching for guys like Travis Carlton playing with Kirk Fletcher on YouTube (picked purely as I was listening to him today) or many others who picking up the blues gigs today.

You will find that the arrangements in blues are a lot more fluid than rock and that you will rarely play a song the same way twice. Also, you will need to learn how to play a walking bass line and keep it going for as long as necessary (I used to practice by playing a simple song like ‘Boom Boom’ for 15 minutes or so at a time and changing the line every second chorus). I would suggest that that you memorise a library of riffs and also work out as many different ways that you can think of playing the changes from the I to the IV, the IV back to the I and then up to the V, etc so that you are not just relying on simple chromatic runs all of the time.

There are some decent blues gigs out there and I have had loads of fun and played all over country on the blues circuit (from the south coast up to the Orkneys)! However, be aware that in many places a decent rock band will tend to draw more people to the average pub gig than an equally good blues band. The better gigs are in blues clubs, pubs that have a specialist blues night or the many festivals up and down the country…
[/quote]

Thanks Pete, my interest has definitely been spiked by some of newer guys. I'm particularly enjoying The Jon Amor Blues Group.
I haven't worked on walking lines for years so I'll make time for that too.
I'm realising now that everyone does the Standards in a different way so I'll absorb as much as I can from the different player's. It's reignited my interest to be honest, think my playing had become stagnant recently.
cheers Steve

[peteb]

[quote name='Horizontalste' timestamp='1417604628' post='2622094']


Thanks Pete, my interest has definitely been spiked by some of newer guys. I'm particularly enjoying The Jon Amor Blues Group.
I haven't worked on walking lines for years so I'll make time for that too.
I'm realising now that everyone does the Standards in a different way so I'll absorb as much as I can from the different player's. It's reignited my interest to be honest, think my playing had become stagnant recently.
cheers Steve
[/quote]
Keep listening to the more contemporary stuff and I am sure that you will be on the right lines.

I have sent you a link by PM that you might like if you are interested in Jon Amor - hope that you enjoy it...