lets talk blues...
 

it seems that the blues, the blueprint for all popular music that followed, is a style of music rarely talked about on here. ill start this with a simple questions; who is/are your favorite blues artist(s)???

for me its gotta be robert johnson and howlin wolf. i know these are both obvious choices, but i think in a genre like the blues, usually the more popular bluesmen were the best. ive always dug robert johnson since i was a little kid, and my dad, who is a blues/early rock n roll fanatic, played for me in the car and told me the ol' story of robert johnson making a deal with the devil to play the ol guitar. ive been fascinated with his music ever since, and there was definitley a mystique surrouding his music and lyrics and voice which is hard to find in art of any type. king of the delta blues is fucking perfect. i love howlin wolf on the other hand because he to me was the most 'punk' bluesman. he wasnt a highly technically proficient player, but he made up for that in sheer intensity, he also has a minimalistic style that has been copied by fuck knows how many musicians. howlin wolf is also the BEST music to listen to when youre sad and u wanna drink, alone.

i klove me some old blues
bukka white
sleepy john estes
blind willie mctell
leadbelly
charlie patton

i dont limke electric blues much though

that list gets a BIG

i miss playing in a blues band. it is the absolute most fucking fun you can ever have from a stage, to be a bluesman.... I miss it so terribly it gives me the blues, how is that for irony.

so much grea stuff, just the other day i was listening to howlin' wolf, i love that guy and hubert sumlin's guitar underlying everything...

...then again, it can't get rawer than john lee hooker stomping on the wooden floor as a backbeat to his tunes.

i love the blues.

I'd like to hear some more, um, "avant-blues", you know.. like Beefheart...

howlin' wolf and leadbelly are my favorites.

you know i worship the ground beefheart stands on, but this thread is dedicated to just ol style blues.

Can you really talk about great old stuff without referencing what it influenced?

I think my personal favorite blues musician, aside from Robert Johnson is R.L. Burnside, precisely because of his willingness to embrace new technology, influences, and arrangements. Of course what makes him brilliant is that he did it while staying totally connected to his roots.

so much good music to choose from in this genre.
howlin wolf = fantastic
it's incredible how much music would not exist today if it weren't for blues

has anybody seen the documentary "desperate man blues"?
its about one of the biggest record collectors in the states Joe Bussard. it talks about his travels in the sixties through nomans land to find as many records that he can. its really interesting and they play lots of old blues, folk, banjo music.
its a really fun watch. and its a great way to learn more about this amazing genre.
its also very interesting to hear about him, cause he is one of the people that saved this music, and because of him he can enjoy it.

also
a few months ago somebody came to give a lecture at my UNI. he, for 30 years, was head of the folklore section at the library of congress and talked to us about the history of music recordings in the states, and about field recordings. really really cool guy. he played us indian chants recorded in 1890 and prison songs and stuff like that. he was real lucky, after only two months into his job he got to record missisipi john hurt.
anyhoo i bought a cd from him called
the library of congress collection of feild recordings, or somethjing like that.
its an amazing album, and i strongly recomend searcing for it.

my pick is Chuck Berry. yeah technically not good ol' blues I guess as you could already call that rock'n roll but that's the guy who changed my perspective on lotsa things lately. I am also a big fan of the BLUES BROTHERS and cab you call the RAINMAKERS blues? well.

Mississippi John Hurt is my all time fave just over Howlin Wolf.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=v-GN-BP_Qlk

He's old as fuck in this vid, but it's still really good.

i prefer darker blues rather than the pale, maybe even childlike blues... but not navy blue!

John Lee Hooker brings the motherfucking ruckus.

Son House. That man is a fucking BEAST.

Mississippi Fred McDowell - he's a secular blues musician, really amazing Delta stuff, but the interpretations of gospel songs he does with his wife Annie Mae and a group of church singers is his most powerful and compelling stuff, imo.

Howlin Wolf rules.

Blind Lemon is also really good.

My favorite blues people are guitarists


Muddy Waters

Albert King

Albert Collins

ten
Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Skip James, Lightnin' Hopkins, Willie Dixon, R.L. Burnside, Son House, Blind Willie McTell, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf

In an eloquent testimonial included in the liner notes to the box set Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings (Columbia Records, 1990), disciple EricClapton said, “Robert Johnson to me is the most important blues musician who ever lived....I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson. His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice.”

The same liner notes tell about how Alan Lomax of the Library of Congress workers the Delta in search of Robert Johnson (who had already passed from poisoning) and instead found Muddy Waters in Stovall, MS, because he played a bit like Son House and Robert Johnson.

this board loves the wolf!

muddy waters put a pick up on his guitar and made everything be new and delicious.

chicago electric blues...he was from ms and spent some time in st. louis, mo before heading up to chicago

Back in the nineties, the first cds I ever purchased were the Robert Johnson Complete Recordings box and one of the very first also included Muddy & The Wolf. Done in the late sixties, it's good, there's lots of all-stars, but it's not exactly among either of their best.

true.

I am searching for a clean vinyl copy of ELECTRIC MUD

i listen to more and more blues
i love son house. i love his 6 minute repetitive riffs.
any alan lomax compilation, especially his prison songs are fucking amazing.
there is an amazing genre of folk that i only have one song on some comp. its kind of like religous chants but blues, the guy's name is paine denson
this is a compilation of stuff like that.
the song that i know well is northfield that i highly recomend giving it a listen.
its the only audio sample page of his music that i could find
http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Harp-Si.../dp/B0000002UE

howlin wolf > everything

ok i just read a bit and the style is sacred harp singing (like the cd's name)
anybody know where i can find an album of it?

LOL

I always wondered why they called it the blues when it was by a bunch of negroes. Why didn't they call it the blacks ? :confused:

that wasnt very funny reginald.

anyone here dig canned heat? blues rock at its best.

"let me tell you bout my blues, my blues have turned black." - jandek

I thought it was funny, sorry you weren't humored.

I saw Canned Heat way back with Henry Vestine on guitar. My chest was against the stage directly under Bob Hite. They were great in their day !

i have been listening to a lot of Abner Jay, one of my favoiurites miserable one man blues dudes, in the past week. He tells it like it is, maaaaannnn.