I am going to resurrect a thread about the Blues. Now, I know how much some of my cats around here don't like new threads being started when a perfectly good one on the subject already exists, but settle. This is a new day. New molecules.

I want this thread to stick because much of the threads recently have had little music feel. The FSS is the most active board. A sticky thread about the Roots (for the Philistines, in the words of my esteemed lover of Blues, I'm not pointing at the band here) of everything within a 'rock' sense from North America and Europe. Clapton loves it. Jimi loved it. Mick loves it. And of the Old Timers who still play it, not many are left. It seems more and more are leaving us these days (when John Lee Hooker died I was drunk for about four days straight and barely left my room - all I did was drink whiskey, eat instant noodles, listen to Boom Boom, and stagger to work), weary and tired and ready to let us go before we're ready to reciprocate.

We've lost Maxwell Street. Beale isn't what it used to be. Skip who? Pine Top what?

A sticky for the Blues.

Right now, I'm listening to 'Brand New House', Otis Spann.

Hey Zola! I hope you are well. I am probably in the minority when I admit that I don't really like Clapton. I just find him to be boring yet strangely enough, I enjoy his Unplugged material more than his other stuff. Strange but true.
I do really enjoy Robert Johnson who is often cited as an influence by guys of Clapton's ilk (though I am unsure if Clapton would say that even though some of Clapton's songs are Robert Johnson's).
I tend to like blues raw...bare...with one voice and a guitar. Yet there are always times when some extra things added in to the mix seem to really add to it and appeal to me like some blues harp or a full-on electric band like Zeppelin or Badlands or Cry Of Love doing bluesy material.
Rock on, Blues.

Donkey! Been a while - again.
The rawer the better, a man and his guitar, agreed. There are other schools of Blues that I thoroughly enjoy, especially Jump Blues. Some Little Jimmy Rushing, Wynonie Harris, Joe Liggins, etc.
Regarding Clapton, I'm an avid fan of his early work. If I had to choose a favourite rock band, I would probably choose Cream. I really think Clapton played the Blues better than a lot of other popular white guys at the time, including Pagey. Clapton always seemed more in tune with what the Blues is. I would put Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, that is) next on the list for Blues understanders. Early Stones next regarding that, maybe even John Mayall.
I hear you on the added elements. Some Mississippi saxophone played well is out of sight. Then rub on a heaping helpful of Stride piano and you've got some stellar Blues going on.

Snoozehand sold out so long ago that I haven't bothered with him in close to 27 years.

I still have to laugh every time I hear his cover of Marley's I Shot the Sheriff.






I have one thing to say about Layla....Duane Allman. He's the best thing on that record and song and pushed Snoozehand to a level he has never come close since.


It's amazing just how many different ways he can milk Robert Johnson.






I'm still waiting to see how long before he records something with Britney Spears.

Speaking of Peter Green and when the Mac was still a hell of band. Did you know Jeremy Spencer came out of his cave and released a new record after 30 years? Haven't heard it myself, and don't plan to.


He is still in that Cult (Children of God, or as they like to call themselves now....Family International) he disappeared from Mac to join, and the whole possible pediophile thing.

Which brings me to this....


smorgdonkey if you be down with the Slide Guitar....


Elmore James













YO!

Howlin' Wolf coverin Robert Johnson's I Believe I'll Dust My Broom.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YgG5NsJyvo



Elmore would have a cover called Dust My Broom, which has one of the most well known opening riffs in Blues. It's basically Johnson's riff but Elmore plays the slide on a electric guitar.

A great many would cover his version or borrow the riff.

Yeah, Clapton hasn't done much of anything since the early 70s. And regarding Clapton and Mr Allman - 'Mean Old World'. Solid. Screw SRV, the cock rocker of blues. It was Mr Allman's death that was the real Blues tragedy.

I thoroughly dig Green and Spencer when they had that amazing chemistry in Fleetwood Mac, especially on the debut (what a great piece of modern Blues that was. One of the greatest shames in music is the fact that most people have no idea at all about the original Fleetwood Mac. I wonder how many Buckingham fans would like Green?), but all subsequent stuff they've done has ranged from mediocre to downright terrible. Green's Splinter Group? Egads!

Mr James. A moment for Mr James. Second slide riff I learned to play on guitar (still can't play it very well though...). Slide is such an integral part of the Blues that an entire thread could easily be dedicated to it (I wonder how many could contribute though...?). I love Son House's slide, mixing it up with that hard beat slap strum of his. Awesome.

Speaking of dedicated mediums for slide, do you know of any books, articles, or the such simply dedicated to the subject? I have read plenty of articles and what not, but I'd like to find more, and even more so, a book.

I love Blues, but I'm also super critical when it comes to down to it. It has been done, done, and done and for my taste the rawer the better. I even want the recording methods to be the same way.
I want it to sound like guys in the living room jamming.

I have been listening to that Black Keys album, Chulahoma. To me this stuff is a great example of material performed in a simple everyone can do it way, that not everyone can do. This EP of theirs is a tribute album to Junior Kimbrough. Anyone have thoughts on these guys. I've always looked to Fat Possum records as a source of legit Blues. Any thoughts?