2008 Woodie Awards
The soulful sounds of the fading blues
Ashley Johnson
Issue date: 11/6/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
I don't know if you've noticed lately but there's a genre of music dying. I'm talking about the blues here, it's dwindling and there's only a handful of popular musicians trying to keep it above water. Being that the blues is one of my favorite genres of music, I think it's important that we take a little rewind back to where it originated.
The first blues song was recorded in 1895 by George W. Johnson called "Laughing Song." This wasn't the first peg on the timeline that started the soulful movement. Although the blues were and most definitely still are a mostly underground-charged, southern loop, the market for recorded blues didn't become vital until soulful songstress Mamie Smith recorded "Crazy Blues" in 1920. From that point forward, blues became an emotional release and a communal forefront for many musicians in the South from the Mississippi Delta to Tennessee, and from Louisiana to Chicago.
Just as there are different genres of rock music, there are different categories that the blues fall into as well. The sound of the blues has evolved over time and what it once was is a direct reflection of what it has turned into today. First there's the traditional, more rustic area of blues from the 1900s that includes mostly banjo and acoustic improvisational playing, with occasional lyrics. Then there's a genre called the Memphis Style blues, which was pretty big in the 1920s and 1930s. It was more of the "big band" style blues that incorporated all sorts of instruments such as the harmonica, or bass, and the fiddle. Then there are other kinds of blues such as the Jump Style blues, the "Boogie-Woogie blues," and others, commonly placed in the late 1930s and on through the 1940s. These early decades gave us ancestral blues artists such as John Lee Hooker the amazing Robert Johnson, Pine Top Smith, Howlin' Wolf, the incredibly gifted Muddy Waters, Ma Rainey, and Slim Harpo. Of course there are many, many others, but these I consider the most influential.
Then there are the blues that we are all most grateful for. During the 1950s or better yet, after World War II, the introduction of electric blues began to reign supreme. Many artists, because of increasing problems in the South, moved north and took their influence with them. To make it quite plain, they packed up and moved to Chicago, where they changed the blues forever. Bassist Willie Dickson played a huge role in the Chicago Blues scene, and made historically significant tracks such as, "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Wang Dang Doodle," and one of my favorites, "Back Door Man." If you've never heard an original Willie Dickson song, you don't know blues as well as you think you do. The same goes for Ma Rainey and Robert Johnson.
Later on in the 1960s and 1970s, people had long forgotten about the fundamental origination of blues, and it sunk, frayed at the edges in the deep South. But electric blues grew and veered off into an amazing movement most of us are familiar with. The blues grew more and more secular as the music went on, but some still stayed grounded. I'm talking about the one and only indisputable truth known as Riley B. King. If you ever need a little substance in your life, a little soul or some grit, a B.B. King solo is something you need to put in your ears immediately. Some early songs you should download from him would be "Everyday I Have The Blues" and "It's My Own Fault." There is no way on Earth to sum his legendary style up into two songs, so I suppose you stop by a record store and pick up Live in Cook County Jail, or Live at the Regal. I love live albums because there's a huge amount of improvisational space. Studio albums have a copy-and-paste sickness to them that I absolutely hate.
True blues is not valid unless you know how to work a guitar, and I mean work it right. So in order to be a true player, you need to be able to produce a guitar solo that's gravitational. Few, and I do mean very few, are able to do this and the handful of artists are B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Derek Trucks, and John Mayer. Vaughan died in 1990, but his Texas style inspiration is still relevant to the people who are trying to move blues into a common place. His brother, Jimmi Vaughan, is almost as great a guitarist as his brother. I recommend you find some videos online of them together. As for the real Vaughan, download "Texas Flood" and "The Sky Is Crying." Again, summing up this artist in a song or two is down right evil, so get the album Texas Flood in order to get the full effect.
Another aspect of real, backwoods, down-home blues would be the lyrics. You aren't listening to real blues unless you can almost feel the musician's soul seeping into your ears. The only place to get lyrics this honest is from the early blues circa 1920. The lyrics are where the blues gets its voltage and this is why some of the artists who have evolved from the early blues have such lyrical drive. This is where Jimi Hendrix comes in. It wouldn't be right if I didn't mention Hendrix. Better yet, if I didn't mention him, I think I should be out of a job. If you don't have a copy of Axis: Bold as Love or Are You Experienced?, then get it. Get it now. It will change your musical life. Hendrix was a colorful lyricist, literally. He believed that music had color. If you don't believe me, download the song, "Bold As Love." or just read some Hendrix interviews. Hendrix was bordering on blues most of the time and I think it's because he had a huge rock overlay, but there is no denying that he embraced the blues as a genre. My favorite blues fueled song from Hendrix, which I highly recommend you download, is "Red House."
If Hendrix isn't blues, then Eric Clapton certainly is. Clapton has also bordered on rock a lot in the past, playing in groups such as Cream, Derek and the Dominos, and Blind Faith, but there's no denying his dedication to the blues. Download "Crossroads" and "Bell Bottom Blues." King and Clapton play together a lot so a great song to download, that's packed with tons of Clapton and Kind soul is "Three o' Clock Blues."
As for the recent state of blues music, I'm sorry to say that it's fading miserably. There are tons of documentaries on the blues but the most recent that I'm aware of, released in 2006, called Ten Days Out: Blues From The Backroads by filmmaker and blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepard, is a pretty good look. A lot of the last blues musicians are idly living out their days in the south keeping their roots alive as best they can. As for those living in the current century, there are just a few who have tweaked the blues just a bit and have done a fabulous job with it. John Mayer, pop/rock, pretty boy, crooner switched up his game and released Try! in 2005 with his one-time-only band called John Mayer Trio. Try! is a live compilation of solid blues songs and awing solos. He even edged out some of his original songs such as "Something's Missing" and "Daughters." Download, "Gravity", "Another Kind of Green" and my personal favorite, "Out of My Mind." Make sure these are from the actual album when you download them.
If you don't feel anything when you listen to some good blues music, you're doing something terribly wrong. Listening to good blues should make you take on the facial mannerisms of one who is actually playing the guitar, as if you're playing yourself. Or at the very least, sway from side to side.
There are some artists who still mimic the 12-bar style of the blues but they don't quite delve into the original melancholic aspects of the lyrics and the whole idea of what blues music was before it was modified. Some great examples of this would be Harold Arlen, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and the even White Stripes. Even "A Hard Day's Night" by The Beatles resembles some blues elements. I think you just have to be familiar with the musical style to notice the change.
If you're interested in the blues, an awesome way to generalize your music knowledge is to buy compilation records. All the artists I've listed above, with the exception of Mayer, have more than a few of these. Go out and buy Eric Clapton's The Cream of Clapton and Jimi Hendrix's Experience Jimi Hendrix. As for the much, much older tracks, there are plenty of musical anthologies for blues music and what's good about them is that they offer the original tracks. Download some tracks from The Essential Boss Man, and Anthology of American Folk Music. Or you could always just subscribe to Blues Revue magazine. I didn't know this until recently, but there's a lot of Blues influence in Canada. Yeah, who knew?
Although the origin of the blues is fading, and people rarely take notice of its roots and its lineage, there's hope in the fact that artists are using these ancestral heroes as a backdrop for their work. Musicians like T-Bone Walker, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Otis Rush, are the reason some of our favorite entertainers are who they are today.
The first blues song was recorded in 1895 by George W. Johnson called "Laughing Song." This wasn't the first peg on the timeline that started the soulful movement. Although the blues were and most definitely still are a mostly underground-charged, southern loop, the market for recorded blues didn't become vital until soulful songstress Mamie Smith recorded "Crazy Blues" in 1920. From that point forward, blues became an emotional release and a communal forefront for many musicians in the South from the Mississippi Delta to Tennessee, and from Louisiana to Chicago.
Just as there are different genres of rock music, there are different categories that the blues fall into as well. The sound of the blues has evolved over time and what it once was is a direct reflection of what it has turned into today. First there's the traditional, more rustic area of blues from the 1900s that includes mostly banjo and acoustic improvisational playing, with occasional lyrics. Then there's a genre called the Memphis Style blues, which was pretty big in the 1920s and 1930s. It was more of the "big band" style blues that incorporated all sorts of instruments such as the harmonica, or bass, and the fiddle. Then there are other kinds of blues such as the Jump Style blues, the "Boogie-Woogie blues," and others, commonly placed in the late 1930s and on through the 1940s. These early decades gave us ancestral blues artists such as John Lee Hooker the amazing Robert Johnson, Pine Top Smith, Howlin' Wolf, the incredibly gifted Muddy Waters, Ma Rainey, and Slim Harpo. Of course there are many, many others, but these I consider the most influential.
Then there are the blues that we are all most grateful for. During the 1950s or better yet, after World War II, the introduction of electric blues began to reign supreme. Many artists, because of increasing problems in the South, moved north and took their influence with them. To make it quite plain, they packed up and moved to Chicago, where they changed the blues forever. Bassist Willie Dickson played a huge role in the Chicago Blues scene, and made historically significant tracks such as, "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Wang Dang Doodle," and one of my favorites, "Back Door Man." If you've never heard an original Willie Dickson song, you don't know blues as well as you think you do. The same goes for Ma Rainey and Robert Johnson.
Later on in the 1960s and 1970s, people had long forgotten about the fundamental origination of blues, and it sunk, frayed at the edges in the deep South. But electric blues grew and veered off into an amazing movement most of us are familiar with. The blues grew more and more secular as the music went on, but some still stayed grounded. I'm talking about the one and only indisputable truth known as Riley B. King. If you ever need a little substance in your life, a little soul or some grit, a B.B. King solo is something you need to put in your ears immediately. Some early songs you should download from him would be "Everyday I Have The Blues" and "It's My Own Fault." There is no way on Earth to sum his legendary style up into two songs, so I suppose you stop by a record store and pick up Live in Cook County Jail, or Live at the Regal. I love live albums because there's a huge amount of improvisational space. Studio albums have a copy-and-paste sickness to them that I absolutely hate.
True blues is not valid unless you know how to work a guitar, and I mean work it right. So in order to be a true player, you need to be able to produce a guitar solo that's gravitational. Few, and I do mean very few, are able to do this and the handful of artists are B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Derek Trucks, and John Mayer. Vaughan died in 1990, but his Texas style inspiration is still relevant to the people who are trying to move blues into a common place. His brother, Jimmi Vaughan, is almost as great a guitarist as his brother. I recommend you find some videos online of them together. As for the real Vaughan, download "Texas Flood" and "The Sky Is Crying." Again, summing up this artist in a song or two is down right evil, so get the album Texas Flood in order to get the full effect.
Another aspect of real, backwoods, down-home blues would be the lyrics. You aren't listening to real blues unless you can almost feel the musician's soul seeping into your ears. The only place to get lyrics this honest is from the early blues circa 1920. The lyrics are where the blues gets its voltage and this is why some of the artists who have evolved from the early blues have such lyrical drive. This is where Jimi Hendrix comes in. It wouldn't be right if I didn't mention Hendrix. Better yet, if I didn't mention him, I think I should be out of a job. If you don't have a copy of Axis: Bold as Love or Are You Experienced?, then get it. Get it now. It will change your musical life. Hendrix was a colorful lyricist, literally. He believed that music had color. If you don't believe me, download the song, "Bold As Love." or just read some Hendrix interviews. Hendrix was bordering on blues most of the time and I think it's because he had a huge rock overlay, but there is no denying that he embraced the blues as a genre. My favorite blues fueled song from Hendrix, which I highly recommend you download, is "Red House."
If Hendrix isn't blues, then Eric Clapton certainly is. Clapton has also bordered on rock a lot in the past, playing in groups such as Cream, Derek and the Dominos, and Blind Faith, but there's no denying his dedication to the blues. Download "Crossroads" and "Bell Bottom Blues." King and Clapton play together a lot so a great song to download, that's packed with tons of Clapton and Kind soul is "Three o' Clock Blues."
As for the recent state of blues music, I'm sorry to say that it's fading miserably. There are tons of documentaries on the blues but the most recent that I'm aware of, released in 2006, called Ten Days Out: Blues From The Backroads by filmmaker and blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepard, is a pretty good look. A lot of the last blues musicians are idly living out their days in the south keeping their roots alive as best they can. As for those living in the current century, there are just a few who have tweaked the blues just a bit and have done a fabulous job with it. John Mayer, pop/rock, pretty boy, crooner switched up his game and released Try! in 2005 with his one-time-only band called John Mayer Trio. Try! is a live compilation of solid blues songs and awing solos. He even edged out some of his original songs such as "Something's Missing" and "Daughters." Download, "Gravity", "Another Kind of Green" and my personal favorite, "Out of My Mind." Make sure these are from the actual album when you download them.
If you don't feel anything when you listen to some good blues music, you're doing something terribly wrong. Listening to good blues should make you take on the facial mannerisms of one who is actually playing the guitar, as if you're playing yourself. Or at the very least, sway from side to side.
There are some artists who still mimic the 12-bar style of the blues but they don't quite delve into the original melancholic aspects of the lyrics and the whole idea of what blues music was before it was modified. Some great examples of this would be Harold Arlen, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and the even White Stripes. Even "A Hard Day's Night" by The Beatles resembles some blues elements. I think you just have to be familiar with the musical style to notice the change.
If you're interested in the blues, an awesome way to generalize your music knowledge is to buy compilation records. All the artists I've listed above, with the exception of Mayer, have more than a few of these. Go out and buy Eric Clapton's The Cream of Clapton and Jimi Hendrix's Experience Jimi Hendrix. As for the much, much older tracks, there are plenty of musical anthologies for blues music and what's good about them is that they offer the original tracks. Download some tracks from The Essential Boss Man, and Anthology of American Folk Music. Or you could always just subscribe to Blues Revue magazine. I didn't know this until recently, but there's a lot of Blues influence in Canada. Yeah, who knew?
Although the origin of the blues is fading, and people rarely take notice of its roots and its lineage, there's hope in the fact that artists are using these ancestral heroes as a backdrop for their work. Musicians like T-Bone Walker, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Otis Rush, are the reason some of our favorite entertainers are who they are today.
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