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Blues music.


Chris Head
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[quote user="Chris Head"]I've never even heard of him Clair. Gimme a few tracks that just rip your heart out. What on earth did you want to be a mod for? Do you whack as hard as Gay does? By all accounts you're a cool dude.Chris Reas voice is sublime Gary, some of his stuff is awesome.

[/quote]

Hear some Robert Cray here: robertcray.com

The one I always come back to: False accusations

I saw him at the Chichester Real Ale and Jazz Festival back in 200? and it was just soooooo goooooood.... Nice ale too!!!!!!! [B], but that's another story altogether!

I have a deep penchant for Van Morrison, but I'm not sure if he qualifies as blues...

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[quote user="Chris Head"]You didn't answer my question though! Have you been broken in yet?[/quote]

Well!!! (splutter splutter) [:$], I could not possibly say![:)]

You've re-awakened my ears now and I've been looking at getting more Robert Cray, dust the old Van Morrison and...

Re Chris Rea, through his more commercial success (Road to hell, On the beach), he is not usually associated with blues, but once you've heard Dancing down the stony road, you know where his roots really are.

[img]http://www.websmileys.com/sm/music/musik05.gif[/img]

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No, no no. White men can't play the blues.

Go back to the roots, listen to Robert Johnson, then get some Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Bukka White. Listen to Muddy Waters, the man who invented electricity, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James. Start in the Delta and work north along Highway 61 to Chicago.

Sorry, I'm passionate about this...

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Some essential tracks (I just went down my iTunes library):

Rollin' & Tumblin' - Baby Face Leroy Foster Trio

Dust my Broom - Elmore James

Smokestack Lightnin' - Howlin' Wolf

Killin' Floor - Howlin' Wolf

The Thrill is Gone - BB King

Key To The Highway - Big Bill Broonzy

Baby Please Don't Go - Mississippi Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters, Big Joe Williams (and many others)

See That My Grave is Kept Clean - Blind Lemon Jefferson

Dark Was The Night - Cold Was The Ground - Blind Willy Johnson

Parchman Farm Blues - Bukka White

It All Comes Back - Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

Frankie and Johnny - Corey Harris (anything by him - he's a genius)

61 Highway - Mississippi Fred McDowell

Louise - Mississippi Fred McDowell

Red House - Jimi Hendrix

Boogie Chillun - John Lee Hooker

Dimples - John Lee Hooker

Ramblin' - Johnny Shines

Midnight Special - Huddy "Leadbelly" Leadbetter

Booze and Blues - Ma Rainey

Mannish Boy - Muddy Waters

Goin' down slow - Muddy Waters

Mojo Hand - RL Burnside

Cross Road Blues - Robert Johnson

Stones in my Passway - Robert Johnson

Love in Vain - Robert Johnson

Little Red Rooster - Willie Dixon

When you are in the zone that's where you are.

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Dick you should speak to my wife and whose passion love and whatever is to the blues.  She says that Albert King then BBK (and I saw him once in Cardiff) are amongst the 'leaders' of the art.  Then she does disagree with you as to White mans blues and says that John Mayall is ahead of Eric and of course somewhere down the line is Rory Gallagher.  Of course Linda also indicates that Cream took some of their inspiration from the 'original' blues guys and girls.  As to girls there are for balance some wonderful lady blues singers is it Bessie Smith and people like that.

Dick if you are ever in St Lo go into Planet in the main street and then to their blues section you will be amazed.

Finally our house is full as is the iPod with blues and blues and blues.  We have rooms devoted to blues and we have books and books on the art.  For Christmas (sad person really) I bought Linda a double encyclopaedia on Blues it is I am told the definitive work on the blues.  Chris Rea does not appear anywhere and my wife says that he is good but he is a middle of the road guy and not truly known for his blues.

rdgs

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That's all good to hear.

Chris Rea and the other white boys are OK, but they are essentially purveyers of pop music. They have taken the form but not the essence, which is about experience and, I hesitate to say, soul. There are some half-decent white harmonica players, though. Peter Green was probably the only good guitarist in the UK, but in the US Ry Cooder and the Allman Brothers were good too, but never reached the standard of BB King, Albert King or Willie Dixon (who taught the Rolling Stones all they knew).

As for Clapton, words fail me in the presence of a charlatan of such enormous proportions...  All the technique and absolutely no passion or commitment.

I first heard the blues about 1963 when I got hold of a couple of albums (Sky Songs by Bukka White and Mississippi Delta Blues by Fred McDowell) on the Arhoolie lable, that I think had been imported to the UK by mistake. I wish I still had them! They literally changed my life and altered my understanding of what music was for and could do. I even bought a yellow Telecaster like Muddy, but never managed to play it properly. My retirement project is for No1 son and I to drive down Highway 61 from Chicago to New Orleans, listening to the music on the way.

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Dick I have just shown your iTunes Library to my wife and who is now petitioning for divorce and on the basis that she should have been married to you and it is 'a match made in heaven!' she absolutely and unreservedly agrees with your choices.

Dick please who are your Solicitors for this could now be messy!

However before you both leap into the dark together let me give you some background.  Once and near Uzes near Avignon we went to a French blues night and you know the quality of the red wine is going to be bad when you see that it has been kept in the fridge.  Unfortunately I drunk too much and Linda very little if nothing at all.  Linda then drove back to the hotel and between the two places was the Pont du Gard.  Linda tried to drive over it.

Dick well done and as I say Linda says that your listing shows real understanding of the art.

 

regards

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I spent a lot of my time in the sixties

listening to the music of the artists Dick mentioned. I also remember another

name. John Hammond. http://www.rosebudus.com/hammond/

I liked his style a lot. A lot of the people I hung around with then were

musicians but I couldn't play a note. I did try to learn the bass guitar.
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I hope some of the enthusiasm and knowledge rubs off on me over the coming months, there's some amazing experience going on here.

I personally cannot work without music, all sorts of music...but when the time comes to stop thinking and let the soul and the instinct take over, these guys are magicians at leading one into the 'zone'...

If only we had broadband! It takes us forever and a day just to download one track[:(]

Thankyou all.

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Dick, do you rate any 'modern' blues player / singer / composer? The people you list are undoubtedly the recognised fathers of the blues music (there are more than a few whose names I don't know), but there must be others since?

Do you not believe that music, in all its forms, evolves and takes on different shades?

For instance, someone can like the Beatles, the Stones and also Paul Weller... Chopin as well as Satie...

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