why the lull in interest? Is blues gonna fade away? Does blues need a new champion? will this be the first and last post in this thread?.....lol.
yeah, a prodigy for sure.... got awhile before his voice matures tho...not many "kids" have a voice like johnny lang did when theyre that young...and then youve always got those blues "purists" that think you cant play blues until you're older and have lived them....to which i would respond , i'm sure muddy waters was singing the blues as a boy.....lol.
Most newer "blues" that I've heard just sounded like '70s rock. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's definitely not blues.
The blues aren't dead they are a live a well, I write it on paper, and play it on strings every day. As well as a bunch of other stuff, but the blues in my opinion are a personal thing, and they are what you make of them. Art never dies.
If the blues is only some signature guitar riffs and chords, then blues is alive every time some body plays it, like any of these white guys who like to say that they play the blues. Lots of them, some quite commercially rich. But, do any of them compare to, say, John Lee Hooker? I say no because Hooker and people like him, and I do mean black people, were the blues, they wrote and played from real experience. And, I don't believe you can be white and suffer as much as a black person does in a white racist society. I don't mean any disrespect to white guys who play in a blues style, though. The first song I learned on guitar was me, a white kid, trying to play a blues song. I was highly motivated to make my chicken scratching sound something like the song on the record because I loved that song so damn much. But, I could never write blues.
Oh yeah? I'm gay, I was addicted to shooting up heroin, and have been homeless on and off for the past two to three years. You think I didn't suffer enough to deserve to play the blues?
well thats the age old debate, right there... i'll trust the judgement of the men like john lee hooker , and muddy waters, and bb king... that embraced all the "white boys" that idolized them and honored them by playing the music that those bluesmen helped create....
It will never die. I've seen it alive in South America and enjoyed it. It will always evolve and many old skoolers will hate that, but it will survive. It requires a great deal of talent but most any guitarist knows to respect the blues and many strive to play it themselves.
I see two questions here: will blues in the original sense stay around, and what makes blues authentic. Valid questions. Since blues elements have been co-opted into most musical innovations since the 20s and 30s, I think there will be people curious about the roots who will go back and play the standards and write in that style. We tend to think of rock as the child of the blues, but so too is country. Different strains of the blues, for sure, but both truly parents. As for why the blues are written, we still have people displaced in their society, horning after partners and disliking bosses. People will still write music to reflect that. Will it be in the traditional blues styles? Maybe.
Tiny, niche audiences will always support the (traditional) blues to some degree. Thanks to digital music and the internet, no genre of music will ever completely disappear. But the blues will never be a big deal again. Live blues performances may someday become limited to Memphis and a few other places where visitors seek it out.
Never say never. Blues rock seems to be making a comeback so I'd not be suprised if it would have a revival someday. Perhaps in a few decades or so
this scenario makes me sad.....but the reality is...that blues never was "a big deal" and tiny , niche audiences is all it ever really had, if you think about it...so i guess i'll think that it's in the same place that it always was...and hopefully always will be.... and hopefully talented musicians will continue to perform it in clubs so that guys like me can always find it...
The blues can never die because it's what we feel within us! The blues isn't necessarily a type of music, but a feeling.
I think it might have to do with what part of the country (or planet) you reside in. The blues is alive and booming in the Pacific North West, there's live blues festivals all over in the later spring and summer. We have a local radio show every morning here in Oregon called breakfast with the blues that's pretty well known and popular in these parts. Eric Clapton's Cross Roads Festivals are booming every year they have one as well. I can say for certain as long as I'm breathing on this rock of love the blues will be alive and well at almost every gig I play.
"My father's rich and my momma's good looking, Right? And I can play the Blues. I've never suffered and don't intend to suffer." ~Miles Davis~ ZW :beatnik:
Yep, looks like its dead ..lol...made this thread a while back....then joined another forum and didn't visit here much.....seems that the rhythm and blues sub forum has had 4 posts in the the last 4 months....and I think one of em was me....Yup, I'm sad......