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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2017 8:34:19 GMT
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Post by Michael Messer on Mar 20, 2017 9:15:52 GMT
There are a few errors in Rick Howe's text, he doesn't know his subject properly.
It's a nice article about the origins of Texas Blues and while the writer is correct that the blues did not completely originate in the Mississippi delta, he is wrong that it started in Texas. There were pockets of African-American musicians playing what we call 'blues' all across the southern states in the early part of the 20th century. The writer forgot to mention that four years before Blind Willie Johnson was recorded in Texas, Sylvester Weaver, an African-American session guitarist from Louisville, Kentucky, while doing a session in New York City in 1923, recorded two slide guitar instrumentals. These are very likely the first country blues recordings and the first slide guitar blues recordings by an African-American.
While it is true that THE BLUES did not totally start in the Mississippi delta, it is true that the music that created rock and most of the baby-boomer musicians interest in the blues, did come from the Mississippi delta. Charley Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters can easily be heard in so much rock and modern blues, much more so than the Texas musicians. The building blocks of rock (not rock'n'roll) come from a handful of musicians that all stem from Mississippi.
I could write all day on this subject!
Shine On Michael
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Post by snakehips on Mar 20, 2017 9:37:48 GMT
Plus, wherever there was slavery, Jim Crow racism, risk of being lynched, sharecropper swindling by plantation owners, lack of sanitation or electricity, or proper medical care, there sho nuff was the blues. That could happen anywhere in the USA.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2017 10:24:19 GMT
So we all agree that the blues started in Ancient Egypt. Was hard work building those pyramids...
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Mar 20, 2017 10:28:19 GMT
I go with Michael and Snake with my own input which usually gets scoffed at. To me, what we call 'the blues', is music played by people in the US providing a good time and entertainment in poor areas whilst trying to earn money and fame so's they didn't have to live a life of drudgery. It was/is part of the broad church of music which springs from wherever at a certain point in time and grows. An interesting comment made to me by Honey Boy Edwards whilst chatting at the Colchester Arts Centre in the 1990s was along the lines of: "All this white boy analysis and theorizin' about the blues is wrong. It's bullsh1t. All we was doing was providing entertainment by playing whatever we could and we wanted to earn a dime. We sung about what we knowed. Everyone was hustlin' and we didn't need no hi falutin' kids coming along later telling us what we were doing and why we was doing it." Now that is not exactly verbatim but is close enough. i.e. music to drink and dance to whilst relaxing and having a good time. I'll probably get shot at again but that is what I think - stuff the analysis and just enjoy the music.
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Post by bonzo on Mar 20, 2017 10:38:51 GMT
Hi Snakey, what you say is true, but maybe only to a certain extent. The conditions you describe certainly did exist all over the States but I think only in the South had they been 'formalised' into a way of life. From my reading and meeting people over the years the impression I got was that the North offered a chance to progress financially at least. The authorities (police) would exploit anyone they could, black or white in those times. At least in the North people might have a chance to organize and also find some help from the local population. Don't forget the underground railroad had been in operation for many years being operated by people with a more enlightened view. As Michael has said it's a subject of interest and that could be discussed for hours. May I say something that James Cotton once said to me in an interview for radio I was helping with, the gist of which was that the main reason he stuck with music is that he saw it as the only way he was ever going to get away from the life he had. I'm sure there were many others who felt the same and by their ambition and courage brought us the music we all love.
Best wishes to you all, John
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Mar 20, 2017 10:43:08 GMT
Seems to me that James Cotton and Honey Boy were reading from the same page.....
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Post by bonzo on Mar 20, 2017 10:47:40 GMT
PD posted while I was doing my one finger typing! We're saying pretty much the same thing. And yes Fred I'm sure the poor sods who were forced to build the pyramids did sing about their woes. Their suffering gave us a wonder of the world, our heroes suffering wherever in the States gave us the blues. Best, John
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2017 11:23:31 GMT
Listen to a good piper playing a pibroch--that's the blues.
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Post by bonzo on Mar 20, 2017 11:47:51 GMT
No Graeme your not leading me down that path! Lol. Let's see what Snakey has to say on that topic! Best, John
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Mar 20, 2017 12:29:54 GMT
Interesting comment Graeme, particularly as some of the older folks used to talk of the blues as reels (reals?).
Were they talking about Scottish reels?
I dunno...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2017 12:39:13 GMT
I'd align myself with what James Cotton and Honey Boy Edwards are saying, but similar artists have differing opinions, as well as from your usual suspects like Corey Harris. Even Chuck Berry said "you've got to have a fat lip to sing them blues". But, I've got no time for those 'soulful singers' with hired backing bands, or those raunchy Led Zep / SRV rip-off kids. It's nothing like 'blues' IMO, but still seems to pick up an awful lots of blues awards, and gets a helluva lot of airplay from those 'blues DJs'. TT
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Post by creolian on Mar 20, 2017 13:21:10 GMT
Texas or Mississipi LOL. Everyone should know that the blues (and Jazz ) was born in New Orleans about 1675 when the slave trade facilitated the meeting of African and European cultures. The rhythmic foundation, call and response of what was basic African tribal communication mixed with the melodic British and Euro influence and an original American music was created. Ironically, this occurred about 100 years before America became an independent country and another 50 years before Napoleon sold New Orleans to America. The early evolution of blues and jazz can be geographically traced by the waterways used at the time... Primarily the Mississippi river. In the Urban centers the music was more formalized and supported more orchestral and combo arrangements leading to Jazz in the cities. In the delta it held on to it's work chant, call and response foundation and remained a mostly solo performance. The development of Blues and Jazz took divergent but parallel paths from a common birth, the collision of culture in New Orleans in the 17th and 18th century With stops at Memphis, St Louis and on to Chicago the cultural and technical evolution of the blues can be traced from one end of the river to the other. Really nothing more complicated than people migrating to work and opportunities, bringing their culture with them. The Red river and the Gulf of Mexico were the only trade routes into Texas and American music did migrate to Galveston, Houston And Dallas but not until long after it was born on the Mississipi... I found the article interesting but about as absurd as saying Elvis Presley invented Rock and Roll.
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Post by slide496 on Mar 20, 2017 13:22:59 GMT
Just for reference, purportedly the first "recorded" blues title - which IMHO sounds like it may have had a W.C. Handy type music influence or at least a passing familiarity with that type of music.
I've always thought the music developed in alot of different ways from diverse influences some depending on where the artist lived and travelled and what he was exposed to, incorporated and what he could make a little extra money at. Or on the other hand in prison workers, slave field labor and the fields, plantations where the percussion was used to synchronize work sometimes like in the case of chopping trees or laying railroads the timing was essential for safety and then the music was brought home to continue to relax and make a little extra money. Or from the gospel which may be another contributing source-I haven't researched Sacred Steel and people like Washington Phillips.
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Post by pete1951 on Mar 20, 2017 13:23:24 GMT
I think most Texans would agree that if it's any good, it must have started in Texas, and the Blues can be so good! PT I don't suppose Rick Howe is from Texas ?
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