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The Blues Thread


Spaceman Spiff

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Like a lot of other people, I put on some BB King albums after his recent passing and I cannot stop listening to them (most notably "Live at the Regal" and "Live in Cook County Jail").  Listening to those records brought me back to Muddy Waters' Folk Singer album which I absolutely love and hadn't listened to in awhile.  

 

I've spent the past 30 minutes looking through iTunes trying to figure out what to get next, but I've always done this with Blues music...not listen to it for a month or two at a time and then listen to it non stop for weeks on end.

 

So what are some of your favorite artists/albums/songs when it comes to the Blues?

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BB's fellow Kings, Albert and Freddie are essential.

Albert Collins

Bobby "Blue" Bland's live albums with BB are magic

Buddy Guy

Elmore James

Howlin' Wolf

Jimmy Reed

John Lee Hooker

Johnny Winter

Little Walter

Magic Sam

Muddy Waters

Byther Smith

Earl Hooker

Lightin' Hopkins

Sonny Boy Williamson

Taj Mahal

Otis Rush

Paul Butterfield

Son House

T-Bone Walker

Willie Dixon

 

2 of my favorite players..

 

Michael Bloomfield

 

Peter Green (Founder of Fleetwood Mac, who were originally a blues band) Was a BB King offspring of a player. BB had a pretty famous quote about him, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats."

 

Anything from any of those . Plenty more as well..

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In 1970 Howlin' Wolf went over to England to cash in on blues success, and he recorded this album with Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman.

I friggin' LOVE this album.

 

the master at work with Willie Dixon

 

Muddy Waters, Memphis Slim, Sonny Williamson and Willie Dixon

 

More later..

 

~Bang

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Kenny Wayne Shepherd just released a blues album last year with him playing alongside some folks called Goin' Home, but he put a better one out in 2006 which he played with the legends called Blues From The Backroads. Check them out on Spotify. The Blues From The Backroads stuff is great! He wanted to get some of those folks on proper recordings since many of the songs were not of modern production quality. He played with the likes of Cookie Stark, Boogie McCain, Buddy Flett, BB, Bryan Lee, Gatemouth Brown, Lohn Dee Holeman, Etta Baker, etc. It's really great stuff.

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For anyone who loves this music, Cadillac Records is a must see movie.

I had that Howling Wolf LP on vinyl back in the day Bang. Did it ever come out on CD?

Popa Chubby did a CD produced by Tom Dowd called Booty and the Beast which has some cool tracks on it. Clapton's remake of Have You ever Loved a woman on the Layla LP is maybe my fave 12 bar blues guitar work. I'll second ST21 on Peter Green. Technically he may not have been as advanced as some other guys, but he nailed the chicago blues sound better than any of his peers.

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BB's fellow Kings, Albert and Freddie are essential.

 

 

Albert King was Stevie Ray Vaughan's mentor and idol.  There's a concert that Albert King and SRV recorded for tv in 1983 called "In Session".  Played like a live show, but no audience.  It's petty awesome.  It's on iTunes/Spotify, and the whole show (which includes songs cut from the album) is on youtube. 

 

Just a taste:

 

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For anyone who loves this music, Cadillac Records is a must see movie.

I had that Howling Wolf LP on vinyl back in the day Bang. Did it ever come out on CD?

 

It is out on CD, always good to have a copy in the collection.

 

~Bang

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Personally, I'm a delta blues guy.

 

Son House. Nuff said.

 

I love Delta Blues too, but it's like I have to retrain my ear to appreciate it every time I come back to listen after a break.  The recording quality of the records is almost universally inaccessible.  Robert Johnson's recordings taken in basically two sessions were done in a Dallas hotel room with him facing a bare wall.  They sound terrible even though he sounds amazing.

 

Once I listen to it enough and transport myself I don't even hear the poor quality though.  It just sounds normal and I usually go on a delta blues binge.  I love Son House too.  I really enjoy the extant recordings of Robert Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Willie Brown, Mississippi John Hurt, and Charley Patton too.  Charley Patton really takes some work to train your ear for, his accent is so impenetrable.

 

They weren't from Mississippi, but I also really like the recordings of Blind Willie McTell and Blind Lemon Jefferson too.  Reverend Gary Davis is more gospel, but he was another important country bluesman from that time and his recordings are fun.

 

It must have been something else to see these guys perform live.  Especially Robert Johnson.  You can almost feel how rocking they were--just one or two men with acoustic guitars and dobros--but it's really hard to get a sense of the richness of their music from a tinny old recording.  If I had a time machine, one of the things I would do is go back and watch Robert Johnson absolutely bring down a honky tonk or a church hall.

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Bang, I love Howlin Wolf too.  He performed with such incredible energy and the sheer attitude of his music is amazing.  Makes me feel like a man when I listen to it, like I just want to drive a 3500 pound '55 Chevy down a two lane highway to Kansas City.  For some barbecue or something.  No wonder they use Smokestack Lightning for viagra commercials.

 

I think he and Lightnin Hopkins are my two favorite bluesman from that era.

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I love blues,, I think the Blues is the quintessential American Art form. 

 

Now granted it all stems from field songs which stems from African rhythms and such .. but the Blues that developed from those roots is uniquely American. 

Jazz is something someone could argue is purely American, and in origin they'd be correct,, but jazz can be different wherever you go, can be molded by any culture.

The Blues is the Blues, and you can't change it. If you do,, it's not the blues anymore. 

 

 

Keepers of the flame

 

 

 

 

 

~Bang

 

~Bang

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Intersting thing about that song TX Flood - SRV paid royalties to the guy who first recorded it (forgot the name), and then found out later that the real author was Fenton Robinson (who does a good remake himself of Somebody Loan Me a Dime, and wrote a beautiful blues ballad called Mellow Fellow). Anyways, when Stevie finds out this dude got screwed out of the publishing rights, he writes him a check for 10k. Class act. Miss that dude.

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