King of the Delta Blues Singers?

The first time I knew of Robert Johnson was from the cover of Bringing It All Back Home by Bob Dylan the picture on which showed several record sleeves one of which was King of the Delta Blues Singers. Being a big Dylan fan, I thought to investigate and went out and bought it. I put the needle onto track one side one and BAM! a revelation. This was something I had never heard before. The high tenor voice, the anguished lyrics the whine of the slide guitar. Man, this was something else! I was not alone in this. People such as Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Keef and a host of others had also had the same revelation.
Clapton, of course, went on to perform many Johnson songs as did the Stones. None of them did justice to the, however. How could they? White middle class English boys had no idea of what the blues was really about.
Johnson's songs have been analysed and pulled apart ever since the first of his albums was issued. There have been many books about him and millions of words written. The influence on popular music of an uneducated black man who died at the age of 27 in 1938 cannot be overestimated. If he were alive today he wouldn't be able to imagine the power he has had on rock and other music. I would imagine that no one who reads this blog would not have heard of him. If not, why not?
As to the title of King of the Delta Blues Singers, this may not be correct either Son House or Charley Patton probably deserve that honour but even so, he is  a contender.

A Little Light Reading

When I first got into the blues fifty years ago ( that shows my age!) you could count the books written about the blues on one hand and still have fingers left over.
Since that time, however, hundreds of books have been published on the subject and, for a newcomer,  it can be confusing as to where to start.
Luckily 100 Books Every Blues Fan Should Own sorts out the wheat from the chaff to provide a guide as to which ones are worth reading. Obviously a book of this nature cannot encompass all of the worthwhile volumes but it does give a very good start. A word of warning; some of the books recommended may be a bit heavy going especially for a reader new to the subject. However, in the long run, you will find that your knowledge of the blues has increased dramatically after you have read them. Happy reading!

All Kinds of Blues

The Blues were born in the Mississippi delta in the early 1920's. Players such as Charley Patton and Son House just had acoustic guitars on which to accompany their vocals but, as the Negro population began to migrate North, styles changed depending on where they ended up.  Those living in Chicago  began working in clubs where the noise levels were high so, needing to be heard  over the roar of the crowd, the blues men  began to amplify their instruments thereby giving rise to  a harder more brash sound which became the Chicago Blues. Meanwhile, out on the West Coast, there rose a  more sophisticated smoother style popularised by T- Bone Walker an urbane guitarist who leaned more towards jazz and had a small  group including trumpet and saxophone players. This 'jump blues' became  the West Coast sound.  In Detroit, John Lee Hooker,  Eddie Kirkland  and Baby Boy Warren played a more primitive electric blues whilst down in Texas, Lightning Hopkins, Little Son Jackson etc were playing in yet another style.
So, you can see although the basic structure of the blues, i.e twelve bars and the three line stanza where the first two lines are repeated,  remains the same, there are a lot of ways in which this basic form can be interpreted. Besides the ones I have mentioned, there is also Atlanta Blues, Slide Guitar Blues, Piano Blues, the list goes on. Try to listen to all kinds of blues, you may like em all!

Bluesbreakers

After leaving the Yardbirds, and before forming Cream, Eric Clapton joined John Mayall's Bluesbreakers just long enough to make an album. But what an album that was! Apart from covers of Magic Sam, Freddie King etc, there were some good Mayall originals including 'Have You Heard?' This track is a tour de force for Clapton and, for a lot of people, myself included, this was the best work of his whole career. He plays like a man possessed and, after the track is finished, you are left drained at the intensity of the playing. It was this album that started the British Blues Boom of the 1960's and led the way for other bands such as Led Zeppelin and the original Fleetwood Mac and Chicken Shack etc. some of whom went on to great fame and fortune. The album is still available but now you get the original mono mix together with the same tracks in a stereo mix on the one c.d Do yourselves a favour, if you haven't got it, get it now!

'Can Blue Men Sing the Whites...

...or are they hypocrites?' to quote an old Bonzo Dog Doodah Band song. Back in the 1960's British Blues Boom, there was a lot of criticism in the music press of whether white boys from the U.K (and the U.S) were entitled to sing the blues as they hadn't paid their dues by suffering the trials and tribulations of the Afro Americans. When a black musician such as B B King, Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker performs, the guitar is subordinant to the vocals, that is, used as call and response or to finish a vocal line or just as an accompaniment. The opposite is true of white blues artistes such as Stevie Ray Vaughan or Joe Bonamassa. In these cases the guitar plays the dominant role with histrionic and often extended solos whereas the vocal comes in second place. There you have it then, the choice is either soulful black vocals, telling a story, or flashy instrumentals featuring a vocal refrain. I know which I prefer

What's In a Name?

It is a peculiar thing, but something that seems to be more common to blues singers than any other type of musician, that a large number of them have 'nick names'. For example, Howlin' Wolf, MuddyWaters, Magic Sam, Lightnin' Hopkins, Guitar Slim, and, more recently, Seasick Steve, the list seems to be endless. It may be that these names make the music and the musicians seem more exotic and unusual........Ramblin Robbo

Reading the Blues

So now you have a source to buy the Cds, how are you going to find out about new releases? The answer is to subscribe to one or more of the dedicated blues mags. There are 3 in England and 2 in the U.S.
The best of the U.K ones is Blues and Rhythm published 10 times a year. As well as the latest releases, it also covers some other 'alternative' music such as Country and Old Timey as well as book reviews and articles on all aspects of blues. The other two U K mags are Blues Matters! published 6 times a year which deals with more U K artistes as well as having loads of reviews and gig guides, and Juke Blues which is published 4 times a year.
The two american ones are Living Blues which only publishes articles on 'authentic' i.e black blues musicians and Blues Revue which although only pulbishes 6 times a year, gives away 3 cds a year as cover discs.
The web site addresses are: www.bluesandrhthym.co.uk, www.bluesmatters.com, www.jukesblues.com, www.livingblues.com and www.bluesrevue.com