[Harp-L] Re: Blues And C&W / blues, again



Thanks to Jonathan for an extensive and well argumented answer to my comments on blues harp and the influence of blues in general (light bulb thread).

Thanks also to all of you who added to my awareness of C&W harmonica players. I have to admit my limited knowledge of that genre and have to listen to more of these guys. Charlie Mc Coy is the only one I could have named off hand. Put together, I counted some thirty country players (Chris Michalek provided the longest list). To my understanding, most of these are sidemen on legendary country recordings. Ask a blues fan and he/she can name at least as many significant players who front or fronted a band. This meaning that the majority of their live performances and recordings feature the artist on harp and vocals. 

Now here is the big difference between the role of harp in the two genres. In C&W in most cases harp is a complement to the total sound. Blues also features lots of talented sidemen but when we're talking about the frontmen, the harp is the driving force of the music. Here I think Jonathan's cherry/sundae metaphor works well. Backing Loretta Lynn is not to be underrated but it's the cherry on the sundae. But listen to Butterfield doing "Everything Gonna Be Alright" on "Live". If that's not a sundae, I've never tasted one.

I disagree with the view that blues fans are so oblivious to their own immersion as to not recognize that other sub-cultures exist. On the contrary, most blues lovers I know are into many other genres. I haven't experienced the existence of a geekdom, even less a "pathetic kingdom". The blues clubs and societies I am familiar with are open to anyone interested without a passing test of "Who played harp on Muddy's She's 19 Years Old?".

I stick to the view that blues is the invented light bulb of American and western European popular music. Of course there are innumerable other influences which have intermixed and pollenated through the years. Jonathan mentioned that Elvis, Aretha and James Brown had other influences which, of course, is true. But all three have also recorded straight blues. JB has a collection "Messing With the Blues". Elvis has a blues collection, at least released on vinyl. A lot of Aretha's pre-Atlantic stuff is blues. British groups of the mid-sixties all drew influences from the blues, including the Kinks and the Who. Recorded covers of Lazy Lester, Mose Allison, John Estes etc. are documents but on live gigs they did even more blues. Ray Davies and Roger Daltrey also played harp occasionally. In a tv-interview John Lennon was asked about playing harmonica. He corrected the interviewer that it's actually called a harp, referring to the blues background of the instrument. 

To bring the light bulb metaphor further, it was the beginning. After that came neon lights, spotlights, strobe lights, halogen lights, laser beams and so on. What began more than a hundred years ago has evolved into several genres. Like it or not, all of these owe something to the blues.  

In the end, music plays an important role in most people's lives. Whatever kind of music, whatever genre, with or without harp, is good as long as it brings joy and a good feeling to the listeners. 

Harri

PS.  I was glad to see my fellow countryman Jouko Kyhala mentioned on harp-l. He has no blues influence but has a unique approach to the harmonica and hopefully will get more international recognition.



 





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