Re: What constitutes "blues"?

[PL500@xxxxxxx]

>Hi,
>One of the worst things about this thread that really bugs the living crap
>out of me as a professional blues musician is that there is far too many
>people over intelluctualizing the music and in my not so humble opinion, it
>serious detracts from the music in general. It isn't just the notes in the
>chords, it FEEL, and wheras notes and theory is relatively easy to teach but
>groove and feel is much harder, sometimes almost impossible to really teach
>and teach it well. 

Too true, 

Far too many musicians try to deal with the mechanics of music,but not the 
general feel of it. Feel is not easy to learn,it deals with motion of the 
music itself. There is a way the music moves and the feel of the song is 
implicit to it. The best way to learn feel is to listen to as much of the 
music as possible. Sing it in the shower, immerse yourself in it and let it 
get in you. Listening to music itself is the key point. There is no way to 
get around the long hours of listening to the music and letting it soak in. 
Sometimes a superficial or contrived rendering of the music is the product of 
not just a lack of patience in listening to the music, but also of an 
attitude that thinks that a half assed mediocre rendition of the music in 
general is acceptable.
How easy is it to forget that many of the "greats" who played this fine music 
lived in the world which reflected it. They weren't trying to be something 
that they were not, and definitely were not trying to play something which 
they themselves did not feel. They spent hours listening to this music (how 
many stories are there of great blues artists like James Cotton and B.B. King 
rushing home from the fields at noon to listen to Sonny Boy do his radio 
program? Or young kids stealing moments from the phonograph to hear Memphis 
Slim or Elmore James? Or of white college kids sneaking into Blues Clubs in 
the rough part of Southside Chicago just hear Muddy  or Little Walter play?). 
Blues is not a cheap music, and the feel is defintely not cheap either. That 
is why it remains beautiful, pure and raw in a time of phony, contrived 
bubble gum pop music. Just like the Otis Spann record says "Blues Will Never 
Die." But remember you gotta be alive first before you die. 

Andrew