re: Interesting Article on Blues & Berets

[the Leones <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

>smokey joe wrote:
>"Another of my pet peeves is guys playing blues
>wearing a "Beret". IF you're gonna play blues and IF
>you're gonna wear a Beret...you BETTER be good. I
>think after hearing Norton Buffalo play, he is the
>ONLY guy (lately) quallified to wear a Beret.
>Besides?? Isn't a beret French?
>  Which begs the question "Who was the first blues-man
>(woman) to wear a Beret"?
>and more importantly..WHY??"
>
>aside from the fact that the phrase "begs the
>question" isn't being used correctly (oops, wait, this
>isn't grammar-l...) i've seen photos of both Kim
>Wilson and Big Walter Horton (inarguably TRUE BLUE)
>wearing berets.

   Good point. I have never heard Wilson or BIG Walter live. Walter is 
about the ONLY old-timer I HAVEN't heard live. Wilson is a modern 
dude and I missed the SPAH he was at, but in deference to what 
appears to be an overly HUGE following he has here on harp-l, I am 
willing to give him a "Buy".

   Sunglasses don't buy it for me either, UNLESS you're playing 
outside. Hats?, unless you're a guy who normally looks OK in a hat OR 
wears a hat often, resorting to an "unusual" hat is a gimmick. There 
was a fellow with the Flecktones who wore a really goofy looking hat. 
Since NEITHER the great Bela nor Howard wore a hat, I had to laugh.
It was really windy at Newport. I was waiting for the hat to disappear.

>  i think Sugar Blue wore one too, on
>one of his CD covers.
>that said, i think the beret thing's pretty much done
>with. but not because they're french. lest we forget,
>our beloved harps are GERMAN.... ;)
>as for non-blues bands headlining blues gigs, yeah,
>that would bug me too. but sometimes, that's what gets
>people out to see these blues bands, i would think. it
>may, at times, just be a "necessary evil".

   Yes, I think that's what's going on. I'm willing to acquiesce to it 
but just as acquiesce says; I may go along with it but I don't have 
to like it.

>  i also hate
>it when people talk about "the blues" but are really
>talking about jazz. drives me up the wall, frankly.

   Now THERE's one I never ran across. In fact, sort of the opposite. 
When I was playing a chromatic, some dude said "That's not blues". 
Hopefully he was talking about my failure to use a diatonic and NOT 
my delivery  :D ...................smo-joe

>
>oh, and i can't get the article link to work. help,
>anyone?
>
>        --Jp
>
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