[Harp-L] ancestor worship

[Garry Hodgson <harp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

bostonmoejo <bostonmoejo@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> http://www.filmbaby.com/films/3717

one thing i take issue with is his statement at the
end: "the very best ones, they've been dead a long time".
now, ancestor worship is all well and good, but i find
this notion that the golden years of harp are long gone
to be ridiculous.  yet it comes up all the time, either
explicitly or implicitly.

maybe i'm just oblivious to the subtler nuances, but i can
listen to little walter, and then to, for example, dennis
gruenling, and there's no comparison.  sure, walter was
the groundbreaker, the inventor of this stuff, and terrific
in his day.  i respect him greatly for that.  but time
doesn't stand still, music moves on, and the bar keeps
creeping up as each new generation starts with greater
expectations and understanding of what can be done.

it's not just harp, of course.  when i listen to the
music i grew up on, artists that i revered in the early
70's, a lot of it's just not that amazing anymore.  it's
good, and i still enjoy it.  but i hear guys all the
time, even just in our local blues jam, that play rings
around (for instance) what clapton was playing, back when
clapton was God.


--
Optimism and pessimism don't exist for me.
I'm a blues man.  I am a prisoner of hope.
I'm going to die full of hope.
- Cornel West