[Harp-L] The Blues In Any Color ....

[David Fertig <drfertig@xxxxxxxxx>]

I sure didn't mean to suggest blues is racially-based, even if it was racially originated, Bill is spot on, what I call ol' white boy blues was rife since the early part of the 20th century.

It's the immediate authenticity and emotional honesty not technical proficiency (good though it is)Â that characterizes the blues for me, but I mistakenly referenced white guys as a culprit of cultural appropriation (culture f*ckers as we used to say in the 60's), and we're not the sole purveyors of that crime, people of all stripes do it! 

-Dave "how do I act authentic?" Fertig

--- On Fri, 7/3/09, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx <harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Forwarded Message: [Harp-L] The Blues In Any Color .... [Harp-L] The Blues In Any Color ....
        	Thursday, July 2, 2009 6:03 PM
        	
            
            
            From: 
            "Bill Kumpe" <bkumpe@xxxxxxx>
            	
            	
            	
        	To: 
        	harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
                While we owe our black brothers and sisters a great debt for their
contributions to the blues, the blues is not an exclusively black genre.
Blues history is full of what I affectionately call âRedneck Bluesmen.â
Right now, cuts from Gene Autryâs âThe Blues Singerâ and Jimmie Rodgers
early recordings (the white, tubercular singing brakeman, not Muddyâs second
guitar) occupy space on my MP3 player right alongside Mississippi John Hurt
and Blind Willie Johnson. I think the missing element in many blues
playerâs music is not ethnicity but emotional authenticity. Call me
sentimental or even naÃve, but I believe that in some ways you have to earn
your right, literally pay your dues, to play the blues and a lot of
musicians product shows whether they have or not.

 

Bill Kumpe

Tulsa, OKÂ Â Â