Re: [Harp-L] Gussow in Princeton or messing with the "blues tradition"

[MundHarp@xxxxxxx]

I DID study "business administration" in Ireland...However,  I am  not much 
good at playing Irish music... I believe that musicians should always  
strive to find new ways of playing old styles...
I sat in with a band recently... The bass player kept saying "But there  
isn't a harmonica, in that song, on the record!" 
Heaven's above! I want to take old tunes... And find NEW WAYS of playing  
them...
But that does not go down well with  the "traditionalists!
Likewise, so many "blues fans" here in Europe... Expect harp players to  
reproduce for example "Little Walter's" solo... When playing a Willie Dixon  
song...
I hope... That I NEVER do so... Little Walter was WONDERFUL but that was  
half a century ago... I might not do it BETTER... But I shall do it  
DIFFERENT!
"The beat goes on" 
John "Whiteboy" Walden
Just now, in England...
_http://johnwalden.freevar.com_ (http://johnwalden.freevar.com) 
 
 
 
In a message dated 10/6/2011 8:05:37 P.M. GMT Daylight Time,  
amaccana@xxxxxxxxxx writes:

This  kind of argument is endemic in Irish Trad, where the "true
traditionalists"  see "no good reason to play a tune any other way than the
way it always has  been played" - regardless of the fact that it already has
been played in a  myriad of different ways and versions.

However I did not expect to find  this kind of angst among members of  the
Blues community, where I  (mistakenly?) thought that improvisation and doing
your own thing was the  name of the game.

Beannachtai

Aongus Mac  Cana