[Harp-L] Views on Blues

[Michael Easton <diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have to laugh when I read discussions about updating blues.

You can't update the music.  Blues is a musical element.  It is unto  
itself.
Any changes makes it a compound with blues as it's root element.

They tried educating the  blues in the early part of the last century  
and ended up calling it jazz.
They tried it again in the 50's making it peppier.  They ended up  
calling it Rock and Roll.
They tried to make it Urban and ended up creating R&B, Soul, Funk.

Why add beatbox and samples to blues and try to justify it's still  
blues.  Why not just use blues as a base element in the music and
call it whatever it becomes.  Too many tried to dilute blues to make  
it palatable for the masses or try to justify that it needs to be
updated for the times.

All early forms of jazz, R&B, rock sounded pretty much like blues  
until it started to form it's own identity. Even country and blues was  
difficult to tell apart in the early days.  I think that's where we  
are now with the new generation trying to take it somewhere.

Blues is blues. If you want to take it elsewhere that is fine but  
don't dis those that like it in a purer form. I personally have a foot  
in both the
past and present but not so much that I feel a need to make it  
something else.

Michael Easton
www.harmonicarepair.com