[Harp-L] Re: Totally bored with the blues genre

[Ray Beltran <raybluemax@xxxxxxxxx>]

Love it, especially this part:

>> Then, over the years, people started to try and improve blues. I have to give a lot of credit to some of these people for they really really studied the genre very hard and dissected it to the ength degree, but they also turned it into a mathematical thesis. I (personally) don't think that the early masters gave much thought to theory. Nor did they care. They just wanted to play in their own gut bucket style. Playing from the gut. Sitting on a bucket. 



Ray.
--
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> On MondayMay 4, 15, at 11:11 AM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 8
> Date: Mon, 4 May 2015 13:39:48 -0400
> From: Joseph Leone <3N037@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:3N037@xxxxxxxxxxx>>
> Subject: [Harp-L] Re: Totally bored with the blues genre
> To: Randy Singer <randy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:randy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
> Cc: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx <mailto:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> Harp L" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx <mailto:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>>
> Message-ID: <6D373665-67C0-4F80-9CCB-52950F907E39@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:6D373665-67C0-4F80-9CCB-52950F907E39@xxxxxxxxxxx>>
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> 
> Hmmm, the way I see it, blues are generally a fairly simple music written by and for (at the time) fairly simple hard working people. Not everyone can be a Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart, but they still need to express themselves. Blues fills the bill. When I think of genuine blues, I picture a beat up Montgomery Wards mail order guitar with missing pick guard and a hole in the birch face, probably mismatched strings, and a dented10 cent harmonica from a box at the general store (at $1.oo per dozen), held in a bent coat hanger rack. If there were any amp at all, it would probably be a beat up Silvertone that looked like it had been dropped off the truck a dozen or more times.
> 
> The mic is held together with twine and looks like it had been used as a hockey puck. The singer/artist has a voice that no one could exactly call pleasant and everything was out of tune. The drums were patched with pieces of canvas glues on and the bass was a wash tub with a stick and some wire. BUT Oooooh, what magic would come out of this junk.
> 
> Then, over the years, people started to try and improve blues. I have to give a lot of credit to some of these people for they really really studied the genre very hard and dissected it to the ength degree, but they also turned it into a mathematical thesis. I (personally) don't think that the early masters gave much thought to theory. Nor did they care. They just wanted to play in their own gut bucket style. Playing from the gut. Sitting on a bucket.  
> 
> Now, over the years there are some whom have used all sorts of musics as a means to their own ends. I consider that how, during the depression and the dust bowl eras, there were people who would sweep up a stable or do yard work for a few nickels so they could buy a can of beans .Then there were others who would sit and watch them work, write songs about it, perform them at hobo jungles, in the hopes that someone would 'share' their beans with them. Sometimes even becoming famous song writers. Like people who photographed the despair and later wound up as famous photographers, whose photos now go for thousands of dollars. I consider these people as users. 
> 
> No, I think blues are honest down to earth musics and if done in a caring manner and not 'phoned in' (as I hear so much of these days), it is a wonderful outlet for those who are willing to emote. To completely open their hearts and exude their innermost feelings. So I'm not so sure that blues have to evolve. I saw that with jazz. Hot music to swing to progressive to bee-bop to re-bop to hard-bop to fusion. Just my opinion but that killed jazz. 
> 
> In conclusion I have known Randolph for 20-25 years and never found him to be negative. Not at heart. He has always been a positive influence and ambassador of harmonica and while he rarely posts, the posts are usually links to wonderful things. He wants us all to start thinking. Because when you stop thinking, you're probably stinking. You're probably dead. There have been some seriously great posts on this subject. Well done 'W.C. Handy Randy'. lol 
> 
> 
> smokey joe