I love the blues and I've played blues guitar for a long time. I also listen to various online blues stations when I'm working or whatever. Every now and then a song will come on and the guitarist sucks, the vocals are horrible, sometimes it's the guitarist singing as is typical of the blues, and the whole thing just generally sounds like a complete pile of horse ****. I realize it's a random online blues station so it's probably somebody's brother's friend's band, but damn. As a blues fan and player for about 30 years now, and realizing that blues isn't always viewed as being the world's most technical genre, I just wanted to say that when blues is good...it's REALLY good, but when it's bad...holy ****, it can be REALLY REALLY bad. Some of these people should not be allowed to play the blues, there outta be a law. That is all.
Highly technical? No. Highly soulful? Yes, and some people just ain't got any. Playing blues well is much harder than those who tend to put it down would like to believe it is and so much so many of them simply can't play it well period. IMHO you either grew up with it and into it or you didn't. If you didn't you may never become a competent blues musician. It's does take skill.
Great tune. Buddy on guitar and Jr. on the "Mississipi saxophone". Man that is really from their younger days.
It is all about soul man, you either got it...or you don't, and I agree, it does take skill as well as soul.
I fully agree. For some reason the blues have always been the type of music that really did it for me. Ever since I heard the Beano album in 1966. It’s the music that has challenged me ever since. I can honestly say that I have heard blues solos played with no more than three notes that have stoped me in my tracks. Listen to the Albert Hall Cream reunion concert in 2005, Stormy Monday and you’ll see what I mean. Blues is all about the feeling, all about the soul of the player, it’s such a special thing and some players are simply blessed. Yes, it really is an intangible skill.
Blues is probably my favorite genre of guitar playing. However, I tend to be very apprehensive about listening to random blues, be it on the radio, a playlist, or even a blues club/bar. 90% of the blues being played sounds cliché. The same formula, the same pentatonic licks over every chord, almost cartoonish singing and lyrics. It's just so hard to take seriously. But when the right person comes around, it's magic and nothing can top that in my book. (Musically speaking.) What I mean is, when someone can really play the blues, it just floors me. It's a rare treat that's for sure.
It's always the same notes. That's all a pentatonic scale ever is. It's all about in what order you play them, which position you play them from, how you phrase them, the space you leave, not over playing, when to bend, when not to bend, feeling out each note more than thinking about them, etc. If you're doin' it well there is no formula but there are a ton of personal interpretations of a pentatonic scale and that's what makes Buddy Guy sound different than B.B. King and Albert Collins different than Albert King even when playing the same song. It's all about developing your own signature style. And singing blues is much the same as playing it. The voice just subs for the guitar and vice versa but it's much the same approach as far as notes and phrasing. If it sounds that cliched either who you're listening to isn't very good, it's how you're listening or maybe blues is just not your thing period.
Yeah, being a bunch of (mostly) middle aged white guys is tough. I remember my time on the farm. Sad times indeed. Glad we made it through.
You don’t have to have lived on a plantation to have lived with despair... even some middle-aged white guys have the blues.
John Lee Hooker, from a technical standpoint, was a terrible guitar player. But he is still one of my favorites. Why? Because of his unique sound and approach. Again, not any kind of incredibly skilled guitar player, but a couple of notes and I can tell you it's JLH.
