The Blues

[Krunchy]

How about the magnificent and often overlooked Sister Rosetta Tharpe!
Simply unbelievable talent, ventures into Gospel but she has got IT!

[richluvsound]

Krunchy,

I'll call you 1-1.62 now or Mr Phi or master Fibonacci

Rich

[Krunchy]

!

[Steve Schell]

Clark, group,

Great subject and thread. After decades of a superficial appreciation of the blues, I have been delving deeper lately as an extension of an interest in resonator guitars. The subject is powerful enough to distract one's attention away from... dare I say it... old loudspeakers!

Recently this fellow Andrew Rose and his company Pristine Classical has issued restored versions of the Robert Johnson recordings that really do seem to bring him closer to us. Samples can be auditioned here:

http://www.pristineclassical.com/Lar...al/PABL001.php

Mr. Rose says a little about his restoration process here:

http://www.pristineaudiodirect.com/M...uralSound.html

[Ducatista47]

I see my absence is not affecting the quality of this thread. Well, maybe it is better! I figured this topic is too well loved and too important to fall into the usual trivia, misinformation and acrimony that kill so many well intentioned discourses on our happy little piece of the Web. Every post is rock solid and I couldn’t be happier.

The mere mention, never mind two, of resophonic guitars sets my heart ablaze. From Son House to Jerry Douglas, you might say from National to Dobro, the history of the instrument is associated with players possessed of great feeling and the means to project it. I don’t know why more players don’t employ these instruments. Then again I wonder the same thing about the pedal steel. So far only one notable Jazz player, one possible great rock work (was that one on Red Rider’s Lunatic Fringe? Probably not, but that lead would be even better on one.), and no Blues appearances of the instrument, one of the most soulful and expressive ever invented. I hope I am wrong and simply haven’t heard what is out there. I’m getting pretty tired of hearing only Country licks coming from pedal steel. Even Jerry Garcia stuck to country style on The Wheel, great as it was. I’m trying to remember what Jimmy Page sounded like playing one. What song was that on? Cal Hand could do more, but was still rooted in traditional country playing. The “Crying Steel” hasn’t changed much since Buck Owens and the Buckaroos.

Anyway, I wanted to get us thinking about the instruments of The Blues. There are instruments as important to The Blues as tenor sax is to Jazz. I welcome any contributions discussing this; while most Blues instruments are used by other genres as well, in The Blues they seem to find their most vital, important voice. That is so typical of all the elements in The Blues, isn’t it?

What sends you to the highest place? Is it Muddy Waters playing amplified guitar? Son House with a National? Little Walter, James Cotton or Kim Wilson on a harp into a Shure Green Bullet mike? SRV, Walter Trout or John Mayer on a strat? Robert Johnson or Willie Nelson (yes, his leads are mostly Blues) on simple non-dreadnought flattops? BB King, Peter Green or Johnny Winter playing Gibson Humbucking pickups? Who's your favorite with a slide? What finger pickers get you highest? How about Blues piano?
Clark

[Steve Schell]

Clark, I had begun reading up on the history of the guitar industry in Los Angeles after a friend bought a 1930s Rickenbacher lap steel and had it delivered to my place. I discovered that the Dopyera brothers' factory of the mid 1930s was located at 6920 McKinley Avenue... right next door to Lansing Manufacturing Company. Jim Lansing probably learned how to spin aluminum diaphragms from John and Rudy Dopyera, who had been spinning resonator cones since the mid 1920s. Jim supplied speakers to several guitar amp builders around town, a foray into professional sound that may predate his involvement with the Shearer team. Pictures of a nice McKinley era Dobro amp are located here:

http://michaelmesser.proboards7.com/...lay&thread=688

After trying some spider bridge and biscuit bridge resos at the NAMM show in January, I started buying cheap ones and fixing them up. This has been a lot of fun, and I have gained an appreciation of these noble instruments. The spider bridge Dobro design offers one type of sound while the biscuit bridge National type offers another- both are great. John Dopyera, inventor of all of these, considered the Tricone to be his finest work. I haven't gotten that far yet. The biscuit bridge National is perfect for the blues, just as it was in 1929.

[Krunchy]

Thanks for that bit of info Steve and Clark, I love this stuff, its so interesting. The last time I head a decent and unconventional use of the pedal steel guitar was on Dark Side of the Moon as a segway into Clare Torry's amazing solo on "The Great Gig In The sky". If you listen to Rogers bass line on money its all blues, you just have to change the emphasis on the notes but that is blues my friends. Play that line on a steel guitar and you'll see

Mark Knopflef has used the steel guitars in few of his songs, that instrument in his masterful hands is just so amazing.
Aside from that I do not hear either of them used much these days, kind of reminds me of Jimmy Page's use of the the violin bow, no one ever used that after him until Pete Distefano (from porno for pyros) who used it very cleverly on some of their material on the album of the same name but I'm getting a little bit off topic here, sorry.

Been Listening to the clomplete early recordings of Skip James - 1930
And a lot of Son House
and some Gershwin, Clark you are quite the catalyst! I thank you, my wallet doesnt
still trying to find that Hydn Boccherini

[Ducatista47]

Clark, I had begun reading up on the history of the guitar industry in Los Angeles after a friend bought a 1930s Rickenbacher lap steel and had it delivered to my place. I discovered that the Dopyera brothers' factory of the mid 1930s was located at 6920 McKinley Avenue... right next door to Lansing Manufacturing Company.

Steve, you are probably the first living person to have discovered that location coincidence. That is amazing. I know that the resophonic instruments, except banjos, fell out of favor when amplification became available. What puzzles me is why they have not broken out of their remaining niche in all the time since. Played with feeling, they speak directly to the heart. As if they had a special conduit. I know many players have kept one in their arsenal, but use them as a side dish rather than a main course.

I've never seen a Rickenbacher lap steel in person. Wow! I imagine adding resophonic repair and restoration to one's bag of tricks could be quite an opportunity as well as an avocation. Careful, old musical instruments are more seductive than sex or drugs... I have a Gibson ES-125 f-hole that has stolen my senses for many years now. Thank goodness I have not added to the pile.

Clark

[oznob]

http://www.roy-rogers.com/music_alternate.html

Just a short mention of one of the most prolific slide gutarist today IMHO, Roy Rogers! The guy is a phenominal talent and very much a student of the craft!

As far as blues pianists, Otis Spann is one of my favs, great vocals as well! If you can find his album, "The Biggest Thing since Collossus", you will be in blues piano heaven!

Mark

[Ducatista47]

OK, I haven't found Blues yet, but listen to all this pedal steel Jazz.
http://www.steelguitarjazz.com/music.html Don't miss the clip Dialing Out by Dave Easley. Sounds Like Pat Metheny might on steel. If your taste is more dreamy, try Susan Alcorn. Almost New Age. The styles of the clips are all over the place.

Here is the Home page of this site:http://www.steelguitarjazz.com/home.html
This is an incredibly nice shock to discover all this music.

Clark

[Ducatista47]

OK, found some Blues pedal steel. This page, the David Wright video. I've heard these licks in both Blues and Jazz, but this does seem bluesier. It sounds like a lot of Chicago Blues - the style that has served as the soundtrack for much of my life. I'm hereby threatening to post about Chicago Blues if nobody else steps up.
http://www.steelguitarjazz.com/bio.html

This sound is smoother than I had imagined Blues pedal steel. I hear in my head hard edged notes, that Red Rider Lunatic Fringe tone with tons of sustain and volume but with Johnny Winter type licks, but with the notes more drawn out. I guess the possibilities are endless!

There may be more here, I have not had the time to search yet. Curley Chalker, by the way, was the only Jazz pedal steel player I had heard of until now.

The guitar on the Blue Bossa video is a Gibson ES125 thick body just like the one I have. Off topic, but I love mine! And they are showing up more and more in the hands of good Bluesmen. Here is one the same year as mine: http://www.archtop.com/ac_64ES_125.html

Note also the harp being played into the aforementioned Shure Green Bullet mike. Legend has it Blues harp players used to "liberate" these from taxicab companies.
http://www.greenbulletmics.com/

Clark

[Ducatista47]

Speaking of Chicago Blues, here is a nice new page about the Wolf on the Gibson site. There is some nice history.

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyl...hday-howlin-w/

Clark

[Ducatista47]

I recently discovered him quite by accident. Waiting in my car one night for my son to come back from a football game, I heard Prisoner's Talking Blues on WGLT, our local NPR Jazz & Blues station (how many of you are lucky enough to be able to say that?). The wonderful Frank Black played it. http://wglt.org/about/staff/black.phtml WGLT is "The Blues Blowtorch of the Midwest" on the weekends and streams it all week.

I don't know from what about Williams yet, but he is the real thing. Check him out on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AdhY7XQn9Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfk5g...eature=related
and lots more.

Sitting in that car in the dark Prisoner's Talking Blues sent chills up and down my spine.

Clark

[Wornears]

The Blues Is It!

I was lucky enough to go to graduate school beginning in Austin, TX at UT in 1978. That was when my blues experience hit the nitrous. The club scene was unbelievable -- the Armadillo World Headquarters was still going (but not for long). Roy Buchanan nearly burned it down one night with his searing guitar sonics.

Used to see "Paul Ray and The Cobras" with a skinny SRV on one guitar and Denny Freeman on the other, and Paul Ray inciting the crowd. SRV learned a lot from Freeman. Ray used to have a radio show too, and play the craziest, obscure records -- mostly blues and R&B -- and open up your ears. First time I ever heard, "Twine Time" and it knocked me down. Had to find it.

Also saw the Fab T-Birds when Kim Wilson used to wear a turban and Jimmy Ray Vaughn taught us (again) that it is which note you play, not how many. A very young Charlie Sexton (likely underage) used to sit in with them.

Can't forget Albert Collins -- with his 100-ft (I think) long guitar cord. He'd play through the crowd, out into a parking lot (all the while wailing on his Tele), and then make his way back inside. And the crowd went wild.

Funny how it was a Brit Eric Clapton (via John Mayall -- which led me to Peter Green -- Hey, nobody could carry Clapton's guitar case. Uh, wait, who is this Green guy!?). That brought me (and so many others) to Robert Johnson, which progressed to Muddy, to Magic Sam (get his recordings on Cobra records), The Wolf (The Blues Voice for me, and of course Sumlin's sublime guitar work), and Son Seals, etc.

I've heard cover bands in American Samoa, and Brazil play Johnson's "Love In Vain" they had learned off Rolling Stone records.

[Hoerninger]

Just saw/heard the first time Walter Trout on TV channel HH1 interviewed by Kuno Dreysse former leader of the Hamburger Star Club.

As far as I have understood Walter Trout, obvious living in Huntington Beach (CA), likes very much the musical scene of LA with its clubs and lots of musicians.

He playes an outstanding Blues. I will switch to Youtube with him now and buy some of his music later I presume.

Walter Trout
will play in Hamburg
29. & 30. November 2008
in Landhaus Walter in Stadtpark
(Downtown Bluesclub)

____________
Peter