do you blues in 2023?

i listen at home sometimes. not much though. i was just listening to fred mcdowell. what a powerhouse. i just heard two songs in a row where he yells at someone to go buy him a bulldog! what a weird request. it's not like asking someone to pick you up some smokes or a cup of coffee. what if its late at night and you can't find a bulldog for fred? i'll bet he'd get mad!

i don't really listen to blues - other than blooze rawk - at the store because it can make me self-conscious? is that weird? here is the used record store guy listening to THE BLUES. i can feel this way about the dead, reggae, and the velvet underground. even though i love all that stuff. i'm just afraid if i start playing it someone will want to talk to me about the dead, reggae, or the velvet underground. and, no, i don't tend to play the beta band in the store.

i don't really ever listen to white blues people. is that sad? i'm not sad about it. especially if they do the blues voice. i was sorting a pallet of used CDs for a friend once and there were a ton of promos for local white blues bands from around the country and there were SO MANY!!?? and they all had ridiculous hats on!! and funny nicknames! its like cosplay. i know i know they probably love it and live for it or whatever i don't care. i don't think i've ever heard a 21st century blues album no matter the color of the bloozer.

i still like to hear really old creaky 78 blues sometimes. so spoooooooky. like another planet.
i like chess blues. especially on vinyl from the 60s. i don't read blues liner-notes written by blues poindexters from the 60s. they hurt my stomach.
i don't listen to chicago blues much but i like a lot of those guys. and i love little milton. i love memphis slim. i think he was an amazing artist. that celeste! i like swamp blues a lot. louisiana. not cajun or r&b stuff - though that stuff is cool. the swampier the better! i love that swamp blues comp on excello. i like that label a bunch in general. professor longhair and tuts johnson and james booker are tops too.

mostly i get my blues from the greatest 20th century art form: jazz. i love piano jazz blues. i can listen to james p. johnson or fats waller a lot. but any bluesy jazz number is fine by me. i like jazz singers singing the blues. i like joe turner.
and i will always be a fan of 18 year old white kids in the 60s playing tortured and yowling hard blues rock because they are so dumb and awesome and on drugs. i love ten years after. climax blues band. but i like it even more if its a hard blues rock song about hobbits that has an insane fuzz solo. mostly i believe that if you take then put back good. and if you steal, be robin hood.

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/fred-mcdowell-getty-87247903.jpg

I reviewed a bunch of Chicago blues records earlier this year. Here's the piece. It's pretty much the usual suspects, but that Otis Rush compilation is incredible — I tried to get Oxbow to cover "My Love Will Never Die" some years ago, and I still hope they will — and more people should rediscover Jimmy Reed. And Don't Turn Me From Your Door might be John Lee Hooker's best album; it's definitely one of the most stark and disturbing, especially the instrumentals.

I still listen to Blind Willie Johnson, that dude’s music will never not hit the spot for me

i was listening to otis rush cobra recordings recently. heck, i like everyone you guys mentioned. OH NOES I AM TURNIN ANCIENT. oh well. had to happen. pretty soon i'll be settin' on the front porch with ilxor ian blowin' into a jug.

i was really fortunate to see a number of classic old-school blues guys before they passed away. Otis Rush, Luther Allison, BB King, Robert Jr Lockwood, James Cotton, Brownie McGhee, Junior Wells, Detroit Junior, a few others. it's a real shame that blues has been sidelined though it remains, predictably, pretty huge in chicago. i have a couple friends making a steady income gigging around town as blues musicians.

sometimes it feels like country music has been given the cultural impact and blues just went to the nostalgia circuit. there have to be new blues musicians making great records, i'd love to know about more of them.

Yeah, I saw this guy about a decade after the following live shot (saw him opening for Clapton, and just the first fucking note of Mud's slide set the evening on electric fire)

Muddy Waters, with Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield: "The Same Thing"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEAV3DAmQYs

xpost yo omar, if you want something different, maybe try this guy, whom I ballotized and blogged about in 2009:

Otis Taylor, Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs: Otis Taylor is one of
the most (one of the few) creatively distinctive blues singer-songwriters
today. He adapts country blues, with a more regular beat than Delta blues, but it's customized, personalized, more than a standardized, urbanized boogie drive (although OT does keep veteran bloozer Gary Moore in harness here). Taylor's phrases
are repeated, seeming fragments of memory that gradually meet up and accrue, sometimes skewed or elliptical narrative, but the ear has to spot the spaces as well as the connections, just has to do that, when it works out right, as words and his shifting tone and volume move around his driving (sometimes shifting) picked and strummed rhythm guitar. This is the basis of the new album, his first collection of love songs (with some wars back in there, like the title also says), which, like P.Hood's new solo collection, develop through implication of
detail and atmosphere, and both sets can come to seem like gradually developed
photographs, Polaroids coming into view, more than movies. But the figure is the ground, at times, as Otis further develops deep focus via his own voice being joined by his daughter Cassie Taylor's younger and even more flexible, looping through the keys of guest Jason Moran, whose piano knows how hip-hop accents blues and jazz here, as on his own great 2004 Same Mothers set (with bluesoid guitarist Martin Sewell), said piano now alongside the cornet of Ron Miles; meanwhile, the drum kit of Nasheet Waits (also on SM, as well as this Otis alb) is ground for African percussion figures, or sometimes vice versa (plus, occasional passing cello, violin, whatever fits the view). Even without Ron's surname and horn, I'd be thinking "Miles," not that Jason imitates him, but just this whole approach (which is also a less wordy version of Dylan's deep coordination of elements and functions: ensembles, yo, not entourage.)(And the way Dylan's "Dear Landlord," Davis's "All Blues," and Ulmer's guitar x Burnham's fiddle can all ride together.) Can travel way into those (incl. Taylor's) musical snapshots, way into the travelling itself, but it's a train, not a showboat. (A little more about Otis Taylor on the 2008 ballot* and a good bit more in Steve Kiviat's piece here

oh yeah, meant to thank curmudgeon for the Carolina Chocolate Drops vid up there;also, I heard them do a couple of good, brief sets on Public Radio's "Woodsongs" recently. "Will James Breakdown" was built from variations on the Burundi/Bo Diddley beat, and fit in tonally with any number of pre-bluegrass mountain tunes. The Ebony Hillbillies are also in this vein, ditto, in a more Mississippi (Hill Country?) way, was a fairly recent "Beale Street Caravan" set by The Banjo Project, incl Otis Taylor and (I think) Alvin Youngblood Hart, among other African American performers who don't usually do this kind of music, and you could tell (not as developed as CCD or EH), but they had the spark. Oh yeah, and that 2004 album by the 59th Street Blues Project, with James Blood Ulmer and Charles Burnham, the violinist-fiddler from Blood's Odyssey and recurring Odyssey The Band--and here he also plays mandolin and sings--it's not experimental jazz like his previous outings with JBU, but a Delta/Hill Country/Downhome NYC thing, sharp-eyed observations under a low brim etc jees I can't see enough of this screen, distracting, sorry

― dow

In response to xhuxx: 1) good call on New Bloods, though I wouldn't say "off-kilter," they just have their own sense of balance (like Nick Nolte on a good night) and the fiddle isn't a million miles from Charlie Burnham's work with Blood Ulmer, previously mentioned before the screen glitched out .We've also talked about Carolina Chocolate Drops on a couple of RC Threads, and I've mentioned Ebony Hillbillies a year or two ago (linking then to Kandia's feature on Charlotte Creative Loafing?)but also, I just heard some eerie calm mountainy tracks from Laura Love's Negrass album)...

Ron's surname and horn, I'd be thinking "Miles," not that Jason imitates him,

here tis

http://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nRBhaH6g-nkSz-ElIG513Uur7CBwi7VBQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P-DDwYq5hw

Do wonder how many people will look further into the genre after the current Mojo's covermount which has a lot of good stuff on .
I discovered delta blues in the early/mid 80s partially through early Dylan and a few things like taht and books related to influences on Dylan. Also coinciding with bands like teh early solo Nick Cave, Crime & the City Solution with the Howard Brothers, the Gun Club and a few others getting press while mining a delta blues theme.
Also Alexios Korner having a radio show which may be more Chicago orientated.

& yeah am still finding new stuff both black and wjite in teh shape of old timey/country stuff a lot of which does come very close in style to the stuff made by and for a more negro population.

Would like to hear Alexis The K's radio show!
xpost A good 'un in 2012: Otis Taylor's Contraband:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efsnlrRvz4Q

I like Studebaker John a lot, he's fun to see in a bar. No frills trio, cheap guitar and loud amp, inspired by Hound Dog Taylor but also often drone-y like those Hill Country guys. I like how he's Macgyvered a harp on a stand arrangement, and I like that he only does originals, no covers. He's been plugging away since the 70s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yqofSIDDZM

thanks for the Otis Taylor intel, i'm gonna check him out!

i should dig back into my alligator records cds and albums a bit, i think there was some valid criticism lobbed at the label back during their '80s/'90s heyday but there was also a lot of amazing music released from them. for one, William Clarke was a groundbreaking harmonica player and a very good singer (he died far too young), there's a really good album from Sugar Blue (best known for his work with the Rolling Stones, esp the harmonica part on Miss You), Corey Davis, some latter era Luther Allison and Koko Taylor, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT_J_GBShaI

I haven't heard it yet, but I'm looking forward to Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958-1971

I can't believe I learned about this via WaPo rather than ILM

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2023/10/14/smithsonian-folkways-robert-mccormick/

In the US , contemporary southern soul is also called blues by some

The 5th Annual Capital City Blues Festival Tickets Feb 23, 2024 Washington, DC | Ticketmaster

King George , Nellie Tiger Travis, Tucka, Calvin Richardson , Pokey Bear

https://www.ticketmaster.com/the-5th-annual-capital-city-blues-washington-district-of-columbia-02-23-2024/event/15005F4ACF552A02

I also talk about these acts on below thread. I have seen em live too

Chitlin Circuit Double-entendre -filled Soul 2004 (and onward) Theodis Ealey's "Stand Up In It" is a song of the year

Yeah, my older customers, in particular, at the old CD store, included for inst Johnny Taylor, both Lattimores, even Montgomery son Nat King Cole as "blues" on occasion---also there was the old lady who always proclaimed herself as the Blues Bitch, and liked to play air bass to Funhouse ("Dirt" especially)
Speaking of Hound Dog Taylor and the House Rockers, Bruce Iglauer said he started Alligator to put out Dog records, which turned out well---here's an anthem, "Give Me Back My Wig":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jreIkDtlbaA

that album is so awesome.

co-sign on Otis Rush as well---my gateway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSE7ExWaeus

A fave house party rekkid of the 70s--makes astute use of Van Morrison's mouth, Elvin Bishop's guitar, Michael White's electric violin, and many other nice things---no clutter, and "Later for the garbage." Also: "Boogie---with the Hook---get hiigh." "Hey! Ho. Got-Dawg."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSE7ExWaeus

Sorry! Here's the Hook:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8e7YAPYyg

That's the whole LP, Never Get Out of These Blues Alive.

And one more with Duane---Boz Scaggs, "Lone Me A Dime":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGGvlTXGERA

"Lone," "Loan": it's the blues, mang!

this comp is worth its weight in gold. that guitar! woooooowee. so cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVf0j3ysiPg

I've been into Freddie King's "Complete King Federal Singles" collection over the past few months in the car. He did quite a range of material, lots of R&B along with those classic instrumentals. I cannot remember her name, but the tunes where he sings with this female vocalist are some of the best tracks.

god i fucking love the blues

I bought that Freddie King compilation a few years ago but can’t find it now; I must have sold it before we moved.

Listening to Freddie’s 1970 album Getting Ready… now. It rules.

Been listening to a lot of Doc Watson recently. Obv more on the folk/bluegrass end of the spectrum but love his renditions of blues standards.

Yeah, and don't know if he ever got to play with Mississippi John Hurt, but covered him pretty well; they had a musical affinity.
Hurt's 60s Vanguard studio records are all good, and his 1928 sides make a great gateway to his gentle voice and guitar, so tough to play just the way he does:
Avalon Blues---The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBX6ypFSOus

this one's been getting some spins. not only do you get to hear that riff a million times, but the band really rocks.
https://i.discogs.com/2w5hR1Bfw7zlIyz0KnJSb1NFJtclgZ9WYNxV7Frmp4U/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:450/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEyMTgy/NDk0LTE1Mzc4Mjg2/MTUtMTYwMi5qcGVn.jpeg

Fred McDowell is the greatest! And I love the blues, but mostly the real hipstery country blues "10 known copies" stuff and then you get into how much of that is BLUES vs RAGTIME or SONGSTER MUSIC.. Richard Rabbit Brown "James Alley Blues" one of the greatest American music recordings of all time. Skip James, "I'm So Glad", William Harris "Bullfrog Blues." I go through periods of listening to tons of Yazoo CDs in the car cuz my homey who runs the label just sent everything to me. So much great stuff. And they sound so good, much better than the old Yazoo LPs! And even the older Yazoo CDs.

Blind Willie McTell "Travelin' Blues"... Jelly Roll Anderson "Good Time Blues"... The Memphis Jug Band, Willie Reynolds, Frank Stokes, Cannon's Jug Stompers...

The only white blues I listen to is the pre-war/old-timey stuff, Sam McGhee and Frank Hutchison and Doc Roberts and whatnot, who people think of generally as country musicians but who played tons of blues and historically Black material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrxKb2WLL-M

and ROBERT PETE WILLIAMS, now that guy made some reCORDS.

My friend Matt does a weekly blues show on WFMU that is great because his view of the blues is broad and his taste is excellent. We listen to it at work a lot.
https://wfmu.org/playlists/WW

this is a great comp!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrpF4TBDL4U

great Black Patti playlist that i dig into occasionally.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLASBIFY_FdRyPC5thCLaQFb1O2-t6h4lc

my fave genres of blues are sinister blues and mournful blues. i know those aren't actual subgenres but i find that the greatest of blues musicians tend to hit those moods or some combination thereof. even very mainstream guys like Butterfield was at his best there; for example i think Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw is regarded as the "least" of his three essential early LPs but something like Driftin' and Driftin' nails such a mood.

Another Pigboy fave rave: speaking of blues incl. soul, this was originally rec. by Marvin Gaye, kinda like "Ain't That Peculiar," also wiki sez written by Smokey Robinson and at least some of the Miracles---but Butter blues it, no prob: "One More Heartache!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFOLED9VfVQ

My other fave (but really the whole LP works): "Born Under A BAD Sign"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0N20zJA41s

some great stuff mentioned, particularly Frank Hutchinson! made a quick list of all-time favs and then deleted artists already mentioned itt:

JB Lenoir - Alabama Blues
Snooks Eaglin - CC Rider
Big Daddy Simpson - Give Me Back My Ring
Jimmy Rogers - Walking By Myself
Guitar Slim - Story of My Life
Tiny Grimes - Rocking the Blues Away
Earl King - Baby You Can Get Your Gun
Howlin’ Wolf - Howlin’ for My Darlin’
Barbecue Bob - Mississippi Heavy Water Blues
Magic Sam - That’s All I Need
Bobby Rush - Mary Jane
Mance Lipscomb - Trouble in Mind
Pink Anderson - John Henry

xp yeah good call, born under a bad sign is a great album. also, hoodoo man blues by junior wells and buddy guy

This is the only Buddy Guy & Junior Wells (together) album I know---backed by the J.Geils Band in their early 70s prime, with Clapton playing some bottleneck---the dynamic duo are def. up front, though ("expanded," dunno if same as The Deluxe Edition, but original LP is pretty awesome,so anything more is gravy)
http://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k-1a2DAGb6RdRjql2X6LJSm4DFHoUVxDs

Try again---Buddy Guy and Junior Wells Play The Blues (Expanded Edition)
http://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k-1a2DAGb6RdRjql2X6LJSm4DFHoUVxDs

The only Mississippi Shieks album I have is Stop + Go, pretty great. Country blues meant to cross over, get the Jimmie Rodgers fans as well. (I know there were other members at various times, need to go back to the beginning and on to the end, a lot of tracks in five years total.) "Sitting On Top of the World," which is here, was their most covered song, and Dylan's versions of "Blood In My Eye For You" and "World Gone Wrong" seemed to him lead toward the style of Love & Theft, which Maria Muldaur credited with inspiring the country-to-city (Memphis) blues collection Richland Woman, one of her best.

Stop + Listen, I meant! Vibe of a reasonably chill front room shot house, a shebeen, as I think the more Irish of my ancestors would call it.

DOW - IMO, the Sheiks material was not meant to crossover to a white audience. It wasn't marketed that way, which we know from advertisements and catalogs, the catalog numbers reflect their inclusion in the "race" series, but iirc the string band tradition in Black folk music, by which I generally mean the inclusion of a fiddler or mandolinist in addition to guitar(s) is a tradition that goes back further than the extant recordings can show us. That there is a shared heritage of white & black country music & the blues is undeniable, but I think the Sheiks were in some ways a throwback to that older style material. I'm no expert though! Just a fan. Same thing with Andrew & Jim Baxter, as we should all know from the AoAFM - they were country musicians trying out the blues on some of those records, rather than city musicians recording country music.. if that makes any sense.

and oh, yeah, Mance Lipscomb! Incredible!! The Les Blank film about him, A Life Spent Well, is such a joy.

Sorry, I was just going by (what I may have misremembered of) the CD notes. Anyway, it's easy enough to imagine white (Rodgers for inst) fans liking it too, race record classifications aside, and relating to the trad interplay that the Carolina Chocolate Drops (and MS Hurt-fan Doc Watson and young Bill Monroe and Hank Williams, both with Black musical mentors) drew on.

Love this Mance Lipscomb record!

I'll chuck in a mention for R.L. Burnside's first recordings.

For recent stuff, I loved this Jimmy 'Duck' Holmes album from 2019: https://jimmyduckholmesees.bandcamp.com/album/cypress-grove

that muddy waters fathers & sons lp way up the top is one of the few electric blues things i listen to on the regular (though i could do with exploring that side of things more than i have)

re: early white/black musical cross-pollination, would love to find a copy of the book that accompanied this excellent comp: https://www.discogs.com/release/2305983-Various-Blacks-Whites-And-Blues

No lime— I have a copy, it’s good. I feel like I saw another copy at a bookstore or sale recently, and if so o will gladly pick it up for you.

Tony Russell also has recent work very much worth reading, but focusing on old-time folk and country artists - white ppl, if you like that music.

I noticed he did the Penguin Guide to the blues the equivalent to the thick Jazz guide I have a few copies of. Blue one with i think Robert Johnson on the cover. Missed getting a copy cheap in FOPP a fdew years ago cos I couldn't see where I'd stick it in overpacked load I was coming back with.
The Original Country Classics : the legends and the lost book is re4ally good though anyway

thanks for that amazing offer ian, but shipping costs out to this part of the world have become ludicrous. i'm sure i'll chance across a copy one day! will keep a look out for his other stuff too.

old-time folk and country artists - white ppl, if you like that music

oh definitely... surprising number of releases from the county/old-timey/old homestead etc labels floating around here & usually for real cheap :-D

I thoughtthat RusellGuide to Blues mayu be one of several cos i thought the Jazz equivalent had gone througha load of different editions. I guess blues is more largely a past music though could be more that what is in and out of press is more dynamic with jazz,
ShameI think FOPP had tHem for like £2 at the end fo a London Trip where i had already picked up a stack of stuff so luggage already overweight and pockets etc already full. Really ought to get myself a copy though.

these chess 2LP comps always sound so good. a very good way to listen to 50s chess singles. anyway, Sonny Boy Williamson sounds great in 2024!

https://www.discogs.com/release/6923846-Sonny-Boy-Williamson-Sonny-Boy-Williamson

https://i.discogs.com/HGAMdgrhYbgF0oanUpNeVdRb2EuP2H8n7eyCaIvKoeI/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTY5MjM4/NDYtMTQyOTYxNjc0/My0zMDI5LmpwZWc.jpeg

shout-out to illustrator nick caruso. always really liked the covers on these.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/2329422-Nick-Caruso

https://i.discogs.com/P9rAPQ7RfYb7q1-1CvVf_XkwZVTzwVgwWqMzJinE_Lc/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:587/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE0OTU0/MDQtMTM0MDEwNDU1/MC04NzQ1LmpwZWc.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/bNGToOpkgjW52tvaxsCLKLTj_s4RA8YbGdR-QZInhwo/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:575/w:575/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTY2MjQ1/MDAtMTQyMzMzMTg0/OC02OTk3LmpwZWc.jpeg

definitely. i linked to this series on the "greatest greatest hits" thread recently. the jimmy rogers and JB lenoir ones have long been favorites of mine

That Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues PBS series (on CD and obtainable video, or was been) was my intro to Lenoir, who sounds to me like a link from Sam Cooke to Bob Marley, incl. some engaging apartment footage, shot by a couple who kept being given the run-around by Swedish public TV.

“I don’t really listen to white blues people. Is that sad?”Scott Steward

You seem like a dude who might like early Beefheart or JJ Cale.

i just posted on the jj cale thread! i guess i don't think of him as blues. or beefheart. though yeah there is blues there. its right there. jj cale is always a pleasure to me. he made it seem easy but i'll bet it wasn't as easy as all that. i love how he constructed a song. tiny houses with cool lawns. he was into tiny houses before anyone. his carbon footprint was small. both beefheart and jj remind me of dustiness. desert. maybe a cactus.

I know what your saying. JJ isn’t straight Blues obviously. I don’t even really like his Blues stuff. But ya know, some of it is pretty good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvgHPC5l_cI

A frequent Sunday morning spin at my house is this record by Rev. John Wilkins, a really nice gospel country blues album. I saw him at Jazzfest in 2019, then he passed away the following year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5VMUJ_R-54

My wife has a photo of herself with John Lee Hooker, taken back in the 90s. It's a cooler photo than I'll ever hope to get in my entire life.

I like Jimmy Duck Holmes of Bentonia , Ms who is still singing and playing there. Also, it's worth following Mississippi resident and professor and Living Blues contributor Scott Barretta on Facebook and Instagram to keep up on what is happening in Mississippi these days

I just heard a great one. The chorus:

Gotta take my cialis
Before I see Alice