Travel down to the nearest crossroads deep in the countryside at 12 midnight and i'll present my latest record to you in exchange for your soul!

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

I bet none of you real 'blues guys" can shred like Eric though Eric Shreds

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LOL! Eric is the Ornette Coleman of the strat! free jazz with some shred in there as well

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Notice how I said, 'just about...'? The original bluesman were the blues, cause they originated it. You can't get more spot on than that, am I correct? Other people can obviously try to emulate the blues, and some might succeed, but if you're telling me that ZZ top and Skip James sound alike you have to be kidding.

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former user radio_friendly_unit_shifter

Well said riley, you've got more sense than most of these guys combined.

Imagine comparing today's current players with the likes of Bukka White who served time on the county farms ie. prison chain gangs and such like. Same thing with Lightnin' Hopkins and many more. They led a tough hard life which was reflected in their experience and their music.

Compare that to the blues yuppies of todays world; getting handed custom shop guitars and all the rest. They are pretty soft in comparison and the music reflects that.

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

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^ Wurd.

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Gary

"servin' time in prison" always breeds the best music, Charles Manson for example... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24RvJAdI0Vo

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Honestly I hate the whole "bluesman" label that gets thrown around. More often it's closed minded self important idiots spouting why their music is the best and the only real music and ragging on everything else.

Now I know a lot of you are nice guys and open to a lot of music so don't take me as ragging on everyone here, but a lot I've met in real life are just idiots playing pentatonic scales in stupid hats.

Too Funny!!

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Never said itbreeds the best music but anyone who has been through the tribulations that the early black bluesmen endured are a whole different breed to what passes as blues in a lot of quarters today.

Oh and BTW Charlie Manson was a pretty good musician/songwriter in many ways, even Neil Young was impressed with him, so he couldn't have been that bad.

Here's a better example of his abilities, Guns n Roses covered this track but never did it anything like Manson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae_0j3byq4w

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

SAVE THE BANDWIDTH.. !!

cheers!

_________________


'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
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'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele

If you're talking about the ZZ Top's commercial songs hat you hear on classic rock radio, no, they're not bluesmen. Bluesy rock at it's finest, perhaps. Some of it was electronic-tinged rock/pop with blues inflections.

However, deep album tracks and little-known songs like "Mushmouth Shoutin'" or "Sure Got Cold After The Rain Fell" or "Bar-B-Que" are true electric blues songs.

I think this whole subject has been derailed by what constitutes a "bluesman" instead of what is the definition of "blues"...well, I'll paraphrase the US Supreme Court justice, who when speaking about the definition of pornography, said, "I can't define it but I know it when I see (or in this case, hear) it..."

Thompall Glaser took an old Jimmy Rogers (the Singin' Brakeman, not the blues player) song "T for Texas" and turned it into one of the finest "blues" moments a country and western/Outlaw singer ever had. It wasn't a pure blues song nor even sung by someone who claims to be a blues player, but that could be played at any blues festival, club or gathering at any time (as he recorded it), and nobody would bat an eye.

Remember, even Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues, played and recorded pop songs; "Hot Tamales and They're Red Hot" was a pop song at the time, but due to Poor Bob recording it, it is an accepted part of the blues lexicon to this day.

Hound Dog was written for Big Mama Thorton by two white kids...does anybody deny it was originally a blues song? (Apologies to James V Roy, but I don't think of it as an Elvis song...Big Mama did it better).

All this crap about Mississippi Delta and race and background and everything might hold true in the original days of blues music, bit now it's just Puritan Elitist Traditionalism with a heavy dose or Arrogance.

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Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Why is that? blues music has evolved but for many people the original vision of the old black bluesman playing solo on his guitar is still the gold star definition of what blues is.

More relevant to a lot of people than these rock star bluesmen playing in football stadium concerts, grinning away smugly at each other as they coin in the $$$$$.

What's the more realistic definition of blues?

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

How about this explanation of my viewpoint, and it's related to the "research" that your opinion is based upon:

A sarcastic retort in three parts:

Oh, you read a BOOK! Well, I guess that's why the movie "Crossroads" resonates so strongly with you--you're Lightnin' Boy made over!

I guess your "books" trump my experiences jamming, hanging out with and befriending not-well-known but immensely talented Fort Worth Bluesmen such as The Reverend Robert Ealey, or the fabulous UP Wilson (who toured as a drums and guitar duo in their younger years as "The Boogie Chillun"--decades before the Black Keys, the White Stripes or the Ting Tings). 

No, playing in bands with guys like Mr. Ealey (who christened me, "That Skinny Harp Playin' Honky") or backing up Mr. Wilson, (who called me "The Harp Kid") while we were jamming and playing in some of the nastiest, low-down dives in Fort Worth, Texas means I don't know squat...because you were READING A BOOK IN SCOTLAND!

Part 2:
When I whipped out a guitar and played slide with them the first time, they blessed my efforts, my enthusiasm and my ability. When I sang them a song I wrote, they accepted it without reservation, with Mr. Ealey declaring, "Kid, you got chops. Now get some hair on your chest and you'll be rockin'..."

Mr. Ealey had an integrated band in the 1960's, Mr. Wilson rarely had his own band (but the groups he played with were usually integrated from the 60's and 70's onward). 

Both of these gentlemen were poor black Texas Blues players, who were born in the era that allowed them to come of age in the 40's and 50's, and they accepted anyone who wanted to play blues--from the purists to the    hyphen-ators, they adapted, taught, learned and entertained players of all styles and talent levels...in short, they encouraged everyone to make the blues their own--white, black, the goofy non-heterosexual guy who played some killer keyboards, Hispanic, Mexican--heck, they even jammed with a classically trained pianist of some Asian descent (who decided it was a blast to be "slumming" with us untrained, unwashed masses)...

They weren't concerned about race, unlike you, who can't seem to see past skin color or background.

Part 3:
Pure blues? Not quite...it was Jump Blues and Bluesy Jazz and Blues Rock and Rockin' Blues and Country Blues and Bluesy Country and Metal Blues and Chicago or Memphis or Texas or West Coast Blues...but by God, it was definitely blues! 

They weren't worried that I grew up in a little country town more known for cows and racism than for musical output--they just saw the sincerity and the love for the music. 

They were magnanimous and nurturing to everyone they met--because they didn't give a crap what you were off-stage. They  just tried to keep the style of blues and scene that they helped develop (Fort Worth Blues) alive.

I was more friendly with (and played more with) Mr. Ealey than Mr. Wilson. The latter's drug habit and consequent departure from the US alienated the two of us later in his life, but I respect and admire him to this day (years after his death). I NEVER claimed to be a bluesman--but these guys treated me and respected me as such, so maybe (just maybe) I know something you don't.

But you never read about that in a book, Gorgon, so it can't be true. You keep on researching--the rest of us will go out and be living and experiencing and enjoying ourselves in the meantime.

_________________
Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals