Country Blues > Saturday Night Fish Fry

Blues Passions?

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Mr.OMuck:
Maybe the Blues just ain't "Festival" music anymore. I mean Newport in '64 Skip James, John Hurt, Son House, Gary Davis, Libba Cotton, Sleepy John...now THAT was a festival. Who would we have now....Ry Cooder, John Hammond, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Guy Clark, Paul Geremia, Roy Bookbinder, Ari Eisinger,  The Carolina Chocolate Drops.......Maybe pull Larry Johnson out of mothballs, Ain't no flys on any of them but do you really want to be sitting in a damp field under a hot sun craning your neck to watch their hands? Am I saying something's been lost? Yeah I guess i am, but I'd be hard pressed to find much fault with this list or nail down what's missing but I think it's not a stretch to say that our music has entered the academy and is more suited for the college auditorium or concert hall than the fairgrounds.
An electric thing is still possible i suppose, there's still BB and Buddy a few more old timers but we used to have Muddy, Wolf, Bo, Jr. Wells,....now? competent bands that can raise the pulse a bit but that couldn't for the most part be thought of as memorable.
Well...ready, aim Fire! That's just how it looks from here.

Mr.OMuck:
sorry not Guy clark Guy, Davis

dj:

--- Quote ---Ain't no flys on any of them but do you really want to be sitting in a damp field under a hot sun craning your neck to watch their hands?
--- End quote ---

I would, but the shows always run on past my bed time.   ;D

Seriously, who would sit in a damp field under a hot sun to watch any of the headliners listed in this thread?  Sting?  The Cranberries?  Bon Jovi??  James Taylor??? their audience is as old as the blues audience.

The "problem" is that there's just not the audience to make a "pure" blues festival viable.  Blues is very much a minority music now.  Back when we were young 'uns, you could scan the pop charts and see the blues roots of 25% - 50% of the music there.  Listening to blues-based music made a lot of people want to go and search out the roots of their pop idols.  Today on the pop charts...  Well, zero is a percent, as someone once said on The Simpsons. 

lindy:
I agree with what you say, O'Muck, but isn't it kind of a natural progression? I mean, before the big festivals of the 60s (or for jazz, Newport in the 50s), where did people gather to hear folk music and blues? Usually on the porch or at the Grange for a dance. Set me straight if I'm wrong, but before WWII I think the only reason large numbers of people gathered under big tents at fairgrounds were for agricultural fairs and revival meetings. The idea of large numbers of people going far out of their way to stand around in a field and listen to a broad range of musical styles is something we're all in tune with, but for most of us born in the 1950s, our parents couldn't imagine doing that.

In many ways we're living in a golden age for having access to different types of music, there's all kinds of festivals aimed at specific audiences--bluegrass, old-timey, blues, African, classical ... on and on. At many of those festivals there are performers who operate at the same level as those people on your "alive-and-kicking" list, but in their separate genres.

I think it's a great time to be alive if you're interested in a broad range of obscure musical styles. (You can say that it isn't a good time if you're trying to make a living off of your music, but has it ever been a really good time for anyone playing outside of the pop mainstream?) If you want to you can go to your New Orleans Jazz Fest monstrosities, or you can go to a lot of small regional gatherings such as the Fiddlers Convention in Weiser, Idaho, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, or Northwest Folklife in Seattle. Before the big-name professional acts you can listen to lots of talented and dedicated musicians who have day jobs.

I think it's a great time to be alive for music festivals, but it's important to avoid the trap of thinking bigger = better. And don't forget to buy them CDs and t-shirts, that's how musicians make $$.

L

Eric Hubbard:
Reminiscing back to the 80's, Sacramento and San Francisco had some wonderful blues festivals.  At SF, old pal and fellow old weird American Dave and and I would schlep an enormous ice chest full of beer over to the little amphitheater in GG park and spend the day, one memorable time ending at Eli's Mile Club in Oakland listening to blues of the urban variety late into the night while a gentlemen in a tuxedo was sleeping under our table.

Phil Givant, now passed, used to run the Sacramento Blues Festival.  It drew a good crowd, had a mix of older and younger players (Johnny Shines was sensational) and a couple of the local soul food joints brought trailers and served up excellent barbecue with all the fixings.  We would sit on lawn chairs with the obligatory ice chest and enjoy the show.  There's a blues festival here in Reno, and I suppose I should go, but it's top heavy with young guys who play electric guitar at the speed of light, not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just not my thing.     

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