Topic: what is your favorite style of blues music?

[GavinG]

this is similar to topic of What Got you into Blues

What is your favorite sytle of blues music.



Well my favorite style of blues is Delta. I can picture
myself sitting on porch on a hot humid night with katydids
and cicadias chiping away. I love being in Arkansas on
summer holidays at night hearing that.

I like the others, but sometimes it seems to busy so to say. I guess I'm a simple guy.

I feel right at home with that idea and that style of music.

I am a big Pink Floyd fan, I think their best work is Live at Pompei. Simple no high tech effects. Just them in the empty stadium with pretty much the basics.

Tell me what you all like.

[Coyote Slim]

My favorite style of blues is the kind that doesn't suck.

[Mr.OMuck]

My favorite style of blues is the kind that doesn't suck.

 

Here's how I feel about classical composers and it holds exactly true for Blues as well.
When I listen to Bach I'm absolutely sure he's my favorite composer, When I'm listening to Mozart, I'm certain that he;s my fave, When I'm listening to Beethoven I'm sure he's the best. Same goes for Big Bill Gary Davis, BWJ, Lightnin' Hopkins, Bukka White, Charlie Patton. SJE a few more. Maybe RGD always comes out a little ahead of the pack due to the personal connection, but BBB is right up there. If its fast funky & in C I'm pro'ly gonna dig it.

[dj]

Tell me what you all like.

Anything and everything.  Including stuff I have yet to hear.

[Johnm]

I like blues in which the phrasing of the vocal and the instrumental accompaniment determine the form, rather than the form determining the phrasing of the vocal and the instrumental accompaniment.  I like blues in which the singer/player does things that I haven't heard anyone else do--things that as far as I know, that singer/player came up with based on his/her own hearing and response to the music.  I don't care how fancy playing is, as long as the time and phrasing and singing are strong.  In fact, the better the singing is, the less everything else matters.  I like blues that, whether through a conscious desire on the part of the player to innovate, or their just hearing of things differently, go somewhere other than where I expect them to go.
All best,
Johnm

[Cleoma]

Wow. John, the way you articulate your thoughts about music is extraordinary.

[RobBob]

My favorite blues involves the interplay between the guitar, piano or harp and the vocal. You must start with a great vocal.  It has to be expressive and intelligent.  The accompaniment has to support the vocal without getting in the way.  Dynamics, intensity power are the keys.  One can be understated by never over the top.  I was listening to Booker White while getting ready for work.  He has it, so does Leroy Carr, John Hurt, Skip James, Lightning Hopkins, and Son House when he was not too drunk.

[blueshome]

The stronger the tension and release in a song the better for me. It's the thing that ties me to the blues.

[oddenda]

As the sainted Duke Ellington said, there are two kinds of music - good music... and the other kind. I prefer the former.

pbl

[Mister Steve]

For me, it has to start with the singer and the song...with that said, overall I prefer Memphis blues: Frank Stokes, Robert Wilkins, Memphis Minnie, Sleepy John Estes...

Blind Lemon Jefferson: I find myself listening to him at least one once a week.

For non-stop all day listening?  I must admit Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes...Robert Wilkins.

And let me add Mississippi John Hurt: there's so much of the popular I hear in him and love, and yes, the song as the starting point and method.  My favorite recording: in the end, the 1928.
 

[done me wrong]

miss.john hurt-miss.fred mcdowell-furry lewis-robert wilkins-charlie patton

[cc132]

I like just about everything pre-electric, but the stuff I listen to most regularly is what we now call the Piedmont, Memphis, ragtime, and folk-blues styles.  Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Blake, Gary Davis, Frank Stokes, Elizabeth Cotten, Etta Baker, Mance Lipscomb, etc, etc ad nauseum.

Don't get me wrong, I love the "darker" styles -- Charlie Patton and Son House are two of my all times favorites -- but the above is what I listen to most.

[Shovel]

the trouble here is, whatever i decide, it would have to include skip james.  and there's simply not a regional sound or group he could reasonably fit into.  and dont try and feed me that bentonia school b.s. (nobody around here buys that, right?) so.. let's just say, acoustic guitar based, pre-1935 (purposely leaving out robert johnson, yes i am) blues.

if it had to be narrowed down further, i'd say skip james and charley patton.  the sjcp style(s).

[LB]

I'm just on a road of music discovery and whatever the latest thing I'm studying or composing is the favorite. I still categorize blues to some extent but the voice of older generations keeps popping into my head reminding me "there is only one real blues". And all the terms we use to organize the music is something we do. I go more on the feeling I get when I listen. The form or theory behind the music doesn't always have to be scientifically interesting. For example Peg Leg Howell's "Please Maam" is a simple song that just floors me. Like food, wine, people I like a change too. It's a totally moving target.

[sustaireblues]

Hey LB, are you going to grace us with your rendition of Hey Ma'am when you get it down?
Would love to see it!

Joe