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I got the blues for my baby, and my baby got the blues for me 'cause she went and caught that Big Four, she beat it back to Tennessee - Charley Jordan, Big Four Blues

Author Topic: Discovery...  (Read 3678 times)

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Offline Stuart

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Re: Discovery...
« Reply #15 on: July 25, 2013, 04:12:49 PM »
I wasn't referring to you, Kokomo. It's just that your post reminded me of some events that happened long ago. Friends and acquaintances would stop by when a certain CB album was playing and in the course of conversation I would point out that their heroes listened to it too, as well as covering some of the songs. Like I said, interest went way up.

I don't bother measuring one against the other. Talent and great music comes in many forms.

Offline Kokomo O

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Re: Discovery...
« Reply #16 on: July 25, 2013, 04:14:42 PM »
Fair enough. And I do know exactly what you mean--it's the Robert Johnson syndrome, not that I disparage RJ.

Offline Stuart

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Re: Discovery...
« Reply #17 on: July 25, 2013, 04:44:25 PM »
No, we don't disparage RJ. I recall playing Bukka White's "Fixin' To Die" as well  as Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" for a big Bob Dylan fan who thought he knew his stuff inside and out. That got his attention. Riveting performances, to say the least. And that's probably why they got Bob's attention as well.

Offline dj

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Re: Discovery...
« Reply #18 on: July 25, 2013, 04:50:36 PM »
It's an interesting thing about Lps/CDs/etc. that lead you to discovery.  Bear with me a minute while I fill out some background...

In the fall of 1969, flush with money from showing cattle at fairs around the northeastern US (my employer very wisely withheld my pay while we were on the road at fairs and gave it to me as a lump sum when we got home), I stuffed a bunch of money in my pocket and hopped a train to New York City with a friend.  I bought blues records: Country Blues Classics Volumes 2, 3 and 4 and The Jug, Jook And Washboard Bands on the Blues Classics label, all three volumes of Chicago/The Blues/Today! on vanguard, and every Sonny Boy Williamson LP I didn't already have.  (In those innocent times, I remember thinking "Wow, he sure looked different when he was young", not realizing that Sonny Boy Williamson was two different people.)  After the discussion that's gone on here, I sat down and made iTunes playlists of all the Country Blues Classics LPs (Thank you, Herr Wirz!).  They're all good, but the lineup on Volume 2 is especially strong:

Bayless Rose - Frisco Blues
Frank Stokes - I Got Mine
Big Joe Williams - I'm Getting Wild About Her
Bukka White - Bukka's Jitterbug Swing
Bukka White - Good Gin Blues
Frank Stokes - How Long
Bobo Jenkins - Democrat Blues
Blind Norris - Sundown Blues
Scrapper Blackwell - Rambling Blues
Pinetop Slim - Applejack Boogie
Milton Sparks - Erie Train Blues
Blind Boy Fuller - Rag Mama Rag
Dan Pickett - Baby, How Long
Frank Edwards - Terraplane Blues
Frank Edwards - We Got To Get Together
Johnny Shines - Ramblin'

I played this record a lot, but not nearly as much as Volume 1 - the cover never fell apart and the record never developed skips.

With a lineup this strong, how did Volume 2 never work its way into my bones the way Volume 1 did?  The answer, as I see it, is that Volume 1 was my "discovery" record - it came first, and what you hear first always affects you the most.  But Volume 1 was also a discovery record in another way: it really challenged my understanding of the genre.  I thought I knew a lot about the blues when I got Volume 1.  After all, I had two BB King records, Sonny Boy Williamson's Real Folk Blues LP, and RJ's King Of The Delta Blues Singers.  And I'd heard Blind Boy Fuller and an OJL Mississippi Blues LP.  But I put Country Blues Classics Volume 1 on the turntable, and the very first song - Willie Baker's No No Blues - made me think "What the heck is he doing with the guitar, and what has it got to do with the blues.  A few songs later came Jim Jackson's I Heard the Voice Of A Porkchop, and my head was spinning - this was even stranger than No No Blues.  And on it went.  Probably half the songs on that LP made me sit down and wonder what the heck made a song a "blues". 

I think it's that stretching of one's understanding of the boundaries of a genre that makes a "discovery" record so memorable.           
« Last Edit: July 25, 2013, 05:04:27 PM by dj »

Offline Stuart

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Re: Discovery...
« Reply #19 on: July 25, 2013, 05:02:23 PM »
Thanks for the post, dj. What's really crazy about the effect of some of the LPs I listened to early on is that to this day when I hear a song that I listened to on one of the early collections, I still expect to also hear the song that followed it (even though I should know better after all these years). Talk about sequencing... :P

Offline Lyle Lofgren

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Re: Discovery...
« Reply #20 on: July 26, 2013, 04:48:51 AM »
Thanks for the post, dj. What's really crazy about the effect of some of the LPs I listened to early on is that to this day when I hear a song that I listened to on one of the early collections, I still expect to also hear the song that followed it (even though I should know better after all these years). Talk about sequencing... :P

Maybe this is another thread, but I believe that sequencing is very important in an album. The very first time I heard the Folkways Anthology, I was struck, not just by the music, but by the way everything fit together in some manner that I cannot describe verbally. After several hundred listenings (I've owned the set since the early 1960s), I'm even more enamored with the sequencing -- I can't imagine putting the material on Shuffle. Part of the attraction is a combination of surprise with familiarity, the same sort of thing that has me watching the same movie multiple times.

Harry Smith was a genius, even if he combined the pieces at random.

Lyle

Offline Stuart

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Re: Discovery...
« Reply #21 on: July 26, 2013, 08:56:47 AM »
I agree 100%, Lyle--both about Harry and about sequencing. We've touched on this from time to time, but only tangentially. I think there is a certain skill and art to it versus a simple or random mix and match. IMHO, the AAFM is on another plane owing to Harry's insights into the human realm.

Offline oddenda

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Re: Discovery...
« Reply #22 on: July 27, 2013, 04:24:56 AM »
Programming can make or break an album in my experience. Most of the Trix albums went together relatively easily, a few with some difficulty. The LP of Roy Dunn material (Trix 3312) was the most difficult of them all - Roy was a great singer, a lovely person, and a decent guitarist, but basically had a limited number of melodies. It was tough to get an album that it wasn't too "samey" - I think I succeeded, often by using different guitars ('70s Gibson SJ; 1939 National, Gibson 335 electric) to vary the sound of a solo performer at sessions. Occasionally, an artist had a favorite out of my guitars (Henry Johnson and the National) and often became the prime sound, but not all the time. Frank Edwards I recorded solo; with a second; and with a washboard to vary the album's sound... it worked.

Then there were the Peg Leg Sams, the Henry Johnsons, the Baby Tates, the John Cephases, a.o.; these folks were fantastic and had a lot of varied material and with whom I spent time over time. Those were the days for me - one lucky honky.

Peter B.

p.s. - dj: I cannot hear Elmore James for the first time ever again! We all probably have signal sides that grabbed us and never let go. "Statesboro Blues" for me in the SE (McTell's version, needless to say) that was on the RBF "Country Blues" collection assembled by Sam Charters to go along with his so-named book. Those were the days of discovery for me.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2013, 04:33:35 AM by oddenda »

Offline frailer24

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Re: Discovery...
« Reply #23 on: July 27, 2013, 02:43:06 PM »
Just thought back to how I got into CB. My cousin's house, 1998. I walk in the garage for my drum lesson, and hear the strangest thing from the turntable. I look at the sleeve next to it and see the Son House Columbia release. That did it for me.
That's all she wrote Mabel!

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