Topic: Re-Thinking the Blues

[RobBob]

Moses Rascoe

[eagle rockin daddy]

Damn, RobBob, that is the blues, damn it.

thanks so much for the story.  Can we hear some of your music?

Mike

[NevadaPic]

Thanks RobBob for the account on Moses Rascoe. 

That's the blues.

You know it.

Pic 

[RobBob]

I'll try to burn an mp3 and put it up there in cyberspace.  Let me look into how to do it. I was playing bluegrass banjo in a roadhouse when I met Mose, I always had a harp or two in my banjo case.  Everybody loved his music.

And oh yeah, Mose loved to sing Jimmy Rodgers too.


RobBob

[doctorpep]

One thing I think I forgot to mention in regards to re-thinking the Blues, as suggested primarily by Elijah Wald ("Escaping the Delta") and Stephen Calt ("I'd Rather Be the Devil"), is Calt's chapter he dedicates in the James book to describing how the hymn, "Roll Jordan", was introduced to slaves in the early 1800s and later inspired the birth of the Blues. I think mentioning this in this thread as opposed to the James one makes more sense. Do we feel that there is any validity behind his bold declaration? I have never read this in "Nothin' But the Blues" (Cohn), the Muddy or Wolf biographies, the many Robert Johnson books, etc. I wonder if we should take this with a grain of salt. To me, it's very unromantic to think that the Blues were more or less created due to a slave master's decision to introduce a hymn to slaves.

[RobBob]

The notions of riding the blinds, being young and able to wander, cherry picking sweet young ladies form an adoring crowd,  there is little reality to any of that when taken out of the context of the great social weight laid on the blues singer trying to get by in a world where you are a second class citizen, a commodity to be used and discarded.  The fact that the great music and wit prevailed speaks to the very humanity of these folks.  Their hope was to survive in a world where survival was even more of a struggle than it is today.  There was less of what we take for granted including opportunity.  It was only the biggest stars that had Gibson guitars back in the day.  In the Art of the Field Recording there is a picture of Scrapper Blackwell playing a Kay guitar.  Was that his first choice?  Was it only a prop?  How come so many of those folks played Kay and Harmony guitars?  What was the joy of getting old?  Where do you turn when you are sixty years old and living on a poor diet and having spent years with bad habits like smoking and excessive drinking?

There isn't too much that remains romantic about the blues as you get older.

RobBob

[Johnm]

Good point, RobBob, and who's to say romanticism is a positive value in any case?  How about truth, reality or life as it is lived?
All best,
Johnm

[doctorpep]

That was very well put. I agree with you about these men's lives not being anything like the glamorous lives and careers of Clapton and Keith Richards. Almost all of the old Bluesmen died without money and recognition of their talents. I think that what I meant by "romantic" in this case was the idea that Blues were invented by an oppressed population as a means of expression + making a living. In other words, a beautiful thing was created out of unfairness and great mistreatment. However, when Calt talks about his "Roll Jordan" hypothesis, he almost words it as if the whites who introduced the hymn to the slaves should be partially credited with the creation of the Blues. This disturbs me a bit. Again, I haven't seen his "Roll Jordan"/birth of the Blues hypothesis in any other books, so I want to know where you and everyone else on the forum stand on it.

[dj]

I want to know where you and everyone else on the forum stand on it.

As the saying goes, "nobody knows where the blues come from".  But in my opinion, those who discount the effects of the Hawaiian guitar craze of the 1890s do so at their own peril.  Mind you, I'm not saying that's where the blues come from, not by a long stretch.  But in Hawaiian steel guitar music you have a tradition of "blue" notes in a music that was "hot" around the same time that the blues were born. How this affected and/or amplified tendencies that were already in the African American tradition, and how white traditions affected and were affected by both of the above, can only be a matter of speculation at this point, with no definitive resolution possible.  Others will have their own opinions - I don't claim to be definitive or even particularly accurate.

As a side point, I find much to admire in the music of both Eric Clapton and Keith Richards.  But I've never found heroin addiction particularly glamorous.
 

[doctorpep]

You're quite correct about the heroin addiction comment. I should have clarified that I was emphasizing the amount of money and fame they've garnered, as opposed to few people being aware of the early Blues greats.