quote:The wonderful writer Albert Murray, who is a jazz historian and a friend of mine among other things, told me that during the era of slavery in this country – an atrocity from which we can never fully recover – the suicide rate per capita among slave owners was much higher than the suicide rate among slaves.
Murray says he thinks this was because slaves had a way of dealing with depression, which their white owners did not: They could shoo away Old Man Suicide by playing and singing the Blues. He says something else which also sounds right to me. He says the blues can’t drive depression clear out of a house, but can drive it into the corners of any room where it’s being played. So please remember that.
Kurt Vonnegut
I've been getting into blues lately. Does anyone have any recommendations for good blues musicians I might listen to?
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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The best blues CD I own is this one. It's Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, acoustic. I can listen to it for hours. But I'd also check out Robert Johnson, who's considered the gold standard for Blues guitarists. Or, if you prefer, Clapton has a CD called Crossroads which is all covers of Robert Johnson songs.
Fats Domino, Dr. John, W.C. Handy, John Lee Hooker, BB King, Muddy Waters, Charlie Patton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan are all excellent musicians who are mostly blues people.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Leadbelly is an early bluesman who isn't to be missed. Albert Collins (now dead) and Robert Cray (still alive) are both good modern blues musicians that haven't been mentioned yet.
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Can anyone give me names of other great women blues singers? I'm interested in the men too, but I'm working on learning to sing some blues (I'm a low alto) so I'm particularly interested in female singers.
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Sarah Vaughan Billie Holiday Lee Wiley Peggy Lee Anita O'Day Ernestine Anderson Dinah Washington Annie Ross Carmen McRae Betty Carter Helen Humes Maxine Sullivan Helen Ward Ivie Anderson Ella Fitzgerald Lena Horne
All excellent female vocalists, from very early through more modern blues. Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Sorry I don't know any women Blues artist, but John Lee Hooker is one of my favorite. Not many people can pull off lyrics like "she's long, she's tall and she weeps just like a willow"
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I just put in the artist list off my favorite all-female-vocalist compilation CD. Some of them are more jazz than blues, but there's a lot of cross-over. And I missed a couple! Mildred Bailey is early blues, and Bessie Smith sings the very first song, Gimme a Pig's Foot, which is great!
(Gimme a pig's foot, and a bottle of beer. . .)
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I haven't heard that song in ages! Now I'm getting in the mood to listen to my blues records, which are a good 600 miles away.
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Noemon, Not exclusively, but he considered himself a blues musician, and some of his stuff reflects that.
I don't consider Clapton strictly blues either, because sometimes (well, a lot of the time) he's playing blues influenced rock. But there aren't a lot of musicians who are always in one genre.
Leadbelly is another really good one, btw. I can't believe I forgot him.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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The Rabbit, A modern blues dude who is really good is, believe it or not, John Mayer. My favorite blues is the old Delta Blues, Robert Johnson style.
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