I received a phone call from a musician friend of mine from Texas yesterday. Things are going well for him in the field of music right now. While I wish him well, I can’t help thinking he will only be trampled over (again) for all of his endeavors.
Most people just really do not care about more traditional forms of Blues music these days. While the folk and rock musicians of the sixties and seventies had the most noble of intentions to preserve and bring attention to trad. Blues, they also had an adverse affect. It was inevitable and unavoidable.
It’s a double edged sword, actually. If it hadn’t been for people like Keith Richard(s) and Eric Clapton (to name only a couple), the Blues, as a genre, may have withered completely out of the collective consciousness. It was diluted and added to, however, to make it more “accessible” to their audiences. While it served to spawn an interest in the music, it also redefined what Blues is. The result is that is has become well nigh impossible to get anywhere playing acoustic, folk blues these days (save for one’s living room or porch.) (Not that this is uncommon in other areas of music, as well, but I am willing to bet that Bluegrass would be more readily accepted at a Country music venue than Country Blues would be at a Blues or Rock club, or, even at a Folk Music event.)
I fell in love with this simple, unaffected musical form a long time ago. While I do, indeed, listen to and appreciate many different types of music, I would definitely say that I am a purist when it comes to blues, and I am really only interested in playing purist blues. I’ll listen to (and, likely, enjoy) modern blues & rock all day with you, but I’m not going to attempt to play it. It doesn’t interest me that way.
What I’d rather do, however, is hand you a guitar and a tall glass of iced tea as we sit down on the front porch together and go over some of these old Blues recordings I found...
I woke up this morning to a light snow on the ground and lots of heavy thoughts rattling around in the old noggin'. Days like this just draw me to Neil Young. I think Neil sounds his best playing brooding and introspective, acoustic guitar driven songs (as is demonstrated by my selections for this playlist, which will most likely continue to grow over the next few days.)
You either love Neil or you hate him, I guess: I am proud to say I belong to the former category. If you like Neil, enjoy. If you do not, I am sorry. If you've never heard of him, please take the time to listen.
Here's a slide show set to an original piece of music I wrote this morning. As I was playing this piece, it felt hopeful and called to mind the sunrise, so I named it "Morning Glory".
The last image in the video is from my wedding. In my life, the image of my wife's hand interlocked with mine in this way is the ultimate symbol of a new day dawning: a sign of hope and love.
The audio on this video was recorded live in one take. I prefer to record this way. While there may be flaws, it just feels real to me. Hope you like it.
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