Sheesh, you'd think I'd get the blather, proof, post sequence down by now... =:^{
Take two:
According to the lady who introduced me to the blues, Edna, shortly after she introduced me to oatmeal with raisins, the Blues were birthed from the gospel music in the Black Church.
Edna was my Black momma while mom and dad were busy running their businesses. Besides making me eat the raisins in my oatmeal, she made me listen to the radio stations that played Gospel and what was then called Black music.
This was back when all the music heard on the radio (AM only) was either C&W, Gospel/a cappella, or similar derivatives like the be-bop groups of the '50's, and IIRC, Edna was not at all fond of C&W music.
Please do not tell me that Edna mislead me WRT the origins of the Blues. =8^}
P.S. To proceed a wee bit past the "Top", I'll simply mention the ties to the Mountain Music of the Irish and Scots, aka Bluegrass, and point out that luthiers predate Sears by quite a bit.
Case in point, my dad owned and played a "fiddle" shortly after the beginning of the 20th century. His dad picked the banjo.
"I don't have a hard time with the notion that changes in musical instruments will enable new musical styles."
Neither do I, but I would say that this Delta Blues of which the author speaks is more evolutionary than revolutionary.
I suppose I got hung up on the one claim that, "There was no Delta blues before there were cheap, readily available steel-string guitars." Although I've, admittedly, never researched that point, I find that statement a bit too similar in nature to the assertion that nothing existed prior to the [non-existent] singularity that burst forth with a Universe.
I think if you specify that instruments from Sears, Roebuck and co. helped make the Blues sound possible and popular, then it makes sense. But people have been complaining about their woman doin' them wrong, or the man not payin' on time, since forever. Some of the Childe ballads are not too far from the Blues in that way.
And I'm with Bthun that church had to have a great deal of influence on the rise of he Blues. The 1920s are also the time you start getting the split between Spirituals and Gospel, among other things, so there was a lot of experimenting and swapping of ideas. For example: if you can find a recording of Odetta singing "All My Sorrows, Lord", you've got Blues and a spiritual all in one.
I hadn't heard those details of the history: thanks for the pointer.
I agree that new technologies in art are more likely to evolve along already-existing lines: at least at first.
For a non-musical example, Korean cooking is famously spicy. I've read, and some Korean friends affirmed, that their cuisine was based on native "black pepper"-like spices until chillies came from the New World. Same melody, but a louder instrument: they took to chilli with gusto.
The Blues players would have played what people wanted to hear, and that wouldn't have changed just because of a cheap instrument.
Tracing origins is always fascinating but problematic. One thread is chosen to bear an awful lot of weight. Example: that the Renaissance started in the late 13th C with the improvements in Venetian glass, creating better and more widespread mirrors, creating a consciousness of self which was previously less-developed, etc. Well, fine. But it leaves a lot out.
There are never precise family trees on these things. A swirl of interacting events gives way to another swirl. Musicians are notorious borrowers from many places, especially when getting paid is on the line. It would be hard to find a style of popular music which didn't influence the blues, actually.
I do approve, however, of exactly what this author is attempting: noting a convenient myth and showing that an explanation quite opposite was also in play.
Yeah, that was my impression too. The central claim hangs on a distinction that is probably artificial: it makes for an interesting article, and probably does identify something important about the particular sound we've come to associate with "Delta Blues." Still...
12 comments:
Sheesh, you'd think I'd get the blather, proof, post sequence down by now... =:^{
Take two:
According to the lady who introduced me to the blues, Edna, shortly after she introduced me to oatmeal with raisins, the Blues were birthed from the gospel music in the Black Church.
Edna was my Black momma while mom and dad were busy running their businesses. Besides making me eat the raisins in my oatmeal, she made me listen to the radio stations that played Gospel and what was then called Black music.
This was back when all the music heard on the radio (AM only) was either C&W, Gospel/a cappella, or similar derivatives like the be-bop groups of the '50's, and IIRC, Edna was not at all fond of C&W music.
Please do not tell me that Edna mislead me WRT the origins of the Blues. =8^}
P.S. To proceed a wee bit past the "Top", I'll simply mention the ties to the Mountain Music of the Irish and Scots, aka Bluegrass, and point out that luthiers predate Sears by quite a bit.
Case in point, my dad owned and played a "fiddle" shortly after the beginning of the 20th century. His dad picked the banjo.
I enjoyed that article. I don't have a hard time with the notion that changes in musical instruments will enable new musical styles.
I too enjoyed the article.
"I don't have a hard time with the notion that changes in musical instruments will enable new musical styles."
Neither do I, but I would say that this Delta Blues of which the author speaks is more evolutionary than revolutionary.
I suppose I got hung up on the one claim that, "There was no Delta blues before there were cheap, readily available steel-string guitars." Although I've, admittedly, never researched that point, I find that statement a bit too similar in nature to the assertion that nothing existed prior to the [non-existent] singularity that burst forth with a Universe.
I think if you specify that instruments from Sears, Roebuck and co. helped make the Blues sound possible and popular, then it makes sense. But people have been complaining about their woman doin' them wrong, or the man not payin' on time, since forever. Some of the Childe ballads are not too far from the Blues in that way.
And I'm with Bthun that church had to have a great deal of influence on the rise of he Blues. The 1920s are also the time you start getting the split between Spirituals and Gospel, among other things, so there was a lot of experimenting and swapping of ideas. For example: if you can find a recording of Odetta singing "All My Sorrows, Lord", you've got Blues and a spiritual all in one.
LittleRed1
I hadn't heard those details of the history: thanks for the pointer.
I agree that new technologies in art are more likely to evolve along already-existing lines: at least at first.
For a non-musical example, Korean cooking is famously spicy. I've read, and some Korean friends affirmed, that their cuisine was based on native "black pepper"-like spices until chillies came from the New World. Same melody, but a louder instrument: they took to chilli with gusto.
The Blues players would have played what people wanted to hear, and that wouldn't have changed just because of a cheap instrument.
Tracing origins is always fascinating but problematic. One thread is chosen to bear an awful lot of weight. Example: that the Renaissance started in the late 13th C with the improvements in Venetian glass, creating better and more widespread mirrors, creating a consciousness of self which was previously less-developed, etc. Well, fine. But it leaves a lot out.
There are never precise family trees on these things. A swirl of interacting events gives way to another swirl. Musicians are notorious borrowers from many places, especially when getting paid is on the line. It would be hard to find a style of popular music which didn't influence the blues, actually.
I do approve, however, of exactly what this author is attempting: noting a convenient myth and showing that an explanation quite opposite was also in play.
Yeah, that was my impression too. The central claim hangs on a distinction that is probably artificial: it makes for an interesting article, and probably does identify something important about the particular sound we've come to associate with "Delta Blues." Still...
The Sears, Roebuck catalog was standard equipment in the Little Brown Shack Out Back.
If it was midwife to the blues, it was because the paper tore at an inopportune moment...
Case in point, my dad owned and played a "fiddle" shortly after the beginning of the 20th century.
Q. What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle?
A. You carry a violin in a violin case and you carry a fiddle in a flour sack.
"You carry a violin in a violin case and you carry a fiddle in a flour sack."
Heh... That's got 'er pegged.
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