an obesrvation on the blues


BrokenJera
Registered User
Joined: 09/25/07
Posts: 290
BrokenJera
Registered User
Joined: 09/25/07
Posts: 290
04/20/2008 5:58 am
please correct me if i am wrong.

it seems to me that after playing and listing to the blues these things just might me true.

texas blues: seems to have a bit more country influances to it.
delta blues: more of a gospel sound
chicago blues: has a more jazzy/rock sound to it.

now please correct me if i am wrong. as im trying to understand this my self.
They say the END is near, but I'm Tired of waiting.
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hunter60
Humble student
Joined: 06/12/05
Posts: 1,579
hunter60
Humble student
Joined: 06/12/05
Posts: 1,579
04/20/2008 12:19 pm
There's a lot of truth to what you've observed. There's been an on going argument between musicologist and blues fans in general as to just where the "blues" started but most seem to agree that the blues began as an outgrowth of the spirituals and field hollers from the Delta Region. But the blues, like the folks that performed them, migrated both North to Chicago and South to Texas...etc. However Blind Lemon Jefferson was playing some hard core blues on Dallas street corners in the 20's (about the same time that Charlie Patton and Son House were popularizing the Delta Blues). There's also the school of thought that the blues were an extension of jazz (the Jelly Roll Morton-type of blues) that was very popular in New Orleans at the turn of the century.

But yes, there is a country flavor to Texas blues. Who influenced who remains a matter for debate. Chicago blues with it's heavy orchestration and horns seems, to me at least, to be a 'citified' version of the Delta sound that was just an evolution of the blues that occurred during the Great Migration of the 30's and 40's. Hundreds of thousands of African-Americans from the Delta and the Deep South were displaced because of the automation of farm work or were looking for a better life from the hard scrabble existence of sharecropper work and headed north where factory work was plentiful because of the war.

Naturally, they took the blues with them. Electric blues became the standard when their acoustic guitars were drowned out by the loud and rowdy patrons at the club. From there, they started to add sidemen who played the horns...etc. By the mid to late 40's, that BIG sound was known as the Chicago style blues.

That was a great observation, by the way! :)

Let me know and I can give you some names of early blues players and bands that you might want to check out. (I'm kind of a blues geek). :D
[FONT=Tahoma]"All I can do is be me ... whoever that is". Bob Dylan [/FONT]
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