Posts Tagged ‘Music’

Restless the Blue Cats Rockaibilly

Mark Twang loves the blue cats rockabilly rock & roll boppers Restless

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American roots music Blues Music History

Blues is probably the purest American music ever produced – and along with its jazz counterpart – is the only true American music kind. Its roots lie within the function songs of West African slaves in the South. When they toiled hard within the fields of South plantation owners, these slaves built a ‘call and response’ method of singing, thus lending rhythm towards the drudgery of their lives. These came to be called ‘field hollers’ and became the basis of all blues songs to follow. After the Civil War ended, the blacks could either work as field labor or become traveling minstrels. So very a few ended up being the latter – performing at all-nighters, fish-frys and juke joints, relying on their stamina and mental repertoire of numerous blues songs.

Powerful Blues Songs Is Officially Born

While the lyrics of blues songs seem soulful and sad, the music itself is very effective and emotive – filled with rhythm and celebrating the life of black Americans. What makes this kind of music appealing is its reflection of their daily lives, talking about sex, drinking, poverty, love lost, hard labor – anything they experienced.

Among the first documented blues is W C Handy’s “Memphis Blues” in 1909. The music grew in popularity and when the 78-RPM phonograph came within the late 1920’s Paramount, Aristocrat and other record labels recorded some from the famous country blues artists. Around 1941-1943, field recordings of blues men were made in their surroundings by famous blues folklorist Alan Lomax. This is significant because that’s how the white folks got introduced towards the blues. Budding artists got exposure to some national record labels.

Blues Travels North

The blacks migrated North during the Great Depression along the route from the Illinois Central Railroad toward Chicago, bringing with them blues music. With huge crowds gathering to enjoy this, performers like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf switched to electric guitars and also included drum sets to their bands. This became even much more powerful than the original blues. There was a lull until the late 1950’s when The Kingston Trio recorded the chart topper, Tom Dooley, and gave birth towards the folk revival in 1958. The Newport Folk Festival then brought back folk and blues music towards the white American people till 1966.

What followed later was a merging of blues with rock – forming the rock blues bands from the 1960s and 1970s. Some artists faithful towards the kind were The Rolling Stones, John Mayall, Led Zeppelin.

Kinds of Blues Songs

You will find four types of blues songs. The Deltas blues is said to be the original – getting played through the black men from the Mississippi delta region, utilizing the piano or harmonica. The style was a call and response lyrical framing. Then we have the Chicago Blues, which used electric amplification of voice using mics, drum sets and electric guitars. The Texas Blues are similar towards the Chicago blues. Within the early 1960s originated the Blues-rock, which was directly influenced through the Delta and Chicago blues.

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