Been gone way too long...
Folks, must apologize. I intended to post a good deal more then got wrapped up in schoolwork and work and didn't post - for months! I hang my head in shame.
Another blogger (Stiches) mentioned Ceddell Davis, Willy Dixon and Gatemouth Brown - all classic blues gentlemen. Ceddell reminds me a little of Robert Johnson with such a gritty sound. Johnson was just as gritty but perhaps a little more rehearsed. Clapton just released an album of Johnson songs - and indicated in the last Guitar Player interview that Johnson is the north he returns to when the music isn't working for him. Gatemouth has
That's funny because I guess (although I hate to admit it) I'm more derivitive. I came to the blues through Led Zeppelin and Hendrix, sort of a reverse mutation, so my music always has flavors of what Page, Hendrix, Clapton and Beck got out of Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly, etc...
Now I had a Willie Dixon album when I was 15 and learned from that, but I don't find myself returning to roots blues as much as Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Freddy King, Albert King and Muddy Waters. I want to get more Bobby Bland too.
One of these days I'll make a pilgrimage to Chicago to the Blues festival (I get to Chicago regularly enough - just never when the darn thing is going on).
On an alternate note (a little off blues), I'm a big Genesis fan as well - and have always regretted being born just a little late to see "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" performed - I was 11 when that fateful last tour with Gabriel took place. Well, there's a group out of Quebec that got permission and endorsement from Gabriel to perform the lamb - and it's happening December 14 in West Virginia (and a number of other places on a tour - I read about it the DAY AFTER they were here in Pittsburgh - what a drag...but I'm going to W. VA to see). Gabriel gave them the costumes and the whole bit. See more about them at http://www.themusicalbox.net/ The video clips are remarkable - they do a very faithful job of reproducing the sounds - and sights and although it won't be Genesis, it looks likely the closest one who did not see the original will ever get to seeing it (since Genesis never filmed it).
Getting ready to lay down some new electric tracks for Christmas. Looking for a Christmas song (Merry Christmas Baby is attractive to me, but overdone). I'm thinking of "Ain't givin up on love" just to put it down on - well in bits...but want to add to the two tracks I did last year (Run, Run Rudolf and original lyrics done to the tune of sleepwalk called "It's Christmas". Suggestions?
posted by Guitarman @ 10:17 PM
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