THINKING ABOUT THE BLUES LATELY

I’m an aspiring musician here in Memphis.  I play on Beale ST, see the other bands, do the IBC, BMAs, see the old ones still around and and listen to their stories.  Heres my take about all this.  The blues is an awesome feeling of expression.  Anyone who plays it can tell you that their is a human quality to the genre like no other.  It is born out of life experiences in sad times and good times.  THeres nothing like it in my opinion.  However, I have been thinking about this lately.  What separates the Blues from any other musical genre in this day of age? THe exceptional talent that performs it.  Otherwise, I feel there has not been anything new in the genre that has not been done, over and over.  The songs are different, tempos are different, content about the same across the board..but nothing fresh and exciting to say “wow” where did this come from?  I get excited about Gary Clark Jr and perhaps where John Mayer was going.  Joe Bonamassa is another standing tall.  But there still has not been that “sound” that new excitement in the blues since SRV in my opinion.  Turn on Bluesville and listen to song after song. You could probably interchange the lyrics or tempos to many of them.  All the great Blues artists (Muddy, Bobby Blue Bland, Willie Dixon etc etc have already done that).  Nowadays the talent and soul of the performer is what separates the songs  but I think we are all still waiting for that new breakthorugh that will get us all excited and rejuvenate the genre.  Love the blues to the grave! See you in Memphis.

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