How blue can you get?
This has nothing to do with music, but it got me to thinking when I saw this. It would make a perfect flower for the blues. Maybe I'll have to get Mrs. F. a buch of these.
Got an email letting me know about the 2nd Annual Deep Blues Festival and 1st Annual Film Festival. I just wanted to pass the word on and let you all know about it.
They will be screening the Jessie Mae Hemphill movie Dare You To Do It Again which is where a couple of the videos in my lat post come from.
2nd Annual Deep Blues Festival Expands To
45 Performers with International Acts and a Film Festival
Fri - Sun, July 18-20, 2008 - 11:00am - 10:00pm
Washington County Fairgrounds - Lake Elmo, MN
Tickets on sale at Deep Blues Festival.com
If you guys knew my process you would be surprised that I ever post anything. The word serendipity almost kills me each post. I have an idea, which I think is a good one and then the next thing you know I am listening to a remake by someone else, and then I have got to go and get a CD that is packed away in the garage, but wait there is a video clip of the person I am researching playing with "insert your favorite blues musician here" and the next thing you know I have spent three hours listen to clips of someone that I don't plan on posting for another couple of weeks when I do Harmonica players or even worse it is some band that I would never even post in this blog in the first place.
OK, so back on track. Yes, right now I am focusing on female blues musicians, that is the plan. For your blues listening pleasure, I give you .
Jessie Mae Hemphill.
This video is a re-enactment, but I really like it. I hope you enjoy it too, I think it is a great blues song for a Sunday morning.
I'm still in the mood to present female blues musicians. I hope you all are enjoying it as much as I am. LOL. You know I have to have some fun with this myself. Today I want you to consider Mrs. Ida Cox (1896 - 1967). She was a singer, composer, and a recording artist.
She began her career at the age of 14 working in theaters. She was very popular during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1939 she sang at the Cafe Society and appeared at John Hammond's "Spirituals To Swing Concert". She toured until 1944 when a stroke forced her to retire. In 1961 she came back for on final recording.
Now I do get excited by female blues guitar players (like Memphis Minnie in my last couple of post), but let me tell you, if you are a female that knows how to play a harmonica, I'll make Mrs. F. sleep on the floor.
You probably don't understand, but that is OK. Consider if you will Big Mama Thornton. Son when I tell you that she could rip it up, you better believe that.
And if you don't, then see for yourself.
Yesterday I posted a Memphis Minnie video clip and it dawned on me that I have not posted anything about her, or any other of my favorite female blues musicians, in a while. A couple of years to be exact, in the case of Memphis Minnie.
Well I thought, I better do something about that.
Children, I feel like going to church on this Sunday Morning. So I thought a little Gospel blues would help wash away our sins.
Sing along if the spirit moves you. Sorry but the video is just a static picture.
There is a Zen saying, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."
As a student of the blues, I know when someone is being a teacher, or taking me to school. I enjoyed the lesson on the history of that proverbial blues song "Match Box Blues" given over at Heart on a Stick Blog.
These two comprehensive entries (linked below) will give you all the information that you will ever need about this song and the many artist who preformed it over the years.
The More You Cry (The Matchbox Blues Blues, Pt. 1)
The Further You Drive Me Away (The Matchbox Blues Blues, Pt. 2)
Just to give you an idea of what a treasure these post are, consider the opening note to post one.
[Note 1: These are long. No, seriously. I don't expect anyone to read any of it. But there are 33 mp3s in these two entries and, as they're pretty much taking up all my online storage space, they won't be up very long. A week, maybe. The text and the stitched-together comparison track up will stay up, but grab whatever else you might want while you can.]
Wolf begins by asking that age old question, have you ever been loved, have you ever loved a woman...
This is the best explination of what the blues are that I have ever heard. Right from the mouth of a bluesman.
Back in 2006, I wrote the following about Lightnin' Hopkins;
If you want to learn how to play blues guitar, a good place to start would be to buy ever piece of Lightnin Hopkins' music that you can find and to study it nonstop. Lightnin's nimble dexterity, his ability to create some of the coolest boggie riffs, his often funny improvised lyrics that fit into whatever situation the bluesman found himself in, all combine to make him one of my favorite blues performers.
Or if like me you just like listening to someone who knows how to play a guitar, then you might want to check this out;
It was true then and it is true now.
Check the man out in his own words.
Lightnin' Hopkins talks about the blues
Lightnin' Hopkins sings Green Onions
Lightnin' Hopkins Mojo Hand 1962
