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Jan
6
The blues didn’t return to the top of the pop charts in 2008, but it was mostly an excellent year for a genre too many people still regard as more a historic force than a viable idiom. Fortunately there were a number of things that kept the blues front and center during the year, including developments that bode well for the future.
He’s been recording so long it’s now almost a given B.B. King will have something available as long as he remains active, but few people anticipated he could still make anything as exciting and memorable as One Kind Favor (Geffen). T-Bone Burnett said he wanted to get the type of session King made in his prime, and he came as close as possible.
Hearing King make “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” and “Blues Before Sunrise” sound fresh was certainly a musical highlight, and this proved the best B.B. King disc since his two landmark recordings with Bobby “Blue” Bland decades ago.
Meanwhile, the year’s finest Bland record was cut by former Simply Red bandleader Mick Hucknall. Tribute to Bobby (Atco/Rhino) didn’t have Bobby’s signature vocal effects, but it contained strong renditions of “Farther Up The Road,” “Ain’t That Lovin’ You,” “I Pity The Fool” and “Cry, Cry, Cry.” Hucknall’s always expressed his love for Bland’s style, and he didn’t disappoint his idol with Tribute to Bobby.
Likewise, though he’s not around to hear it, there’s a good chance Son House would have been equally pleased to hear Rory Block’s Blues Walkin’ Like A Man – A Tribute to Son House (Rounder). A longtime acoustic blues marvel, Block took control from the opening moments of “My Black Mama” and never wavered through the final commanding notes on “I Want To Go Home On The Morning Train.”
What Block did for the Son House catalog the dynamic Catherine Russell did for swing-tinged blues, pre-rock pop and all things in between on Sentimental Streak (World Village). The daughter of trumpet giant and former Louis Armstrong music director Luis Russell, Catherine Russell put 21st century sparkle into her renditions of “The Kitchen Man,” “You Better Watch Yourself, Bub” and “My Old Daddy’s Got A Brand New Way to Love.”
James Hunter’s The Hard Way (Hear Music) and Eli “Paperboy” Reed’s Roll With You (Q Division) further validated their credibility as modernists equally at home with repetory and original material. Chicago labels Alligator and Delmark continued recording the valuable vocalists, instrumentalists and groups that the “majors” continue to ignore, while Stax returned from many years of obscurity and began issuing contemporary soul releases once more.
There were even blues controversies this year, thanks to some interesting books. Crossroads – The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson (Demers) from Memphis author Tom Graves managed to debunk familiar myths about the historic figure and also provide new information in a concise work that wasn’t written solely for collectors and critics.
English author and history professor Marybeth Hamilton’s In Search of the Blues (Basic) claimed the Delta sound was more myth than achievement, the creation of a loose coalition of folklorists, academics and collectors. In her account, people like New York collector James McKune and scholar Dorothy Scarborough as well as famed song hunters John and Alan Lomax succeeded in convincing many fans that music lightly regarded and/or dismissed by most blacks was a legimate art form because they felt it was more “authentic” than other more popular styles.
By contrast, famed jazz and literary critic Ted Gioia examined the same period and music in his extensive volume Delta Blues (Norton) and concluded its performers were masters who profoundly changed the course and direction of Amercan popular sounds and culture.
It was like reading vastly different accounts of the identical event and wondering if both parties actually saw, heard and evaluated the same material, though conflicting opinions about similiar things isn’t exactly a new phenomenon in blues (or for that matter musical) circles.
There was also the remarkable feat of a film devoted to the blues enjoying an opening week take of nearly four million dollars. Since Cadillac Records reportedly only had a $12 million dollar budget, it’s certainly already made a profit after roughly a month in circulation.
Granted writer/director Darnell Martin made some curious (to be kind) decisions. These included no mention of co-label founder Phil Chess, skipping over the early years when the company was named Aristocrat Records, overlooking the sizable impact of Bo Diddley, and condensing history in a fashion that makes it seem the Beach Boys/Chuck Berry furor occurred before Elvis Presley hit it big.
But no one except idealistic purists and carping cynics expect complete accuracy from a Hollywood production, and there are some delightful performances in Cadillac Records. Beyonce Knowles does an effective job playing Etta James, Eamonn Walker did a great Howlin’ Wolf, and Adrien Brody made a credible Leonard Chess.
In addition, the film has enjoyed substantial impact in terms of attracting young people, especially in the black community. If some historical inaccuracy is the price that must be paid to generate renewed appreciation of Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Willie Dixon, we can all handle that.
Finally, there was one major negative development. The XM/Sirius merger didn’t work out so well for blues and soul lovers. On the front end we lost Sirius Blues and with it the marvelous Chess Blues Hour and Shemekia Copeland’s weekly program among many other gems.
On the back end the decision to go with Sirius’ Soul Town instead of XM’s Soul Street has resulted in a lot more familiar Motown and Philly International songs and far fewer obscure Southern, East Coast, West Coast and Midwestern oldies. Nobody loves Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Patti Labelle and the O’Jays more than me, but Soul Street’s playlist was deeper and more diverse than what’s currently being played on Soul Town (and we really miss The Penthouse as well).
Fortunately, Internet radio is taking up the slack, particularly Portraits in Blue, The Saturday Morning Function and Rhythm Revue on WBGO.org and Blues Before Sunrise on WDCB.org. among others. They can’t fully compensate for the corporate decisions that cost blues and soul fans some great shows, but they’re filling the gaps as best they can.
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One Response to “Blues revival”
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great blog. I have always enjoyed your music coverage in the City Paper and it is nice to be able to read your even more personalized forays into your interests. as to the “Blues” and its impact, cultural worth and arguments about its proliferation among the audience it either did (or didn’t)reach within its original geographical and socio-economic settings (the Delta and other parts of the agricultural south)…I don’t believe that arguments like English author Marybeth Hamilton’s make any difference in deciding the importance of Blues because hearing is believin’…and of course its popularity has been romanticized but doesn’t take away from the genius of its creators and/or practitioners. Faulkner never sold many books and Van Gogh neer a painting. at some point it obviously became less “authentic” (as in less a type of folk music) and more “pop” (as in popular) due to increasing record sales and popular radio programs. But somebody was buying and listening to that music back then and it wasn’t Mississippi Episcopalians.
Great article my Sultan.