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Post by JamesP on Sept 3, 2014 14:39:43 GMT -5
So, where do you weigh in on this question that's been ask for many years? I'm not talking about the emergence of "white" blues during the revival of the 60s and the British Blues Revolution. I'm talking about the blues music that started it all.
Being an old country music guy, I sang about the blues, played about the blues, and felt like I had the blues everytime my dog died or my latest girlfriend ditched me, but was/is that really the "blues" that motivated the music genre?
I know Jimmie Rodgers, The Singing Brakeman, did the "Blues" about the same time as Ishman Bracey, Charley Patton, Son House, et al were singing their plight at Stovall Plantation or in the Parchman Prison Farm. And some of the African-American bluesmen played backup for Rodgers. Seems to me there was significant cross-pollination between Black and White blues.
But in all honesty, Blues are purely Black in Ancestry in my opinion.
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Post by Pistol Pete on Sept 4, 2014 10:48:33 GMT -5
Depends what you mean by pure I suppose.
Blues was music played by black people, but it didn't develop in Africa - an educated guess is that it is the fusion of African traditions with the popular songs, Scottish & Irish folk music & religious hymns that the Africans met when they reached the new world. So is that purely African-American? I don't know.
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Post by JamesP on Sept 4, 2014 10:57:36 GMT -5
Depends what you mean by pure I suppose. Blues was music played by black people, but it didn't develop in Africa - an educated guess is that it is the fusion of African traditions with the popular songs, Scottish & Irish folk music & religious hymns that the Africans met when they reached the new world. So is that purely African-American? I don't know. I agree Pete. When you look at what the Brits that reinvigorated the blues in the 60s and 70s, they attributed their influences to the early country blues artists and the early Chess musicians that toured Europe in the 60s Folk Revival. No one mentioned the Folk or Country music as influences.
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Post by jmuscara on Sept 28, 2014 8:41:10 GMT -5
Everything I've ever seen, heard, or read about the origins of the "true" blues involved nothing but African-Americans, *except* for perhaps some of the studio and/or label owners (Chess brothers, Sam Phillips, Bill Quinn, etc.). All of the performers I can think of from the pre-revival era were black, including band members. I'm not saying my knowledge is expansive and complete, but just saying what I know.
It's interesting that country and blues seem to share some influences, yet I don't know of any crossovers from way back then.
The only early integration I can think of was when rhythm and blues (r&b) started happening in the late 50s and the 60s at places like Stax and Muscle Shoals, but that wasn't pure blues nor did it lead to the revival. Instead, it lead to soul, funk, and disco (that's not meant to slag on r&b).
So my answer would be Yes.
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