It’s worth mentioning that the blues isn’t entirely dominated by the guitar, the keyboard gets a look in too. Primarily the piano and Hammond organ... Unlike most blues guitarists, better known blues piano players almost always mixed in other styles of music at some point in their careers. Typically, an accomplished blues pianist would dabble with or even wholeheartedly embrace styles like jazz, soul, rhythm’n’blues, gospel or funk, or some combination of any of the above... Piano blues was even more directly linked to gospel and spiritual music, since these were the kinds of instruments used in churches.
In the mid and late 1980s a more commercial, harder blues emerged that arguably crossed over a little with country music... Since the 1990s the blues as a core genre hasn’t changed massively, but then it never really did. What it has done, like so many other kinds of music, is melded and morphed with other kinds of music from around the world to create some really interesting takes on the old idea of the blues. Bands like Tinariwen for example who blend music from Mali with conventional blues to make something quite unlike either. Indeed in a kind of cyclical process, the blues has returned to many African countries and found new life there.
Ultimately the blues is a kind of universal musical language, which shouldn’t be surprising given that it’s possible to trace many forms of modern popular music back to it if you look hard enough. There’s something reassuring and familiar about its pacing, structure and chord sequences. Whether it’s a hobo playing boxcar blues on a three stringed guitar, a genius at the piano or a thundering, high powered blues band firing on all cylinders, it’s a kind of music that has shown remarkable staying power and doesn’t look likely to go away any time soon.
Source: A Brief History of Music Part 5: The Blues by Hollin Jones
Freedy Johnston - Madeline's Eye
In the mid and late 1980s a more commercial, harder blues emerged that arguably crossed over a little with country music... Since the 1990s the blues as a core genre hasn’t changed massively, but then it never really did. What it has done, like so many other kinds of music, is melded and morphed with other kinds of music from around the world to create some really interesting takes on the old idea of the blues. Bands like Tinariwen for example who blend music from Mali with conventional blues to make something quite unlike either. Indeed in a kind of cyclical process, the blues has returned to many African countries and found new life there.
Ultimately the blues is a kind of universal musical language, which shouldn’t be surprising given that it’s possible to trace many forms of modern popular music back to it if you look hard enough. There’s something reassuring and familiar about its pacing, structure and chord sequences. Whether it’s a hobo playing boxcar blues on a three stringed guitar, a genius at the piano or a thundering, high powered blues band firing on all cylinders, it’s a kind of music that has shown remarkable staying power and doesn’t look likely to go away any time soon.
Source: A Brief History of Music Part 5: The Blues by Hollin Jones
Freedy Johnston - Madeline's Eye
- Release on: September 9, 2022
- Released on: Back On The Road To You album
- Genre: Folk, World, & Country
"Freedy Johnston's second record for was his breakthrough album in 1992. In 1994, he worked with producer Butch Vig and earned Rolling Stone's Songwriter of the Year award."
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