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The Coral - Beyond The Sun

Despite the retention of traditional instruments, the years immediately preceding World War II brought a definite change in the sound of the south Louisiana blues as it did throughout the states. The south Louisiana blues musicians started imitating the amplified sound of the bestselling artists of the day that they were hearing on the radio and recordings... With wailing harmonica and electric guitars booming over the wallowing sound of muffled swamp beat, the local musicians started to make their mark in the juke joints and bars. The 1950s saw the beginning of the development of south Louisiana urban blues, and by the end of the decade, the bluesmen begun to establish their warm recognizable style from the borrowed sounds. The style became known as Swamp Blues, and Baton Rouge became its home.

Exactly when the term originated is unclear, but there exist several origin narratives... it refers to the Devil's Swamp, just on the edge of Scotlandville, where most of the bluesmen had lived for the past fifty years... they would hold jam sessions on the porches of their homes, overlooking Devil's Swamp. So the name swamp blues seemed appropriate and the bluesmen started referring to their highly percussive sound as the swamp sound.

Similarly, the itinerant bluesmen from Louisiana found work relatively easily in nearby Texas and there was much movement between Texas and south Louisiana as the itinerant workers and bluesmen wandered from job to job and from gig to gig. The fact that the smoother, sophisticated sound of the horns that were becoming an integral part of the new Chicago sound never became absorbed into the Swamp Blues sound. Despite the traditions of such instruments from nearby New Orleans, the absence illustrates how confident the Louisiana bluesmen already were, with their own distinctive sound, the lazy, wallowing bass, the muffled drums, and melodious vocals.
Source: Blues & Blacks in the Red Stick: Origins, Evolution, and Current Status by Joyce Jackson


The Coral - Beyond The Sun
  • Recorded in: 2015
  • Released on: Mar 4, 2016
  • Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Alternative Rock

"The Coral's 2002 debut album, The Coral, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and listed as the fourth best album of the year by New Musical Express. Their second album, Magic and Medicine, produced four UK Top 20 singles."

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Location: United States

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