Skip to main content

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."

See previous Song of the Day

Labels:
Location: United States

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jackson Browne - Kisses Sweeter than Wine

Europe has a rich history of embracing blues and jazz music. In the early 20th century, American jazz musicians began touring Europe, introducing the continent to a new sound that was unlike anything they had ever heard before. Jazz became an instant hit among European audiences, and many European musicians began incorporating jazz elements into their music. Today, jazz festivals are held all over Europe, attracting thousands of fans from all over the world. In addition, many European cities have thriving blues scenes, with local bands and musicians performing regularly. Blues and jazz have also made their way to Asia, where they have found a devoted fan base. Japan, in particular, has a thriving jazz scene, with many Japanese musicians achieving international recognition. In addition, China has also seen a rise in the popularity of jazz music in recent years. Jazz festivals are now held in major Asian cities such as Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, attracting jazz lovers from all over ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Veronica Swift - A Little Taste

There has always been an uncomfortable tension between rhythm and blues and rock and roll, a cyclical influence that vacillates between inspiration, appropriation and separation. Popular music has broken off into categories of rock, pop, country, and R&B, each with their own origin stories. But R&B and rock, usually codified as vastly different, Black and white styles, have long been intertwined in ways our historical memory may have us forget.  Despite the innovation that comes from separation, rock and R&B always find their way back to each other. In recent years, rock veterans have turned to the genre’s classics for inspiration. Queens of the Stone Age veered from their typical hard rock with 2017’s Villains, a dance y album inspired by frontman Josh Homme’s love of 1920s jazz and swing, other Black genres that laid the groundwork for the popular music of today. The whitewashing of rock’s history has oversimplified music’s malleability and silenced the voices of Amer...
Post a Comment
Read more

Moondog - Behold

The history of jazz has been one of fusion. Its musicians and composers have continually drawn upon a huge range of different musics to create the rich and diverse tapestry that is world jazz today. Jazz is an evolving tradition of music making. And how often, in the life stories of individual jazz musicians, do we see these same patterns operating at microcosm? The richness of Turkish music and culture sometimes seems at odds with its turbulent and cruel history. In 1979... the country suffered its third military take over in thirty years... Every kind of music was in Turkey at that point. But it was not appreciated. To understand the culture of the country, with those three military takeovers, Turkey could not go anywhere. Musically, it was very difficult. But things were beginning to happen. Traditional Turkish music is essentially monophonic, rich in melody and rhythm but with little by way of harmony. The contrast with western music, with its beautiful harmonies but rhythmic weakn...
Post a Comment
Read more