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Taking some time off.   Listen to more music.✌️☮️ Rick Wakeman & Adam Wakeman - Change of Face Released in: 1996 Genre: Electronic, Rock Written by: Adam Wakeman "In 1968, Rock Wakeman secured a place at the Royal College of Music in London, studying the piano, clarinet, orchestration, and modern music, with the intention of becoming a concert pianist." See previous Song of the Day  

The beginnings of Country Music and the beginnings of Blues are very similar. These genres were first recorded in the 1920s, and at the time the difference between country, then called hillbilly music, and the blues, then called race music, was really only the race of the artist. Today I think that blues and country are closer than they have been in a long time. There has been a push towards more traditional ways for each genre while also having a modern spin. I am glad to see this trend because hearing new music from two of my favorite genres. Gary Clark Jr. is one of the artists keeping the blues alive and revolutionizing it at the same time... On the country side of things Chris Stapleton... is leading the movement back to a more roots based music with his own modern spin. These two genres shared similar roots as traditional music that were initially recorded as hillbilly and race music. The genres grew up in the 1900s into very different types of music but due to their roots and ch...

The Blues and Gospel Train created a similarly exoticized theatre for white British audiences – engendering, through its representational matrix, the very cultural differences it claimed to portray. The anachronistic use of frontier motifs, including a steam locomotive, wanted posters and hardware alluding to a western saloon, a historically combined with southern paraphernalia including sacks of cotton, a surrey wagon and a rocking chair, constructed a scenario rich in pastoral myth. This setting, however, paid no attention to the presence of de jure segregation, constructing a factitious southern past free from violent Jim Crow divisions. Providing a more palatable substitute for British audiences indicative of a desire to reconceive history, this portrayal erased disagreeable yet defining aspects of African American history... Once again, this fantasy scenario made some artists look absurdly out of place , such as Tharpe, dressed in high heels and a sumptuous coat, while supporting ...

Gospel music has been influenced by the blues in a number of ways. One of the most notable is the use of call and response vocals. This is a technique in which a lead singer or group of singers sings a line, and then a choir or congregation responds with a repeated phrase or chorus. This technique is common in both blues and gospel music, and it helps to create a sense of community and shared experience among the listeners. Rap and hip hop music have also been heavily influenced by the blues. One of the most obvious ways in which this influence can be heard is in the use of sampling. Many rap and hip hop songs use samples of old blues recordings, either as the main beat or as a background texture. This helps to create a sense of history and tradition in the music, and it also gives the listener a sense of connection to the past. Another way in which the blues has influenced rap and hip hop is in the use of storytelling. Many blues songs tell stories of struggle and hardship, and this t...

The connection between blues and jazz is undeniable. Blues music has had a significant effect on jazz, with both genres sharing elements such as the 12 bar blues structure... Jazz musicians have often drawn inspiration from blues music, incorporating its tonalities, forms, and improvisations into their own compositions. The fusion of blues and jazz has resulted in a lasting impact on the music world, with both genres continuing to inspire and captivate audiences around the globe. The instruments used in blues music have evolved over time, with early blues musicians primarily utilizing acoustic instruments such as guitars, harmonicas, and pianos. As the genre developed, additional instruments, including clarinets, double basses, saxophones, and electric guitars, were incorporated into the blues sound. Modern blues bands typically utilize a combination of electric guitar, drums, double bass, piano, saxophone, and brass instruments to create their unique sound. Each instrument plays a cru...

When I was searching for other songs called Deep River Blues, I’m obsessive about these things, I found a fewer older ones that I assumed must be a variation of the traditional version that Watson had recorded, so I didn’t feel any rush to listen to them. When I finally did, though, I heard a completely different song, one that mentions the Mississippi river specifically. So now I have to put Deep River Blues back on the list. After some digging around, I found out that this Deep River Blues dates to 1924... Now I had to figure out who made the first recording, a tricky task. I found two women, Rosa Henderson and Katherine Handy, another child of WC’s?, both recorded in 1924. This isn’t rocket science or American Idol, so I put them both on the list, along with a version by Willard Robison, because I like it. I haven’t had time yet to figure out if this song had legs like the other Deep River Blues. Maybe it’s been recorded a lot, maybe it’s been languishing since the 1920s. Source: De...

Before discussing these regional and stylistic aspects of Louisiana blues, a few basic premises should be established. To begin, much of the musical terminology found here, and in similar articles elsewhere, is rarely used by blues musicians themselves, who might well find it irrelevant. Such jargon has evolved, rather, as a useful way to categorize material and standardize research, as well as for marketing. When superimposed on active music traditions, it does not always fit neatly. In addition, meanings and inferences change continually with time. Such limits should be recognized. Next, the on going folkloric debate over authenticity is certainly relevant here. At this point in time it seems safe to state that no living blues artists have learned through oral tradition only, with absolutely no exposure to mass media. Except in rare cases, such as the pre War blues genre known as work songs, for instance, the influence of recordings, radio, and the internet on Louisiana blues is an i...

Although Louisiana in general and New Orleans in particular never regained the widespread popular influence it enjoyed during the 1950s and early 1960s, the state’s R&B traditions remained very much alive. In the state’s southwestern region, swamp pop music by white musicians immersed in R&B traditions like The Boogie Kings, remains locally popular. Pioneered in the 1950s by Clifton Chenier, zydeco remains vital today... The Meters, helped to advance the rhythmically muscular descendent of R&B known as funk. They became precursors to The Neville Brothers. Also in the 1970s, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, an annual celebration of Gulf Coast cultures, began to receive national attention, setting the stage for a revival of veteran New Orleans R&B figures... Concurrently, the city generated a new wave of small, neighborhood brass bands, beginning with The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the aptly named Rebirth Brass Band, mixing traditional and modern jazz with el...

Still, that statue didn’t quite jibe with me. The Father of the Blues depicted in the statue looked calm and grandfatherly. He wore a suit and tie and held his horn poised to play. In every photograph of Handy I had ever seen, he was always dressed impeccably. How could this man be the father of the rough, untamed music that I knew to be the blues? He looked nothing like the cafe, juke joint people my family described, and I suspected they used to be. In fact, Handy was a formally trained musician who traveled all over the world. And though he wasn’t looking for the blues, the blues found him all the same. The story goes that he fell asleep waiting for a train and woke to find a man playing the weirdest music he’d ever heard on the guitar. This chance encounter with the blue sparked a passion in Handy that became his life’s work. But, at first at least, he didn’t create blues, be merely absorbed the raw, primitive sounds and wrote them down. Perhaps this tale planted a seed of storytel...

Another recognizable song structure in popular music is the African American blues stanza. The intention of the lyrics is to express an emotion. Ballads, or story songs, have been around for centuries. Many of the best loved were sung first in the Middle Ages, and the tradition continues in modern songs. Ballad lyrics have a unique structure and rhythm. The traditional ballad stanza has four lines called a quatrain. The first and third lines have eight syllables, the second and fourth, the rhyming lines, have six. What we count, however, is the rhythm of the lines themselves, the beat. Most verse in ballad form is iambic. An iamb is a metrical foot in which a weak syllable precedes a stressed syllable, sounding like a heartbeat. The first and third lines of a ballad stanza have four stressed beats, and the second and fourth have three. I'm doing all right. Good morning. How are you? There are generally three lines in the blues stanza, the second line repeats the first, and the thir...

A certain nostalgia for the south de­veloped, but at the same time, the trans­planted Blacks were becoming more soph­isticated, preferring to listen to music played by musicians more sophisticated than the rural blues performers. Thus small blues combos, with piano, guitar, harmonica and other instruments, began to replace the solo performers. From the 40's onwards, they converted to electric in­struments, and began to play a new form of blues, louder, more aggressive, which came to be call­ed urban blues. After a period of hibernation in the 50's, the growing popularity of blues with young white audiences gave a lot of black blues singers the opportunity to play again on a larger scale, for more money than before. Source: Music: the story of the Blues by Robert Springer The Mamas & The Papas - I Call Your Name Released in: 1973 Produced by: Lou Adler Genre: Rock "The Mamas & The Papas recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968, releasing five albums and charting ten...

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 ...

The blues developed during the mid 20th century as technology brought new instruments like the electric guitar, better microphones, and amplifiers to the live music scene. This new form of electric blues started in the Mississippi Delta and Chicago, but soon spread to other parts of the United States. Blues rock and British Blues developed, and soon the blues had spread to most popular genres. Rock was born from the blues, and hard rockin’ blues music is still a staple of club bands around the world. Early British rockers were avid collectors and imitators of early blues records. There’s no denying the blues stylings of modern stars like Adele. Pop star Christina Aguilera loves singing traditional blues songs, most notably her rendition of At Last at Etta James’s funeral. An incredible fusion of traditional African music, African American songs, and folk music, the blues had a worldwide impact that continues to flow through the melodies and harmonies of musical artists today. With its ...

Delta blues music is suffused with religion, myths, magic, and voodoo. One of its most enduring and endearing myth is that of the Crossroads. Tommy Johnson an itinerant influential bluesman in the 1920’s and 30’s claimed that his incredible skills as a guitarist were attributed to a meeting with a mysterious black figure at a crossroads. According to the legend, Johnson gave the man, presumably the devil, his guitar to tune it for him and to teach him how to play perfectly in return for his soul. Later on that myth was further embellished by the other more famous, and not related, Robert Johnson, who sang about the famous meeting at the Crossroad. Many Delta blues singers believed in the power of Mojo, which is a magic spell or charm that gives a person magical powers to succeed in every endeavor, including the art of seduction. The word has become an integral part of daily discourse. The great bluesman Muddy Waters, borrowed an up tempo jump blues song by an obscure blueswoman Ann Col...

When creating an improvised accompaniment, it is worth making sure you know the common extensions and harmonic trends of blues music. For example, there is a lot of use of minor chords and dominant 7ths, meaning the flat 7, a whole tone below the root. We also sometimes come across the diminished chord, which uses both the flat 3 and the b5. Make sure you understand these chord symbols, how to play them correctly on your instrument, and the chord scale relationship. A common accompaniment technique used in many blues songs for guitar and keyboards is the shuffle accompaniment. It’s worth checking out how this works and applying it to all twelve keys. In terms of basic stylistic traits, blues music tends to be quite simple, with the aim of conveying a tale of sorrow, hardship or regret as clearly as possible. The style generally has quite a laid back feel, although more up beat variations occur in sub genres such as boogie woogie. Use of techniques such as slides, slurs, note bends and ...

Perhaps the most intense and beautiful feeling of struggle comes about midway through. Isolde believes she hears a melody coming from Tristan, and sings, Are they waves of refreshing breezes? Are they billows of heavenly fragrances? As they swell and roar around me, shall I breathe them, shall I listen to them? Accompanying this, the violins begin a chromatic melody, a slow upward climb in tight half steps, struggling to reach something, which again and again falls back and then climbs higher. As it does, the chromatic line is often dissonant to the harmony below and to Isolde’s melody. Yet, because these dissonances by their very nature seek to resolve themselves, they push and pull the melody along. The opposition makes for the advance. Throughout, along with struggle, there is a feeling of unrelenting, inevitable progress, and it is thrilling and deeply satisfying. What can this music teach us about love, especially in relation to difficulty and ease? I once thought love sho...

From its very beginning, the blues has been a largely improvised music, created spontaneously without written music or prior planning. In the early days of the genre, poor African American farmers would often gather together on each other’s porches and in churches and homes to jam for hours. They didn’t have printed music, and so they would make up tunes and lyrics on the spot.  Singers or instrumental soloists can both do this act of invention, building from the chord progression, melody, and rhythm already being played... as the two in a musical conversation banter back and forth phrase by phrase. In fact, you improvise every time you have a spoken conversation. And it’s just the same between a harmonica and a singer, or a banjo player and a guitar player. Note that improvisation is no substitute for study or musicianship, on the contrary, the early blues musicians couldn’t read or write music so they developed new skills centered on listening to and learning traditional songs fr...

Guitar solos in pop and rock often borrowed heavily from blues music, showcasing the characteristic bends, slides, and pentatonic scales that define the genre’s unique sound. This cross pollination between blues and rock not only influenced the evolution of guitar playing but also played a pivotal role in shaping the distinct sound of these genres, captivating audiences with its expressive melodies and soulful resonance. The enduring influence of blues music, characterized by its soulful guitar driven sound, is vividly showcased through songs... exemplifying the seamless integration of blues into contemporary pop and rock genres, thereby shaping the trajectory of modern music. In conclusion, the profound influence of blues on modern pop and rock is undeniable. From its foundational rhythms and structures to its raw, emotional expression, blues remains an integral thread in the tapestry of global music, continuing to inspire artists across generations. As we reflect on the evolution of ...

This is as early as it gets when it comes to rock music. This is the foundation that built rock music to what it is today. This just makes me think about what rock music was in the 50's and what it is today. Everything we listen to in terms of rock we owe to 50's rock 'n roll. There are more artists, but I thought Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley both did great justice to this form of rock. There was no such thing as rock or rock 'n roll before these people. They really put it on the map. I'm not going to lie, even though this music had a great impact on rock music for the future generations, it is not my favorite rock. I'm not disrespecting it, I'm just saying that it doesn't do it for me. When I listen to rock music, I need a certain intensity and energy that 50's rock 'n roll just doesn't deliver to my ears. This music was huge in the 50's. In fact, I believe that rock 'n roll was more popular to it's 50's audience than rock m...

Thanks to small blues record labels in the 1940s and 1950s such as Chess Records, blues records could be distributed around the world. Blues music was still not popular or well known to many white people in the USA. Some musicians such as Elvis and The Beach Boys started copying and imitating blues guitar riffs and progressions into their music. There were also some white people in Europe that loved the blues music from the USA These musicians were pioneers in the late 1890’s to 1920s. Robert Johnson’s story of a blues musician became popular in a unique way. The story says that he was an average blues guitarist/singer and would get booed off stage. A short time later he returned and had an amazing talent to sing and play the blues. Other blues musicians were confused and jealous of his newly acquired talents. People believed that he went to the crossroads and sold his soul to the devil to become the best blues musician in the world.  Currently in the year 2021, there has been a ne...

Rock ‘n Roll is the music that best expresses teenage angst and isolation. This music also expresses rage through its driving beat and piercing lyrics. Rock ‘n Roll can also get you in touch with deep feelings of hurt, loss and regret. The music can be instrumental in emotional healing through the grief process... Listening to Rock ‘n Roll allows you to break through the numbness that overtakes you when you feel hopeless. It teaches you that this hopelessness is a temporary state and can be overcome with a two and a half minute rhapsody. Source: Why I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll: Healing Music for the Soul by Bob Livingstone Ringo Starr - Photograph Written by: George Harrison, Ringo Starr Released on: Photograph album Released on: September 24, 1973 "On August 18, 1962, Ringo Starr officially joined Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison in what would become one of the most important popular music acts of all time, or as Ringo says, the biggest band in the land." See previo...

If the DJs were in fact the champions of the black community only in it for the music and invested in the subversive power of Rock & Roll culture then we should find something more along the lines of Robin Hood and less along the lines of Pied Piper. In other words, the cash payoffs to the DJs did not find their way back to the black artists, songwriters, and musicians. In fact, we would have never heard about any of this if the DJs had only paid taxes on this common expense called radio promotion. The main vehicles that brought this situation into the light the federal payola hearings of 1960 and the anti payola laws from five years earlier are both functions of the fact that the U.S. government was not getting its piece of the action, the DJs were evading taxes, not claiming this as part of their income. The operation of the subtle, unseen reifications of the status quo, coined by Gramsci as hegemony, is clear in this process of translation. To adopt a Marxist perspective, the ba...