Skip to main content

Karen Dalton - Don't Make Promises

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.


Karen Dalton - Don't Make Promises
  • Written by: Tim Hardin
  • First recorded in: 1966
  • Released on: 1966 album

"Karen Dalton came to the folk music scene under her own steam, as opposed to being discovered and introduced to it by people already involved in it. Unlike her friends she was unable to even capture a recording"

See Previous Song of the Day 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Copyrights and Public Domain

Copyrighting and Public Domain Music A song is the combination of melody and words. Each is protected by copyright, the melody as a musical work and the lyrics as a literary work. One or the other could be used separately and still be protected. Image by Markus Spiske Public Domain Music Public domain essentially covers creative works that are no longer protected by intellectual property laws, compositions and musical recordings in which the claim to intellectual property has either expired, been forfeited, or been waived. Most people recognize the term public domain in reference to published works, including sheet music or musical recordings, which once were protected by copyright, but the copyright expired several decades after the artist’s death or a considerable length of time after the work’s creation. Once copyright expires on a work like a recorded song, you can use it for any purpose without paying the publisher, the artist, or another institution. The Two Types of Copyright ...

The Waterboys - Carolan's Weird Welcome

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 ...

Mildred Bailey - Snowball

Many parents believed that this music was simply noise that had a negative influence on impressionable teens. Either way, it became clear that rock and roll was here to stay, bringing with it important changes... the impact of rock and roll, and... how the birth of this new music influenced and was influenced by technology, teen culture, race, and geography. Students will examine and evaluate conflicting opinions about the music that has appealed to teens over the past fifty years... identify whether they think each quote refers to music in the early days when rock and roll first emerged or in later years when heavy metal and hip hop became popular.   As rock and roll became a national phenomenon, many cities across the country became key to its development and expansion... The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s Landmark Series designates certain sites around the United States as historic rock and roll landmarks. These include King Records in Cincinnati, OH, the Surf Ballroom ...