Jim Alfredson

Wow. I'm changing my whole look. I wanna look like a cross between a Steven King clown and Ralph from The Simpsons.

I'm not saying it's a black thing. I'm saying that most white musicians I see and hear who play blues do so in a very contrived way to my ears. I'm mainly talking about the kind of players you see in a local bar because that's about as good as some of the performances were on that show. Growling may be part of the language but does that mean all blues singers do it? I've never heard Junior Parker growl like Howlin' Wolf. I think it's an easy part of the language to try and mimic and that's why so many do. It's easy to say, "Oh you have to put that growl in your voice to sing the blues," but to my ears the ones that do it well are doing it because they really feel the need to do it, not because it's what they are supposed to do. I'll admit that I my voice growls and gets scratchy when I sing a blues, but I hope it sounds better than what I heard last night. And I don't do it because that's what Pops did or Howlin' Wolf or whatever. I do it because that's what the music feels like to me at that moment. Some of last night's performances reminded me of George Thoroughgood's excuse for blues singing... that really lame, wanna-be soulfulness that often times gets mistaken for "bluesy".

No, because with these white singers that I'm talking about it sounds completely forced and unnatural. Think about Louis Armstrong's speaking voice and then think about the way he sings and then tell me that it's an effect. Taj uses a variety of tones in his voice, but he uses them the way a horn player would use different tones or squeels or squonks. The good horn players sound natural doing it. The bad ones sound contrived.

As long as your virus software database is up to date you should be fine. May I suggest you download a copy (it's free) of Ad-Aware. It checks for little programs called "spyware" that can affect the performance of your machine, among other things. Ad-Aware Spybot is another free software that does the same thing. Spybot

That's what those singers are trying to emulate, not realizing that the sound of Howlin' Wolf, Taj and Louis are sounds they HAVE to make, not that they choose to make to sound like something they are not. To use the example of Van Morrison again, once he stopped trying to emulate such singers (as in the Gloria days) and took on his own voice... well, his music speaks for itself. Even Ray Charles did it. You listen to the old Atlantic sides and Ray is trying to sound like Charles Brown, among others. Once Ray realized it was okay to sound like himself...

For instance... one of the things that makes "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" such a powerful piece of music is the overall ominous sound of the droning guitar and Skip James' floating, almost ethereal vocal. You can almost go into a trance listening to that track... it hypnotizes you and is very mysterious. Chris Thomas King managed to capture that mood perfectly in his rendition on the "Oh Brother" soundtrack. Lucinda Williams destroyed it.

Pedantic wasn't quite the word I was looking for... maybe "fatuous".

I never said or implied that white people should not play the blues. I simply asked why so many of them use the same silly tricks to try and sound bluesy, such as the aforementioned "growly voice" thing (think Van Morrison from the "Gloria" days..) There are of course many great white blues singers/players... too many to list here. That's why I thought the choice of modern performers was silly and narrow. There are much better choices to show the influence of this music than Nick Cave and Lou Reed. I'm fine with different interpretations of tunes but the interpretations showcased in that film were pedantic to say the least.

Sure ok. And Michael Bolton is allowed to make an "opera" CD (which he did). But that doesn't mean he should be in a documentary about Verdi. And Rod Stewart is allowed to do a CD of standards (which he did) but that doesn't mean he should be featured in a documentary about Gershwin or Mancini. It's funny that Lon said the Bonnie Raitt was a bit too pat. I found her to be the only one with real conviction (I forgot about Ulmer... he was great). I got the feeling that Reed, John Spencer, Beck, et al had never heard of Skip James and/or have never played one of his tunes before. Seemed totally canned to me.

brownie, that's what I figured. Netscape 4.7 is very very old. I think they are up to 7.0 now. You will probably run into problems with various webpages using such an old version, but if your company wants it that way, what's a man to do?

Oh yeah.... everybody played Baker's.

Wow. Nutty. We still haven't played there. Been trying to get in. Detroit is a weird scene.

This one's for Joe G. You need to get this one, dude!!

Now here's my idea of some tattoos!

Nah... we'll keep it around. Blue Note doesn't acknowledge our existence anyway, as evident in THIS THREAD.

I'm on it like a blue bonnet.

I like Wim Wender's films, but I thought this segment was silly. The "old" footage he recreated was kind of cool, but his choice of modern interpreters was poor, to say the least. The only person I have any musical respect for when it comes to the blues is Bonnie Raitt. She plays and sings great and more than that, with total conviction. Lucinda Williams made me sick. Her band looked like every second rate bar band you'd find in any city. Since they obviously care about their looks ("Dude, you need sunglasses to play the blues!!!") I would think they'd put more thought into their presentation. Lou Rawls looked scared and completely out of place. The John Spencer Blues Explosion is a joke, right? They made me laugh. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds also made me laugh out loud and ask, "Who is this butt nugget?" I turned it off after them. Boring. Why is it when white people play the blues (with the exception of Raitt in the film) everything instantly gets really loud with no dynamics? And then they put that stupid fake ass growly shit in their voice? It's the white man's trick to try and sound soulful... "I'll just add this growl to my voice, like I'm gargling... and voila!!! Instant soul! Just add pseudo commitment and heartache." It seemed that the only one who had any real understanding or connection to Skip James' music was Raitt. Fuckin' Lou Rawls was reading the words off a page, fer chrissakes! Lame.

My question is who gets the Hammond C3/Leslie 21H setup after Rudy passes? A bit morbid I know, but it's a historic instrument. Something should be done to ensure that it winds up at the Smithsonian or something.

It's funny that men are put off by wearing a wedding ring. I thought it would fuck me up too since I'm a musician and any change in my hands is instantly noticeable. For the first three months I felt like I had a bandaid on constantly. I used to take it off in the shower and futz around with it all the time. Now, after over a year, I don't notice it at all. We are creatures of habit. If you just wore it, you'd get used to it eventually.

I wouldn't be surprised if California insurance companies didn't offer earthquake insurance. Too much of a risk. Lord knows they can't do what they're supposed to do...

Why is it that dreams always get cut short before the deed is done? I had one the other night about an old friend. She's living in NYC now and I haven't seen her for months and there was never anything romantic between her and I. Must be that old psychological sexual tension thing or something. Anyway, we were about to go at it and then I woke up. But I didn't really wake up... I woke up into another dream and in that dream I was trying to get back to sleep so I could get back into the other dream. And then I woke up out of that one into another and another and another and I felt like I would never actually wake up. It was wild...

When I first saw this thread title I thought it said "Some New Mob Bosses". I was very worried.

Good question. They should do a Don Patterson Mosaic. I have this on really beat up vinyl that I paid too much for but it was part of my short-lived fanaticism to own every vinyl LP Don did. Unfortunately I'm too poor for such things.