AMERICANA | Traditional Roots & Blues (only)

In my opinion, R.L Burnside´s best album.With some exception I m not a big fan of electric blues in general; Also perfect timing , i was trying to explain to my bandmates why I am so obessed by acoutic blues and the thing is is UNIVERSAL, like no other music will ever be, and is a tool with which you can talk about anything, from Jesus to drugs and booze, and it will ALWAYS work. Today I ve played this one to a guy who has sever depression and does not know a word of english and ...he felt better. And we ve never met, probably will never meet, still we got this connection . Dunno whether is the mix of morphine coke and booze with a xanax to finally go to sleep but there ´s definitely something that the blues has and other bmusic lack. Maybe because , as Alan Lmax said, Poor s boys long away from home described perfectly the general condition of the humanity of the XXI century? Here s trhe song I ve played to the guy (obviously in a simplified version)
 
Do you guys play any instrument ? Do you have some songs that you love so much that the very idea of playing them in public make you overanxious, like a teen flopping with the girl of gthis dreams? I ve two songs I feel I will never be enough to play as I ld love to, they are not even THAt difficult but they are so amazing that I feel I will never be able to make a decent version of them. One is this :
 
This is the other one :

Thye lyrics and the music are so perfect that give me a kinda of Stendhal syndrome
"
I got to keep movin', I got to keep movin'
Blues fallin' down like hail, blues fallin' down like hail
Hmm-mmm, blues fallin' down like hail, blues fallin' down like hail
And the days keeps on worryin' me
There's a hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail
Hellhound on my trail"

How can possibly a black guy from Mississippi living in the 30´s who had to face stuff we can t even imagine write a song that describes so well the feelings of a white guy from...Italy ? if that s not magic, I wonder what magic is...
 
skipjames said:
In my opinion, R.L Burnside´s best album.With some exception I m not a big fan of electric blues in general; Also perfect timing , i was trying to explain to my bandmates why I am so obessed by acoutic blues and the thing is is UNIVERSAL, like no other music will ever be, and is a tool with which you can talk about anything, from Jesus to drugs and booze, and it will ALWAYS work. Today I ve played this one to a guy who has sever depression and does not know a word of english and ...he felt better. And we ve never met, probably will never meet, still we got this connection . Dunno whether is the mix of morphine coke and booze with a xanax to finally go to sleep but there ´s definitely something that the blues has and other bmusic lack. Maybe because , as Alan Lmax said, Poor s boys long away from home described perfectly the general condition of the humanity of the XXI century? Here s trhe song I ve played to the guy (obviously in a simplified version)
Click to expand...

The first Rev song I heard was Samson and Delilah on a community radio station 20 years ago. Damn near fell out of my chair. I'm no longer a believer but was raised Christian and the story of Samson in the book of Judges was my all time favorite Bible story, which made the song that much more meaningful to me.

 
skipjames said:
Do you guys play any instrument ? Do you have some songs that you love so much that the very idea of playing them in public make you overanxious, like a teen flopping with the girl of gthis dreams? I ve two songs I feel I will never be enough to play as I ld love to, they are not even THAt difficult but they are so amazing that I feel I will never be able to make a decent version of them. One is this :
Click to expand...

I started out on acoustic guitar and recorded 5 solo albums of all original songs, 90% fingerpicking. Transitioned to clawhammer banjo about 7-8 years ago and hardly play guitar anymore. For every 20-30 songs I've written, I have learned maybe one cover. Currently the only covers I can remember all the words to are Dylan's Don't Think Twice and Snake Mountain Blues by Townes Van Zandt. I transcribed both from guitar chords to clawhammer banjo.

As for that one song I can't play in public, maybe 15 years ago I learned to fingerpick Mississippi John Hurt's song Louis Collins note for note. It took me nearly two months to learn and about two weeks to forget. lol. I was so intimidated by the complexity of the song that I never got around to recording it or performing it in public. Looking back the song is actually pretty simple and repetitive but at the time it was like climbing Mount Everest.


I learned Louis Collins from watching this guy's video. I remember the video being longer where he played fast and slow and kind of walked you through the steps. I don't know why he shortened it to be fast only but here it is:
 
Jerry Atrick said:
The first Rev song I heard was Samson and Delilah on a community radio station 20 years ago. Damn near fell out of my chair. I'm no longer a believer but was raised Christian and the story of Samson in the book of Judges was my all time favorite Bible story, which made the song that much more meaningful to me.

Click to expand...

Might be too "jam-y" for ya, but I like this one.



One of my very favorite guitarists is Jorma Kaukonen. He did Gary Davis stuff and sung his praises.



Jelly Roll Morton as well. He is who got me into learning about older stuff.
 
Jerry Atrick said:
I started out on acoustic guitar and recorded 5 solo albums of all original songs, 90% fingerpicking. Transitioned to clawhammer banjo about 7-8 years ago and hardly play guitar anymore. For every 20-30 songs I've written, I have learned maybe one cover. Currently the only covers I can remember all the words to are Dylan's Don't Think Twice and Snake Mountain Blues by Townes Van Zandt. I transcribed both from guitar chords to clawhammer banjo.

As for that one song I can't play in public, maybe 15 years ago I learned to fingerpick Mississippi John Hurt's song Louis Collins note for note. It took me nearly two months to learn and about two weeks to forget. lol. I was so intimidated by the complexity of the song that I never got around to recording it or performing it in public. Looking back the song is actually pretty simple and repetitive but at the time it was like climbing Mount Everest.


I learned Louis Collins from watching this guy's video. I remember the video being longer where he played fast and slow and kind of walked you through the steps. I don't know why he shortened it to be fast only but here it is:
Click to expand...

Found this last night and dusted off my guitar today to try re-learning Louis Collins. Made surprising progress but ended up getting a blister on one of my picking fingers, so put it to rest prematurely :confused: I used to grow out my nails for picking guitar but a while back transitioned to using my fingertips mainly due to being tired of always having to maintain nail length/shape, hence the blister. Don't need nails on banjo anyways.

This guy starts the tune off in G instead of C, which I actually like a little better than the previous version I learned. Once my blister heals and if I can get the chops down good enough, I might post a YT video here. We'll see....

 
brokedownpalace10 said:
Might be too "jam-y" for ya, but I like this one.



One of my very favorite guitarists is Jorma Kaukonen. He did Gary Davis stuff and sung his praises.



Jelly Roll Morton as well. He is who got me into learning about older stuff.
Click to expand...

Jam music doesn't bother me and I love Billy Strings, he is truly a guitar virtuoso. BS certainly puts his own flavor on the songs he covers, which is pretty cool too. The only thing is that most of what I love about the Rev's music is his fingerpicking. IMHO take away Rev's distinctive picking style and he's just another regular old blues player :)
 
Jerry Atrick said:
Jam music doesn't bother me and I love Billy Strings, he is truly a guitar virtuoso. BS certainly puts his own flavor on the songs he covers, which is pretty cool too. The only thing is that most of what I love about the Rev's music is his fingerpicking. IMHO take away Rev's distinctive picking style and he's just another regular old blues player :)
Click to expand...
Are you familiar with Jorma's fingerpicking?
 
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