01 Mar '12 15:22>
Originally posted by robbie carrobieNo matter how you cut it, white men playing blues got it from blacks. There is no dispute about that. And some of them do a really good job of it. My guitar teacher, Mike Stewart, RIP, a white guy who happened to be a genius at figuring out the old black acoustic blues licks on guitar, recorded with some great old timers, like Hi Henry Brown, who loved his playing. Nobody now white or black is going to play like Rev. Gary Davis ( I actually had a couple of lessons from that master). It is all in the individual player. Stephan Grossman, Rory Block, Roy Bookbinder, and Bob Brozman all play virtuoso guitar based and learned from the old black masters and nobody can take that away from them.
i have a theory that the blues, built around the pentatonic scale are Celtic in origin
rather than African, and thus, I think a white man should play the blues like a white
man. This is not in any way a racist or disrespectful comment, but imitation is just that,
imitation. Have you ever seen Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bell air dance to ...[text shortened]... ow it must appear to African Americans for their cultural heritage
to be mimicked in this way.
Not many black folks even want to keep the old acoustic blues going but there are a few, like Keb Mo. But Keb learned quite a bit from white guys and he has a distinctive sound.
There is a black old timey group called the Carolina Chocolate Drops who learned black blues techniques in old timey american music and have a distinct sound and are keeping up an old tradition and they learned directly from black folks around them so there are a small few trying to keep up the tradition.
As long as the old recordings are still around there will be people, black and white, who will be drawn to that music like a moth to a flame and that tradition will survive, just like folk music, which had a great time in the '60's, then died down to where it was supposed to be in the first place, still are producing new virtuoso;s in that medium.