Blues 2019: the new golden era

TINMAN82

For those into guitar based blues music, this is surely the best era since the 70s or 80s. So many world class players (older and younger) touring heavily these days. Literally too many to name.

Even better, many keen to teach...new Truefire courses out or due soon from Matt Schofield, Josh Smith, Kirk Fletcher and Robben Ford! 

Seems blues based guitar music is all the rage again. Plenty more to carry the torch now Clapton is winding down. For a while it looked like most of that weight would be on Bonamassas shoulders.

TINMAN82

Even unknown young bucks like this “Mustaine” character are on the bandwagon....https://youtu.be/fxaiWqPNzEM

sweepy

Worth checking out too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnIe59uLnCQ&index=27&list=RDGQeLtCbwJts

jimmyguitar

And this guy Jimmy D Thorn is great 
https://youtu.be/bfPoxY2pB1Q

TINMAN82

sweepy said:

Worth checking out too

Another one for the list, thanks!

JDE

To be fair, we need all that good stuff to counteract the new Yngwie album...

johnl

Speaking of which Josh Smith is doing a UK tour this month and a masterclass at Peach....

soma1975

My current fave for actual songs as well as amazing guitarinating has to be Marcus King. He’s incredible and soulful and funky as hell.. 

heavyrocker

There are some outstanding players around nowadays. Where they are lacking imo is on the songwriting front. None of them has written anything that’s even approaching the same league as Clapton in his heyday.

JDE

heavyrocker said:

There are some outstanding players around nowadays. Where they are lacking imo is on the songwriting front. None of them has written anything that’s even approaching the same league as Clapton in his heyday.

Hard to get your heart broken when your groupies are too busy taking photos of your pedalboard 

merlin

I hadn't come across Jimmy D Thorn. I love the way he does no nonsense, soulful playing where every note has a value. 

Tenebrous

Anything more along the lines of Jack White & that dirty blues style of The White Stripes that people can recommend? Not too much of a fan of Mayer/Bonamassa, but I'm always down for some genuine attitude & emotion.

Lewy

Tenebrous said:

Anything more along the lines of Jack White & that dirty blues style of The White Stripes that people can recommend? Not too much of a fan of Mayer/Bonamassa, but I'm always down for some genuine attitude & emotion.

Get hold of a compilation album. from Fat Possum records called “Not The Same Old Blues Crap”. 

bbill335

Lewy said:

Tenebrous said:

Anything more along the lines of Jack White & that dirty blues style of The White Stripes that people can recommend? Not too much of a fan of Mayer/Bonamassa, but I'm always down for some genuine attitude & emotion.

Get hold of a compilation album. from Fat Possum records called “Not The Same Old Blues Crap”. 

Yeah defo a good start point with the Fat Possum stuff. Junior Kimbrough, RL Burnside, Bob Log III, indie brummie heroes Black Mekon. The Sunday Nights album (a tribute to Junior Kimbrough) has the Stooges, Black Keys, Jon Spencer on it but some lesser known guys too. Heartless Bastards do a particularly killer "Done Got Old".

RandallFlagg

heavyrocker said:

There are some outstanding players around nowadays. Where they are lacking imo is on the songwriting front. None of them has written anything that’s even approaching the same league as Clapton in his heyday.

Agreed, I hear some great guitar playing but cringe at some of the lyrics and songs, even the lack of imagination with melody. Where are the rest songs? I think of Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, great guitar with some great original songwriting at times too.

lovestrat74

Tenebrous said:

Anything more along the lines of Jack White & that dirty blues style of The White Stripes that people can recommend? Not too much of a fan of Mayer/Bonamassa, but I'm always down for some genuine attitude & emotion.

Early Black Keys = dirty garage blues

TINMAN82

soma1975 said:

My current fave for actual songs as well as amazing guitarinating has to be Marcus King. He’s incredible and soulful and funky as hell.. 

I think he’s a musical genius in terms of virtuosity. I saw him in a tiny venue in Glasgow last year and was standing 2 feet from the stage. His ability on guitar equals virtually anyone.

@heavyrocker I think that’s a fair comment. I do think though that history will view Clapton as one of the greatest composers in this genre of all time so a difficult guy for anyone to equal. The fact that he’s written 2 versions of the “same” song in Layla that are as good in their respective electric rock and acoustic genres is an example. Hendrix likewise.

Lewy

RandallFlagg said:

heavyrocker said:

There are some outstanding players around nowadays. Where they are lacking imo is on the songwriting front. None of them has written anything that’s even approaching the same league as Clapton in his heyday.

Agreed, I hear some great guitar playing but cringe at some of the lyrics and songs, even the lack of imagination with melody. Where are the rest songs? I think of Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, great guitar with some great original songwriting at times too.

I think this is a bit of a scourge across the new generation of roots musicians as a whole whether it's blues, bluegrass, folk, whatever...the standard of instrumental chops is through the roof but the standard of lyric writing is at times comically bad, and generally poor. I do sometimes wonder if it's down to the fact that when you see the latest crop of next-big-things a lot of them are highly schooled conservatoire grads operating in the roots realm, as opposed to people who've come up living and breathing it. But I also wonder if the channels by which they get exposure...especially instagram...render things like thoughtful lyrics a bit of an irrelevance....ok, got my killer guitar part, the drummer is in a good lighting situation...right, where did I leave my rhyming dictionary?

TimmyO

sweepy said:

Worth checking out too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnIe59uLnCQ&index=27&list=RDGQeLtCbwJts

Blues is a vocal artform - they should get a singer 

TimmyO

jimmyguitar said:

And this guy Jimmy D Thorn is great 
https://youtu.be/bfPoxY2pB1Q

Nice 

TINMAN82

Lewy said:

RandallFlagg said:

heavyrocker said:

There are some outstanding players around nowadays. Where they are lacking imo is on the songwriting front. None of them has written anything that’s even approaching the same league as Clapton in his heyday.

Agreed, I hear some great guitar playing but cringe at some of the lyrics and songs, even the lack of imagination with melody. Where are the rest songs? I think of Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, great guitar with some great original songwriting at times too.

I think this is a bit of a scourge across the new generation of roots musicians as a whole whether it's blues, bluegrass, folk, whatever...the standard of instrumental chops is through the roof but the standard of lyric writing is at times comically bad, and generally poor. I do sometimes wonder if it's down to the fact that when you see the latest crop of next-big-things a lot of them are highly schooled conservatoire grads operating in the roots realm, as opposed to people who've come up living and breathing it. But I also wonder if the channels by which they get exposure...especially instagram...render things like thoughtful lyrics a bit of an irrelevance....ok, got my killer guitar part, the drummer is in a good lighting situation...right, where did I leave my rhyming dictionary?

Agreed. I guess it could be argued (and I’ve heard Bonamassa saying this in an interview) that all the blues songs have been written already.

Mabye that’s why a guy like Gary Clark jr comes on the scene billed as a blues-man but his albums are very much more fusion/soul/r&b with a blues influence (to my ears anyway). 

Walter Trout’s post liver transplant album “Battle Scars” is a good example of solid song writing and meaningful lyrics within a typical blues form. I’ve seen him live a couple of times and he means every word/note. He tends to joke about the depressing nature of songs from that album before he starts!