Jeff Shucard’s Practice Tape Notes
Dear Friends, Until the pandemic hit, it never occurred to me to listen to the practice audio cassette tapes made at my kitchen table in Connemara, Ireland, forty or more years ago. But then, again, I never imagined I’d be in a lockdown for months with endless time to fill either. All this free time on my hands has led to much reading and writing and the opening of boxes and files long ago stored away and forgotten. One such box I opened contained dozens of homemade audio tapes that I’d accumulated over the years, some of the tapes titled, some not. I decided to sit down and listen to these tapes and see if there was anything there worth saving. While listening to one of the untitled tapes, I heard someone playing a Scott Joplin rag on guitar. This was a very old tape and I had no…
Robert Abiyle Büyümek
Sahneye çıkmayalı aylar oluyor. Çıkıp canlı müzik dinlemeyeli de öyle. Korona günlerinde dünyanın her yerinde blues’cular kös kös oturmakla meşgul. Ancak instagram’da karşıma çıkıveren bir fotoğraf, dibe vurmuş blues-heyecan göstergesine tavan yaptırmaya yetti. Ortaya bomba gibi düşen bu kare, blues tarihi ve kültürü adına uzun zamandır gördüğümüz en büyük şey. Blues dünyasının tartışmasız en gizemli ve en meşhur figürü Robert Johnson’ı Come On In My Kitchen, Little Queen of Spades gibi klasikleri, hakkındaki sayısız tuhaf hikaye ve yalnızca iki fotoğrafı ile biliyoruz. Şu takım elbiseli, şapkalı fotoğraf ve ağzında sigarasıyla çektirdiği diğeri. Hazelhurst Mississippi doğumlu blues’cu, kısa yaşamı boyunca şan, şöhret, para görmemiş, daha sadece yirmi yedi yaşındayken şaibeli bir şekilde ölmüş ve ardında iki fotoğraf ve uzunca bir süre kıymeti bilinmeyecek bazı şarkılar bırakmıştı. Ne zaman ki bir takım genç İngiliz çocuklar, bu şarkıları cover’layıp popüler hale getirdi, Robert Johnson’ın kıymeti o zaman anlaşıldı desek yanlış olmaz. Ortalık, “British…
Blind Blake – Mr. Diddy Wa Diddy (ENG)
The blues recording artist Blind Blake defies categorization. Although he is usually called a ragtime bluesman, that description does little to define the diversity of his music. The fact is, no other blues recording artist of his time sounded quite like him. His jazzy, highly syncopated guitar, his phrasing and speed on the fret board, the sly ironic songs he composed were not only a unique synthesis of styles, but technically beyond the reach of all his contemporaries, much as they remain to this day. Many have tried but few have succeeded in capturing Blake’s feel. He sets the bar for all finger pickers to aspire to. Blake is also unique in that he is the most mysterious of all blues artists. Where he came from, where and when he died, almost all the facts of his life are largely unknown or a source of great speculation. It is as…
An Introduction to Piano Blues
Rock n Roll changed everything. White kids playing rhythm and blues. How could this happen? This sound that had belonged only to the underprivileged black communities of America, suddenly broke through racial barriers and became a music revelation that not only took over the States, but the entire world. When Elvis sang Hound Dog and That’s All Right, two songs by Big Mama Thornton and Arthur Crudup, Afro American blues artists totally unknown to the greater world, he literally shook the foundations of the slave mentality and announced the emergence of a new world in which kids everywhere gave the finger to archaic prejudices. Rock’n Roll also made the guitar the most popular musical instrument in history. The guitar was, and remains, the coolest instrument ever made. The guitar allowed all of us to become musicians, singers and composers. You didn’t need to take lessons or learn to read music;…