My Personal History of the Blues: Part 2

May 8, 2011 by DaleR
Filed under: Blues History

Well, Leroy Pearson got my attention with Elmore James. I started to listen to his radio program every week. I made sure I was home and on time for the show. It was followed by a folk music show that played on Navy Pier in Chicago and I made sure I listened to both programs weekly but the blues show was what it was all about for me. I started to play blues on the guitar, buy blues records, and attend shows and festivals.

At that time, St. Louis had a wonderful blues festival. I went every year for several years until I moved away. I have also gone to the Sunflower River Blues Festival in Clarksdale , Mississippi and the festival in West Helena , Arkansas. I have been to live shows with B B King, Catfish Keith, John Hammond, JR. and many others. The show I enjoyed most was at the acoustic stage at the Sunflower River Blues Festival when Charlie Musselwhite sat down with just his Les Paul (acoustic ?) and his harmonica. He sang and talked for song after song. There was not a lot of people, although it was SRO and very intimate and enjoyable.

Back to Elmore James. I used to sit and just wait for some of his songs to come on the radio and didn’t really care for a lot of the other artists. The more I listened, the more I began to understand. At first, I loved Elmore but just couldn’t get into Muddy Waters, Over time I learned to love Muddy but couldn’t get into Robert Johnson. Now I can pretty much enjoy almost every blues artist I hear. I started learning blues history by starting at the present and working backwards.

As far as my guitar playing goes, I still play a lot of blues. Maybe as much as 50% of a set will be blues. I am not a professional guitar player but I do enjoy doing a solo set occasionally. I finally came to realize that I was pretty much a “blues snob.” There are lots of good genres of music and lots of good musicians and my focus on blues was limiting me. For several years I only listened to and played blues. I guess I still am a “blues snob” in several areas because I have moved on to other types of playing. I am now focused on the Merle Travis style. If you listen closely you will hear a mixture of country, jazz and blues in that style of playing. But when I want to relax, I listen to the blues.

I would be very interested in hearing about your journey in to the history of the blues.