Admittedly, it wasn’t a good review, but one of the earliest descriptions of the wild pre-blues African-American-style music heard in London during 1890 came from no less a source than the celebrated Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw. The photograph below was taken around the time Shaw wrote his damning account of being forced to listen…
BluesMuse 3. Blind Lemon Jefferson, Furry Lewis and The Rolling Stones. This month is the 86th anniversary of the recording of the only two Blind Lemon Jefferson tracks that give us a true picture of the legendary performer’s talent. Known as the ‘Father of the Texas Blues’, Lemon recorded about 100 tracks for Paramount between…
And here’s a video where you can watch it take shape from ragtime to rock over 60 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RhrMdXCwVw ‘The Darktown Strutters’ Ball’ is a song from the year ragtime-jazz split from ragtime-blues: 1917. It has been recorded by many great artists over the years, from Hoagy Carmichael to Fats Waller. One of my favourite…
Blues Muse 1. Black Sabbath as they looked back around 1968. It looks like butter wouldn’t melt in Ozzie’s mouth (second right), doesn’t it? Last night, my son was lucky enough to watch the original Black Sabbath perform – thunderously live – in Melbourne, Australia. All the original line-up were there, except the drummer, Bill Ward….
How Blues Evolved An Illustrated History of the genre that gave us jazz, rock & roll, pop and rock music. By Paul Merry Did you know that last year, 2012, marked the 100th anniversary of the first blues sheet music ever published? Unless you are a blues historian, you probably didn’t, because this significant milestone…
