UPDATED 19 JULY 2017 Once described as a Mediterranean port transplanted into the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans has always been, and felt, different to the rest of America’s South. As far back as the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when Louisiana was under French and Spanish rule, slaves were allowed to congregate freely in Congo Square, in New Orleans’…

“Enjoying your writing, thanks!” Wes@wes_oneill, 28 January 2014, Bristol, England. The Banjo Player, 1856. William Sidney Mount. UPDATED AND REFORMATTED March 23, 2020. BLUES MUSE 51. When most people think of the earliest days of the blues, they often imagine rural African Americans playing rudimentary delta blues on acoustic guitars. But, in reality, it wasn’t…

No one looks less like a rock band than The Swampers. Yet, these elderly(ish) white gentlemen The wonderful Swampers. They’re a bit older now. produce one of the most magical sounds in the history of rock, pop, funk and soul music. Like Neil Young, they even had a verse dedicated to them in the lyrics…

” I know those guys must be smart to use computers in such a way. Just not the same.” nora j mckiddie (@mckiddie_j), January 18, 2014, Michigan, USA. I don’t know much about heavy metal drumming, but this post is about exactly that. My experience in this area stretches to witnessing live performances by Led…

BLUESMUSE50. For some reason, W.C. Handy’s classic blues tune, “St. Louis Blues”, has popped up on this site a number of times recently. Perhaps, subliminally, it’s because I know it was first published 100 years ago, in 1914. One of many St. Louis Blues sheet music covers “St. Louis Blues”, generally regarded as the tune…