Blues CDs in Stores / Big Responsibility (Page 2 of 2)

Good morning Nancy:

I was reading your email and I feel it could have been written by me almost word for word.

You've described EXACTLY what I think. And I think I alluded to it in an earlier message.

At the risk of sounding like I'm stuck in some kind of a 60's "time warp" a la Dr. Johnny Fever, I grew up on the music of the 60's - that's what i cut my teeth on so to speak. Of course, I was into the blues, but I also loved the Beatles (particularily Lennon's music in the group), the Bryds (I loved that whole folk / rock sound - Flying Burrito Brothers etc that eventually peaked with The Eagles), huge Dylan fan, the Doors. huge Hendrix fan and, of course, growing up  in Los Angeles and skipping school to head down to Huntington Beach to surf as a teenager, my "guilty" pleasures were The Beach Boys and people like Jan and Dean.

There just seemed to be an incredible assortment of very talented people - who wrote their own music - played their own instruments and made some great music that sounds as good now as it did 40 years ago.

I was joking with my wife that the last few concerts I've seen, I don't think the artist has been younger than 55 - I saw Eric Clapton in Toronto with Robert Randolph Family opening ( fantastic steel guitar player..!) / Mark Knopfler ( I love his guitar style and playing) / Buddy Guy and a couple of others whose names I can't recall right now. But these are some of the people I like and listen to.

I can remember when I was growing up going to a record store and having to pick and choose which album or two out of 10 in the new releases section I was going to buy. In other words, I could usually find about 10 new releases that I could easily have bought. Today, I go to the new releases section and I cannnot believe the selection- "gee, there's a new Hillary Duff CD - wow, Paris Hilton has released an album - look at that, Lindsay Lohan has a  CD out".

Thanks to this forum - and some of the older posts I've read - I've now got a few new names to add to my list. There was one post I saw where Joe, for example, listed his top ten best (blues) guitarists of the last few years - and a couple of them I had never heard of. So if they made the cut on a list that Joe compiled, then they must be worth a listen.

That seems to be the concensus that's it's a niche market, isn't it..? I always feel bad for these incredibly talented guys who work their asses off to sell X number of cd's while a 4th runner up on American Idol is signed to a record contract - sells xxxxxxxx number of cd's in his / her first month - buys a new $30 million home in Malibu and gets to hang every weekend with Paris and the gang.

And. of course, while the music business ALWAYS has been about money (none of the major record labels were ever "not for profit" companies), it's ALL about money now, isn't it - I think of Bob Dylan's famous line "money doesn't talk - it swears"..!

I saw a guy named Danny Gatton once at a small club in Toronto years ago after he made the cover of guitar player magazine as the "BEST unknown player" around and it was amazing how good he was - how he could flip between blues to country to rockabilly to rock and roll to whatever on this Telecaster. I mean he was a "players" player - kind of like Eric Johnson (any guitar player on the planet knows of this guy and how good he is, but ask a non-playr who EJ is and you'll probably get a blank stare).

Danny Gatton commited suicide a few years ago and one has to wonder if the fact that he had very little commercial success (and $$$) contributed to his depression. I saw a You Tube video with Danny and Joe and I understand that Danny taught Joe as well..???

Well, I'm rambling now - thanks again for your response, Nancy - I really enjoyed  reading your comments.

Hi Cathy:

Good suggestions - you know, I buy so many damn guitar magazines each month - coupled with my Sports Illustrated subscription and other sports mags that I've seriously thought about buying the stuff you referred to, but then I ask myself "do I really need more magazines..??"

But I really like the idea of the blues e-news / letter - that's a great suggestion. As well, I'm going to contiue to wade through some of the new and old posts on this site cause I really think all of you are very, very knowledgeable about music and have great taste as well (at least nobody has gotten angry at me cause I made a negative remark about Paris Hilton's new CD..:) ). I've already heard quite a few names mentioned of people I've never heard before, but tif the recommendations are coming from you all, then it will be worth investigating.

I was a big fan of the The Flying Burrito Brothers - Poco - Buffalo Springfield. There's another "oldie" I saw in Toronto not too long ago - Chris Hillman, who was one of the original Bryds and went on to play with the Flying Burrito Bros (and the great Gram Parsons) and the Souther - Hillman - Furay Band. Chris is now in his early 60's and living up in Santa Barbara and still tours regularily.

I know there's an 1969-1972 Anthology album I've seen on amazon.com with 43 tracks and it sells for about $15.00 - taht's the one I would go for.

I laughed about your comment about screaming girls.

I mentioned in another post that when I was younger, I saw Jimi Hendrix in concert opening for - get this..!! - the Monkees. I think myself and about 3 other people were there specifically for Jimi. The rest of the audience - alot of screaming 15 and 16 year old girls were there for Davy, Mickey, Michael and ??? (who was the other one..??).

Wasn't Danny fantastic..??

Well, thanks again for your response, Cathy - you've given me a couple of great ideas.

I dont think there is so much a shortage of artists or good artists playing electric guitar blues or blues rock I seem to be finding more and more of it through the forum and thru blues review magazine.Its just a search and find rather than being able to go to a store or hear it on the radio like it used to be.there are also a ton of great artists from europe or other places around the globe that are way under our radars here in the states. there are alot of blues rockers that are american who spend a majority of their touring in europe.I also think many blues artists do alot of regional turing and dont always make the national scene,probably due to economics. And I thoink your right about that there is no money in it. I know alot of people in their30's and 40's  50's that just dont know that there is great stuff out there music that they would certainly be interested in if put in front of them. Its just not filtered into therir lives through the radio the way it was in the past.Or when was the last time a local cd reviewer reviewed anything in blues out side of a few big name artists.

A thousand apologies, Donna- damn insensitive of me. I forgot the power of those teen girl crushes.

I remember having this huge crush on a girl - Donna Jackson - in middle school in Anaheim, but she wouldn't give me the time of day - her heart belonged to somebody named Bobby Sherman (now there's a name from the past that will definitely date you..!). To this day, if I hear the name Bobby Sherman (which, fortunately, is very, very rare, it immediately conjures up an image of her and being being jilted. The upside was that that rejection may have been my first introduction to feeling "blue".

Today, I live by the creedo - women - you can't live with them and you can't do most of the positions without them..!! 

Let me guess - your crush was on Davy Jones..!!

at cd stores:

supply+demand=not blues

joe bonamassa cds = pop/rock section

with the attitude of music today, blues cannot get bigger or more popular because any evolution of blues music is considered pop/rock section of selling cds.  Santana, Los Loney Boys, etc. all pop/rock. Yuppies probably wouldn't know to look in a different section for it!

its sad

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
Ask me about my handwound Great Lakes Guitar Pickups
Since 2010, Bonamassa fans have taken advantage of my JB friend discount = my cost + shipping.