Re: Blues Masters 2013 Finalists! What do you think?
Just giving my thoughts, stream-of-conscious style as I go through the finalists. I liked about half of them. Congrats to all the finalists, and to all the folks that entered. Regardless of the results, it was fun to do and a good learning experience.
#1 - Pretty surprised at the winner. To be honest I saw a lot of takes I liked better, but congrats to him. What a great opportunity.
I thought the #2 entry was pretty good - he had nice vibrato and played some interesting lines over the track. A little sloppy here and there, but at least he had decent rhythm for most of it. Not super-bluesy, but then, the Story of a Quarryman is more of a rock track anyways.
#3- Ouch, painfully out-of-tune bend there... had to stop shortly thereafter.
I think #4 was pretty good. Maybe a bit too "shreddy" for a blues contest, but still some bluesy bits, and at least he could play in time. He did a good job of keeping it interesting.
#5 sounded great - very polished. Good timing, good bends, nice vibrato, bluesy feel. My favorite of the bunch, and one of a very small few I could actually watch all the way through.
#6 (lap steel one) - not bad, nothing that totally blew me away but nothing super offensive either.
#7 - nice ideas, but so out of tune on that intro... I almost turned it off after the first 20 seconds, but some of the rest of it was better. Kind of on-and-off. I liked some aspects of what he was doing, though, and at least he looked like he getting was into it.
#8 - I think this one was pretty good throughout. Lots the groove here and there, but for for the most part it was solid. Nice phrasing, some interesting lines and at he was pretty much in tune and had some vibrato. Not my favorite entry, but one of the better ones among the finalists. It did get a little long - I was getting bored by the end and would have liked some more up and down throughout, but still a great take. I liked #5 better, but this was right up there.
#9 - the intro seemed off rhythmically, but I did really dig his tone and phrasing on the take overall. Pretty good job. I kept hoping he'd "take it somewhere" [Edit- he finally did about 3 minutes in] but what he did play was well done (intro aside). I also really liked that he left some space in there. So many entries didn't - just a steady stream of notes from start to finish. Rhythm and phrasing were good, too.
I saw the #10 entry a while back, one of the better ones I'd seen throughout. Not my favorite, but reasonably solid. Took him a little while to get into the groove, and a bit too shreddy and not bluesy enough for my taste at some point, but not bad overall.
I am glad some of the folks that appeared to have bought points (70k, 60k, etc) didn't make it. I didn't think their entries were very good, and their point counts were suspicious to say the least.
I think this is a pretty fair assessment. I think the biggest surprises for me where 3, 6, 7.
For #3, I guess I'd just expect that a "blues master' would be abel to bend a note in tune. Other than that, the phrasing just seems very mechanical.
For #6, the guy pretty much plays the same rhythmic figure throughout the entire track. I agree, nothing offensive but didn't really seem like he had command of the instrument.
For #7, It is really out of tune for a lot of the track and really difficult to hear most of what is going on most of the time. Maybe I just didn't understand the phrasing and note choice...but it just sounds like he's playing notes from the scale (and often times not in any scale) instead of developing an idea or playing something that is melodic.
In general, this is a lot of time to ask someone to solo if they aren't a very good improvisor. To be clear, being a good improvisor is more about creating and developing musical ideas and creating a story than it is about how fast you can play. On most of these videos you can tell the point where they player is out of ideas and just starts playing the same kinds of things over an over again. Or you have a lot of filler licks and then a new idea, followed by the same filler licks until the next idea comes. Another thing you see is a build in intensity but then the player reaches a point where they don't have the technique to take it to the next level so they just sorta keep going with the same intensity so instead of getting a sense of movement, there is just a point where it's loud and it stays loud for a while. I judge a solo by how good the musical narrative is because I'm an improvisor. I feel like what Joe was looking for (or at least more moved by) was more of the rock guitar mentality of flashy licks/tricks and attitude.
. We'll be getting some vids (if allowed) and will post so folks can see how well they do in real live situations. It's one thing to produce at home and totally another live. I've seen them choke and flop at prior finals. 
When Joe's buying the rounds and I have a designated driver, it tends to make me swill a bit more. 
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