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Oh, oh, let's play the "find similar but older music" game! I'll go next! You were on the right track with blues from Texas, but it goes way before 1949. Try t

Oh, oh, let's play the "find similar but older music" game! I'll go next! You were on the right track with blues from Texas, but it goes way before 1949. Try to find the Chuck Berry riffs... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwaE1hlwgc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwaE1hlwgc T-Bone Walker - I Got A Break Baby (1942) (B-side of Mean Old World, Capitol 10033) (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_Old_World http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_Old_World) Here's an article about him that I grabbed off Wikipedia's sources: http://www.there1.com/browse_articles.php?action=view_record&idnum=115 http://www.there1.com/browse_articles.php?action=view_record... > "[This single was] the first important blues [recording] on the electric guitar" Some other cool stuff in the article too, like how he worked with Blind Lemon Jefferson (Robert Johnson also worked with him) and with Charlie Christian, who brought the electric guitar to jazz. I'll go again just because it's fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbWmAgp2R30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbWmAgp2R30 - Ernest Tubb - Walking The Floor Over You (1941) (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_the_Floor_Over_You http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_the_Floor_Over_You) A country single that sold over a million copies, and it used that nice prominent electric guitar, beating Walker by a year. Reading further on Wikipedia to try and find earlier recordings, I'm pointed to an artist I've been exploring only this past week: Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies, one of the "big 3" Western Swing artists (along with Spade Cooley and Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys). Ugh, this stuff's hard to find on Youtube... Found something: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnjE5aB-cWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnjE5aB-cWQ - Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies - Right Or Wrong (1936, date source: http://www.secondhandsongs.com/performance/200653 http://www.secondhandsongs.com/performance/200653) Note the electrified pedal steel solo midway through. That's some innovative stuff, though I like Merle Haggard's version better (on his Bob Wills tribute album, "A Tribute To The Best Damn Fiddle Player In The World" from 1970. Wills' version is also pretty good, but not all that much better than Brown's. As you can see, I think Western Swing is great stuff (my last.fm is utterly full of it), and my secret theory is that there were only 3 big Western Swing bands because there were only 3 pedal steel players talented enough in the 30s and 40s to do the style justice. Before it came along, there wasn't all that much popular music that really used the electric guitar. Anyway, I digressed pretty hard, but I think I've made my point somewhere in there...

fredsanford 13y ago
I tried to play along... There was a blues dude in the mid '40s who originally played an acoustic but on his live shows he had to play electric to be heard over the band. He did a lot of the same material as T-Bone Walker. I cannot for the life of me find or remember his name. Along with Robert Johnson (and Bix Biederbeck, a jazz trumpet player form the 20s/30s) this gentleman helped make the blue guitar single note repertoire what it is. Wish I could remember his name... :)
- Nav_Panel 13y ago
  Huh, I remember hearing a similar story but I too can't place the name. I bet he was a Chicago guy... maybe Muddy Waters? Johnson and Beiderbecke are both good name from their respective periods (30s country blues and 20s jazz), but I'd argue that there were significantly more influential musicians on the development of the blues style throughout the 40s and 50s. More on that in a minute... Robert Johnson's an interesting guy. Johnson's influence is a weird case: he was almost totally unknown until the early 1960s, when that classic compilation (King of the Delta Blues Singers, on Columbia, 1961) came out with many of his recordings. As a result, his influence really begins to widen in the 1960s, as many white blues-rock bands were starting to form and gain popularity (such as The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds (featuring Eric Clapton), and Mike Bloomfield + Bob Dylan). This blues-rock was the stuff that really made an impact on American society at large, and as a result, we tend to consider Robert Johnson to be one of the seminal blues artists. Odd how that turns out. Anyway, back to seminal blues artists. Lonnie Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yd-c91ww8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yd-c91ww8) were the two who I'd argue contributed most to the "classic" style. Johnson was exceptionally prolific and exceptionally good, and Blind Lemon mentored many young artists, including Robert Johnson and T-Bone Walker. On the white side of things, Eddie Lang (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loc8WiDvNaE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loc8WiDvNaE) was arguably the first jazz guitarist (and had a heavy influence on many blues musicians), and Jimmie Rodgers (yay, awesome video footage! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIlURYJI-xs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIlURYJI-xs) was arguably the first guitar-playing "modern" country musician (he fused country and blues). He too had a wide influence on blues artists, going so far as to collaborate with Louis Armstrong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BFbY9Vw8DM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BFbY9Vw8DM), and to be the reason why Howlin' Wolf started "howling." Thanks for playing :)

fredsanford 13y ago

I tried to play along... There was a blues dude in the mid '40s who originally played an acoustic but on his live shows he had to play electric to be heard over the band. He did a lot of the same material as T-Bone Walker. I cannot for the life of me find or remember his name. Along with Robert Johnson (and Bix Biederbeck, a jazz trumpet player form the 20s/30s) this gentleman helped make the blue guitar single note repertoire what it is. Wish I could remember his name... :)

Nav_Panel 13y ago
Huh, I remember hearing a similar story but I too can't place the name. I bet he was a Chicago guy... maybe Muddy Waters? Johnson and Beiderbecke are both good name from their respective periods (30s country blues and 20s jazz), but I'd argue that there were significantly more influential musicians on the development of the blues style throughout the 40s and 50s. More on that in a minute... Robert Johnson's an interesting guy. Johnson's influence is a weird case: he was almost totally unknown until the early 1960s, when that classic compilation (King of the Delta Blues Singers, on Columbia, 1961) came out with many of his recordings. As a result, his influence really begins to widen in the 1960s, as many white blues-rock bands were starting to form and gain popularity (such as The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds (featuring Eric Clapton), and Mike Bloomfield + Bob Dylan). This blues-rock was the stuff that really made an impact on American society at large, and as a result, we tend to consider Robert Johnson to be one of the seminal blues artists. Odd how that turns out. Anyway, back to seminal blues artists. Lonnie Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yd-c91ww8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yd-c91ww8) were the two who I'd argue contributed most to the "classic" style. Johnson was exceptionally prolific and exceptionally good, and Blind Lemon mentored many young artists, including Robert Johnson and T-Bone Walker. On the white side of things, Eddie Lang (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loc8WiDvNaE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loc8WiDvNaE) was arguably the first jazz guitarist (and had a heavy influence on many blues musicians), and Jimmie Rodgers (yay, awesome video footage! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIlURYJI-xs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIlURYJI-xs) was arguably the first guitar-playing "modern" country musician (he fused country and blues). He too had a wide influence on blues artists, going so far as to collaborate with Louis Armstrong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BFbY9Vw8DM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BFbY9Vw8DM), and to be the reason why Howlin' Wolf started "howling." Thanks for playing :)