What made you stop, drop n start lovin' the blues?
For me it was a 4 hour home invasion robbery (man w/ a gun), and I was just draggin' myself into a hole. Some friends invited me to see the Ronnie Baker Brooks band out in Rockford. Actually they needed someone to drive them there, so they could get drunk, but it turned me into a fan. And well 100's of pictures, video's and car miles ... and other blues bands, I'm still lovin' Ronnie and the band. Plus former members of the band.
Tags: blues
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Little Johnny on -
I was 17 and snuck into a Chicago Southside Blues Club and saw Lefty Dizz on Stage...
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Permalink Reply by Terrance Lape on -
John you are the man. First heard Johnny Cash at about 6 or 7.
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Permalink Reply by Robert Stanley on -
I saw some of the great old Chicago blues men, who visited a neighbor on occasional weekends during the summer. They'd play blues, tell stories, and laugh. I enjoyed it and it opened my eyes to the Blues.
What got me was the stripped down, no veneer, raw sound and feeling. I could feel it in my heart and soul. It still has to be raw energy for me. I don't like slick-sounding, homogenized blues in any way so I may not be in the majority in that. Never cared if I was.
I'm partial to electric Delta Blues (MUDDY WATERS!) with old Chicago Blues (more MUDDY WATERS!) and Delta following. I like many artists in those veins, particularly, though not limited to that. I've also enjoyed the Blues some of the English groups played: Mayall, Peter Greene's Fleetwood Mac, Clapton and many others.
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Permalink Reply by Mary "Mary4Music" Roby on -
Lonnie Brooks got my blues juices flowing many years ago. (No offense Ronnie, you rock my socks too!) ; )
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Permalink Reply by Number 1 Fan on -
AMen!
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Permalink Reply by Janine Chuba on -
When you look back at all the years spent on lovin' the blues, and any musicians that have been part of the roots of it. I mean if you go back and listen to those old albums and pick out, oh BTO or GFR or any decent rock band, I've been finding there is a blues influence in each one. You might not have noticed it at first, but NOW you do.
And for those who asked in emails, the robbery occured ... April 2005.
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Permalink Reply by Robert Stanley on
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I've said many times, without people like Muddy Waters, there would have been no Elvis, then no Beatles, no Zep, NO popular music as we know it. Blues is the thing.
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Permalink Reply by Terrance Lape on
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My mother bought a six string acoustic guitar after seeing Elvis for the first time on the Ed Sullivan show. Sears sold them for 9.95. That guitar kicked around until I picked it up in 1960. I restrung it with bass strings and used it to play bass. I discovered John Lee Hooker through Canned Heat. Four years later, at the age of 15, I began playing in Bars, mostly Wisconsin. We had a regular booking agent. My mother bought my first bass amp. Ampeg B15. At the time it cost $200. My dad hit the ceiling that was equal to 1 1/2 weeks salary for him. My mother died in 1971 and I enlisted in the US navy shortly after. I had a guitar on board. At that time there were not as many guitar players as there is now. In order to learn a song back then you had to "drop a needle" Record player. To me the blues is a music form that talks. It is another language. I spent my navy years visiting Asian ports. The language barrier was never a problem, because the musicians over there knew how to play a basic blues pattern.
Upon my discharge from the Navy (1975) I started a 5 year wood pattern maker apprenticeship in a steel foundry. That is were I met Robert Smith AKA "Smiling Bobby". He is the one that truly taught me the blues. He and I played for years in every club in the City of Chicago. All the west, east, south and north side clubs. Many times I pulled into that foundry's parking lot and slept in the van until I had to "punch" in. Saw the worst and the best of the blues playing with Bob, huge crowds, little crowds, no crowds, drugs, guns, knives, fights saw it all. While playing in a club at 53rd and Ashland I had a a gun put in my ribs, but that's another story.
I still love the blues and will die humming "Dark Night Falling".
Blues Me or Lose Me,
Terry
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Permalink Reply by Robert Stanley on
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Yeah, you're WAY down the south side. I started on a violin. After a while, I started playing it like a guitar. Finally only had one string left. My parents figured it was time to get me a guitar. They were great. I practiced for 8 hours a day for a couple years. Violins weren't made for picks. I haven't regretted any of it.
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Permalink Reply by Terrance Lape on
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If I had that guitar today I could sell it on Ebay for a million bucks.
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Permalink Reply by kevin barry "bluesglass" on -
You couldn't be more right when you say blues is a language. This weekend my daughter and I walked out of Chinese bar in Toronto, Canada, it must have been ten degrees and snowing like a pup, and got in a cab driven by a Moslem guy named Mohammed. There, in a blizzard in Chinatown, this guy Mohammed was listening to the blues. We talked like we were old college roommates for about twenty minutes. Just shared the love of the music. When we got out, I told my daughter to never forget that scene. It's a life lesson. Music is a language, the great unifier.
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Permalink Reply by Terrance Lape on
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I played with Smilin Bobby last Night at the "Cool River" Just south of Chicago. My 19 year old Daughter saw me perform the real deal for the first time. She and her boyfriend were amazed. I got her on stage to sing fever. What a kid. The 15 year old daughter is waiting in the wings.
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