Why hasn't this reviewer heard the term "Alt-Blues" and what can be done about it?
Nice review here for GravelRoad but it begs the question: Why hasn't this reviewer heard the term "Alt-Blues" and what can be done about it? Is this still too obscure a sub-genre within an already obscure to the mainstream genre...that being blues? Going on the third year of the Deep Blues Festival not to mention the contless posts i've done on my blogs and website i've seen the alt-blues sound grow by bits and chunks. Who do we have to sleep with to hype this junque into the mainstream? Opinions?
http://jukejointsoul.blogspot.com/2009/03/gravelroad-shot-devil.html
-Rick
http://jukejointsoul.blogspot.com/2009/03/gravelroad-shot-devil.html
-Rick
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mary Anne McLaurin on -
they refer to Jeff as "alt-blues" here in SC. What a joke. They obviously don't understand "alt-blues" either!
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Permalink Reply by Eric on -
Hey Rick
Well we've talked about this a bit in the past. If there was a concerted push on the term Alt Blues, we might get somewhere. But we've used Deep Blues, Punk Blues and other variations to try to describe music that isn't always blues on the surface, but has blues in it's gut.
So which way do we go...is it Alt Blues, Deep Blues, Punk Blues or something else. If we pick a way forward and press it hard, maybe we'll get somewhere.
I like the term Deep Blues, but I think it only has meaning if you know what it means. A conundrum. So it doesn't automatically define itself to someone unfamiliar with the term.
I like Alt Blues the least. The word alternative got crushed in the '90s (and took some of my favorite music with it). But I think it would click more quickly with folks, given the success of the alt country movement.
So if we're going with our heart and soul, deep blues works. but if we're trying to start a movement...well...perhaps alt blues is better.
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Permalink Reply by Chad Nordhoff on -
I think Alt Blues makes a better bumpersticker. Deep Blues should be kept a little closer to the vest. That way when Minneapolis becomes the new Seattle and Alt Blues becomes nothing more than a haircut, those left standing still have the heart and soul.
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Permalink Reply by Black River Bluesman on -
Hi,
We decided to use the term alt.blues and so we have a society (?) called Alt.Blues Finland ry. We are organizing an international festival called Floating Cocroach Festival in Helsinki. It has got good publicity in Finland/Estonia in nationwide media, press and radio. I think people who know a little about rock music genres in general now have an idea of alt.blues too back here... Of course there are always strong emotions against any categorizing of music. But I don't think alt.blues is a category as it includes many different genres like punk-, garage-, industrial-, psychedelic-, psycho-, trash-blues, blues noire - what have you (we call ours animal-blues;))). Maybe it is rather an attitude and it only gives you a warning that you are not going to hear that same old blues stuff you expect from a "blues band"?
What we have noticed here is that alt.blues is helping all blues to get new fans from young generations and keeps the blues alive.
www.myspace.com/floatingcockroach
See you at Deep Blues!
j u kk a
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Permalink Reply by Deep Blues Festival on -
I'm putting the slogan
Alt Blues... Whatever That Is
on all the posters and handbills for the '09 fest. I just switched the 3 genre tags on the festival myspace page to
Alternative, Blues, and Other.
The All Music Guide has a listing for Punk Blues:
Punk blues take the structure and simple instrumentation of classic blues songs and mixes them with punk's rawness, distorted guitars, and attitude (which has much in common with the attitude of many blues artists like Hound Dog Taylor and Little Walter). The style has forerunners in the garage rock sound of the mid-'60s, the primal howl of early Captain Beefheart, and especially in the raw and desperate sound of the Gun Club's landmark Fire of Love LP from 1981, but punk blues really came to life in the early '90s with bands like the seminal Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Gories, and the Gibson Brothers. The sound of punk blues continued into the 2000s with even more visibility thanks to the popularity of the White Stripes.
They list this under the genre tree with
pop/rock/alternative/indie-rock/punk blues
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:13419
It isn't listed as a style under the Blues genre. Go figure.
Chris
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Permalink Reply by Chad Nordhoff on
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I'm not sure who the target audience is at this point. Assuming the alt blues community agrees that the joint was lit by Burnside, Kimbrough, McDowell etc... who do we pass it to next? Who are we trying to attract (or repel)? It's hard to sell a miscellaneous box of stuff (i checked on ebay, no bids yet).
Like the Deep Blues Festival, the bands and representatives will have to display the alt blues torch wherever they go. It's not hard to reach the alt audience but the blues may be a different story. I think Moreland & Arbuckle, Mark Holder, Gabe Carter, Jimbo Mathus, Ray Cashman etc. are some good examples of icebreakers in the blues establishment.
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Permalink Reply by Chad Nordhoff on
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And while my brain continues to churn; alt blues may be explained, in short, as Blues that has basically bypassed the whole Clapton, Hendrix, Vaughan guitar hero era. That seems to be the biggest common alt factor. The core influences on the blues side are much the same as those of the guitar heroes but alt blues is understood and developed in an entirely different way.
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Permalink Reply by ACMercker on -
Hey Rick!
This is a good question... It makes me think of the No Depression crowd. They just refused to be classified and alt.country is what they ended up with. Instead, in my opinion, we should just embrace it... I just went to the myspace.com/thegoldenrogers page and changed the genre to Alternative : Blues : Other. The truth is that the Alt thing has got baggage... I felt dirty...but I went ahead with it. I almost went with Alternative: Country : Blues.... since it was Garage : Country : Blues. But I'm goin with the flow on this one. I've got to see how the Alt. Lifestyle feels on me.
Alt.Blues rings pretty true. Not much Jimi comin out of my Telecaster, I'll tell you. Since we've got a brand, let's stick to it. The Bass player in our little horn band put it best. "Hey... it's not the name that makes the band, it's the Band that makes the name." Same must be true of a movement.
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Permalink Reply by Rick Saunders on -
All good comments folks. punk blues has its accuracy in some cases but in many cases not.
and while alt-anything has it's own ickyness it carries far less baggage than punk-somethingorother.
But the alt-country/alt-blues thing is an interesting discussion. In the case of alt-country or insurgent country as it was originally called (insurgent or punk...either way is ain't gonna work in Lisa Simpson's latest issue of Non-Threatening Boy Magazine) was used tioi define bands that were in most cases countrier-than-thou (to quote Robbie Fulks)...to seperate new bands that were playing music that was actually far more country traditional in style that the pop-country crap coming out of Nash-vegas...but in the case of alt-blues does that differentiation hold water? i'd say in some cases sure...in others not so much. Like country there are so many different styles within blues. For example, if you play strictly piedmont style are you alt-blues because nobody plays or is familiar with piedmont style anymore? I'm just bein' a blues monkey throwin' crap and seeing if it sticks. and it's time to go home. carry on.
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Permalink Reply by Chad Nordhoff on
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I made some flyers for the Black Diamond Heavies and used the term Punk Blues. The club owner wouldn't hang them up because he thought that they would scare away more people rather than attract them. It was a great unadvertised show. Everyone was nervous and scared at first but it turned out to be a great 3+ hour no holds barred royal rumble.
When I think punk blues i think of someone dragging a guitar and drumset over a railroad crossing and not quite beating the train.
It's 3:30 am and i just saw Marty Reinsel (Gravelroad), Eric Deaton, Cedric Burnside, Lightnin' Malcolm, and more, and then gave T Model Ford and ms. Stella a ride back to the hotel before coming home. Alt Blues is soundin' damn good right now!
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Permalink Reply by ACMercker on
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When I started playing music out, people who knew blues said to me, "You know you're not playing the blues, right?" and people who didn't really know blues would call to me on the street, "Hey Blues Man!" which I didn't really like either since I felt I didn't deserve such a proud label. Being a "Bluesman" meant a world of experiences I didn't have and some I could never have. There were always a few guys around who bought those fedoras and looked like they needed change, for a cup of coffee. I never felt any kindred spirit with those guys. It always seemed to me that because of Where the music I made would come from somewhere that felt like the blues, that was always the best name, even if I didn't or wouldn't use that term myself.
SO just last night, I'm going through a book on beginning guitar staring at an explanation of the blues and how to play it on the TWO pages they dedicated to teaching it. TWO pages. 2. But the funny thing is that I studied it and will go back and study it some more BECAUSE, I'm still looking for what the blues is and how I fit into it. As a self taught player, there are huge holes in my knowledge and I stumble on stuff all the time which everyone else probably takes for granted.
I guess the point is that we can't let the evolution or territorial nature of terminology keep this rich tradition we're a part of keep us from a broader audience. An audience hungry for the honesty and honest soul searching and revelation (both self and otherwise) which comes out of making this music. That letting yourself become the conduit for something true, something that reaches out and touches is not barred or better yet avoided by folks because of a bad label. no matter what db level.
I get the icky feeling with Alternative Blues but not as much as being part of a movement which is roughly defined by the term.... alt.blues .
Sorry for the ramble... -acm
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Permalink Reply by Chad Nordhoff on
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AC - I get what you're saying about that Icky feeling. The feeling probably isn't totally avoidable when music is in your heart and soul. I guess I see the use of the term alt as something like a summer job. When you're 16 and you take a job at Dairy Queen in order to buy a car, it's a means to an end.
Specifically; the Deep Blues Festival July 16-19 2009 in Minneapolis, MN is the car and alt blues is the gig. There will be over 70 bands, probably none of whom will be thrilled about the term. However, this instance requires some wholesale branding. The cure for the icky feeling may be to separate business and art. After that it the rules change a little. Some things are for sale and some aren't.
I had a guy refer to my music as 'bluegrass' one night. Then he requested Foreigner's "Juke Box Hero". Things got a little tense there for a minute, ya gotta shake 'em on down.
© 2012 Created by Eric.
