The Friendly 12bar Blues Guitar Forum

Edit : Please use single quote marks in the subject, looks way better :) /HBL

I was briefly visiting a forum that is geared up to blues. I keep meaning to get on with playing while I'm on holiday and end up on the internet instead.

I occasionally drop in there, but to be honest I don't understand 95% of what's being talked about.

Case in point - Question of what blues players could be considered "cool"? EDIT : I forgot to highlight that the 'cool' was in the sense of low energy 'Cool' rather than high energy 'Hot'.

Of the first 30 or so mentioned I've not even heard of 50% of them and I'd recognise the music of even less.
Fenton Robinson
Mississippi John Hurt
Mose Allison
Applejack
Robert Covington
Wayne Bennett
Clarence Holliman
Alex Schultz
Lil' Ray Neal
Robert Cray
Ronnie Earl
Duke Robillard
Son Seals
Philip Walker
Jimmie Vaughan
B.B. King
Charlie Baty
Robert Nighthawk
Jimmy Rogers
Charles Brown
Skip James
Jimmy Reed
Haskell "Cool Papa" Sadler
Louis Jordan
'Wolfman' Belfour
Robert Jr. Lockwood
Houston Stackhouse
Percy Mayfield
Jimmy Johnson

It makes me feel very ignorant and doubtful I've time to properly explore even a small part of this blues genre. Why did it take me so long to take an interest in the blues.

Can anybody make me feel less dumb and mention players I have heard of or can you make me feel worse by naming even more I don't know?!

Ghehe

Wanna : HBL
Don't wanna : HalfBlindLefty

Peter Green....you might have heard of him
Gary Moore
Luther Allison
His son Bernard Allison
Gregor Hilden
SRV
Freddie King
Seasick Steve
Tommy Castro
All very cool in my opinion and all awesome axe slingers.

Blues is a very big world. It would be very difficult to know every single artist and the songs they play. Most would know the big name players as well as a few of the lesser known players that they take a particular interest in. For instance I only came across seasick Steve by chance but his music doesn't appeal to me much so if it weren't for chance I wouldn't know who he was.
Also coolest blues player (in my opinion). Buddy Guy

I think I know where you were lurking, and I thought the original post meant cool as in "laid back" as opposed to "pour on the coals!", low energy versus high energy. But some of the people on that list aren't always "laid back". Then again I don't know a half dozen of them either. Those folks really seem to dig deep and there's always some friendly disagreement. Always good to listen to the stuff they link to. Very educational.

I like the blues this guy does but I'd never heard of him before last week. Three good tracks on his home page, well worth a listen ...

http://www.livebluesworld.com/profile/BobbieMercyOliver

oneeyedslide wrote:I think I know where you were lurking, and I thought the original post meant cool as in "laid back" as opposed to "pour on the coals!", low energy versus high energy. But some of the people on that list aren't always "laid back". Then again I don't know a half dozen of them either. Those folks really seem to dig deep and there's always some friendly disagreement. Always good to listen to the stuff they link to. Very educational.

It sounds like you've recognised the site! "Dig deep" is right - I mainly lurk (and only occasionally) due to feeling unqualified to say anything in such knowlegable company. It puts me in mind of when I was young hearing my uncle and cousin doing the Times newspaper cryptic crossword (considered a major challenge ) and I could recognise the individual words they said when they were working out the answers but the way the words were put together sounded like a foreign language.

I had meant to put"'cool rather than hot" in my original post. I can see how just saying cool will have misled - sorry guys!

losaavedra wrote:I like the blues this guy does but I'd never heard of him before last week.

Good post - Bobbie Mercy Oliver sounds pretty cool to me on both definitions of cool. But .... yet another new name for me.

One name that didn't turn up on that forum which seemed to me to fit all definitions of cool was John Lee Hooker. He could make low energy spark like mad.
...................................................

Still - at least I recognised most of the names you guys have mentioned (though there's one or two more new ones).

Anyway - I suppose I should enjoy the new discoveries and enjoy the journey rather than worry about how much I don't know.

HBL - see what you mean about the thread title quote marks, good advice - I 'll try and remember.

Cool? That's John Lee Hooker, no one else. OK, maybe Albert King. But JLH has 10 of 10 on the coolness scale.

What about.....

Sue Foley
Blind Willie Johnson
Sylvester Weaver
Tampa Red
Pop Staples
Robert Ward
Hi Tide Harris
Albert Collins
Goeff Whitehorn ( ex Procul Harem)

.... there must be more Blues Players than players of any other style/genre.

What about...

Alan Hayes
BB Chung King
Bill Perry
Chris Thomas King
Dr. Wu'
Henrik Freischlader
Ian Siegal
Joanne Shaw Taylor
Joe Moss
Kal David
Mark Kerr
Mike Zito
Monti Amundson
Moreland & Arbuckle
Snowy White
Vincent Hayes
Volker Strifler

...to name a few..

... then there's McKinley Morganfield (a.k.a. Muddy Waters), reckoned to be the 'father of Chicago Blues' and considerably influenced B B King.
T-Bone Walker ... his was one of the first vinyl blues albums I bought way way back.
Elmore James.
Jimmy Witherspoon.
This kind of list will just get longer and longer !!!

How about
HalfBlindLefty
VikingBlues
12bar
MojoJim
Golfzxq
DeaconBlues
Strummer07
NXSNieil
Oneeyedslide
etc...
Lots of "cool" blues players here.

Now I've heard of those guys!

Oh-oh, now you have really started something, Bb.

I'll admit that there was a brief flash of feeling flattered - and then the realization that I am neither cool nor a proper guitarist - yet.

But I would nominate Bad Blues Player, Blues 2 Move, Blackhorse and many others that are more worthy of the list. Folks whose music I admire and study.

Blindboy wrote:How about
HalfBlindLefty
VikingBlues
12bar
MojoJim
Golfzxq
DeaconBlues
Strummer07
NXSNieil
Oneeyedslide
etc...
Lots of "cool" blues players here.