Word: bluesmen
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Died. Josh White, 61, Negro blues and folk singer, whose laments in the 1940s led to a rebirth of folk music in the U.S.; during heart surgery; in Manhasset, N.Y. Born in Greenville, S.C., White spent his youth roaming through the South with such master bluesmen as Joel Taggart and Blind Lemon Jefferson. In 1941, he burst on the scene with Chain Gang, a bestselling record album of songs from the Georgia prison farms. Before long, he had scores of imitators around the country, and became a nightclub fixture-casually hunched over his guitar, a burning cigarette tucked behind...
...exactly knocking Clapton or white Blues. I like the stuff and I have bought albums by most of the groups that I have named. Many white Bluesmen are technically excellent and their music is far better than most of the garbage that is called Rock today. Nevertheless, white Blues is fundamentally imitative, and while Bloomfield and Clapton can play and charm the groupies, when they try to imitate the vocals of Mississippi sharecroppers they just don't make...
...every one of these established Bluesmen who plays the Fillmore there are hundreds of beautiful musicians who play 6 hours a night, seven nights a week on Chicago's South Side. While Cream and Eric Clapton rake in $10,000 for one show, J. B. Hutto plays all night at Peppers Lounge and goes to work in a body shop in the morning to make payments on his guitar and feed his kids. You've probably never heard of J. B. Hutto but superstars like Clapton and Butterfield have and they know that without Hutto and hundreds of anonymous Bluesmen...
...factors accouting for the greatness of these three Bluesmen (and one of the chief weaknesses of white Blues) is the perfect integration of the singing style and lyrics with a complementary instrumental style. This is essential, for in the Blues the instrument, like the voice, is an extension of the Bluesman, his suffering, his pain, his love, his soul and his ability to express his feelings through his Blues...
...comparison has some interesting implications. Johnson is the fountainhead of modern Blues. He is the greatest figure in Mississippi Delta Blues which became Chicago Blues through Bluesmen like Elmore James and was transformed into Modern Urban Blues by B. B. King. Hendrix may, in truth, be the spiritual heir of Robert Johnson. He is the most innovative and modern guitarist on the contemporary Rock scene. King may be the most perfect Blues guitarist alive but his style is of another era. If Blues is to continue to exist it must evolve and Hendrix seems to be leading that revolution...