Old Timey music

[silenthunterstudios]

Picked up three cds today. Bluegrass genre, 3 bucks a pop, at a pawn shop. O Brother Where Art Thou I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow; Flatt and Scruggs Millenium Collection and Stanley Brothers Millenium Collection. I was going to pick up a Stevie Ray Vaughn Best of Collection and a Ralph Stanley Best of Collection, but both cds were covered with grime. Other than that, lots of junk. It was a hole in the wall pawn shop, no good knives, a few ancient rifles, mainly moldy jewelry and ancient tools. Anyway, it was neat to hear old timey bluegrass, original somewhat "clean" albums. The O Brother Where Art Thou collection, different from the soundtrack in that these songs are the originals that the soundtrack is based on, is my favorite. I think that the blues, all genres, and bluegrass music, are distinctly American, even though artists like Eric Clapton have made the music their own. These two genres spawned rock and roll, jazz, country and western, the country pop that shall not be named, rhythm and blues, soul, rap etc. Ray Charles had his own brand of jazzy blues that had old timey bluegrass spattered in. I know that I've posted on here about blues before, but I just think that these examples of bluegrass are phenomenal.

[EmeraldDog]

You can always count on Flatt & Scruggs for some kick-ass redneck chase music. Something about the twang of a banjo gets me fired up and ready to burn rubber. Check out the Steep Canyon Rangers.

[ded i]

Yeah I enjoy bluegrass - my late husband's family used to play together and some of them cousins were pretty good.

[silenthunterstudios]

My neighbor has what he calls a "Fall Harvest Party" every year, he had a bluegrass band every year, but not last year. It was him, his wife and his friends, and they were very good, but more of a folk music party. My sisters friend has a big party every year, a BIG party, in Jarrettsville. I didn't get to go, I was sick and tired, but from what I hear, I missed out on a great party with some great bluegrass music.

[EmeraldDog]

You probably can't go wrong with live bluegrass. I have yet to go to somethin like that. I'm a bit apprehensive, since I'm on the wrong side of the War of Northern Agression!!!

[xrayzebra]

I think that the blues, all genres, and bluegrass music, are distinctly American... These two genres spawned rock and roll, jazz, country and western

Distinctly American is a Fact despite any popular varieties by non-Americans.

Jazz should be listed as another original American form though, not spawned by the Blues, but developing in parallel. You could say that they were twins, separated at birth... Blues being more of a naive or primitive country form, and Jazz being more the product of more urban and musically educated people, primarily in New Orleans. There was a very important factual link to the difference between the status of the Lousiana slaves and slaves in less Catholic states.

(What I am saying here is not an expert opinion - just what I understand from my studies, and could be wrong in many respects - but I'll share it anyway, with apologies to anyone whose opinion differs.)

Many Lousiana blacks were born free or freed at the slave owner's death, and thus there was a much larger population of free and educated black people there. The laws did not necessarily give children of slaves slave status - they were sometimes raised as free by slave parents - and often when a slave owner died, the slaves were set free.

This led to a much earlier and larger presence of free black people who went on to have their own lives outside of slavery. Children of black doctors and lawyers were often sent to school to learn western classical forms of music, and they applied this education to their new music. There was also a larger population of slaves who were educated to play western music by their owners, and whose "job" as a slave was to entertain rather than what you normally think of.

And, the heavily French and Catholic population of New Orleans didn't consider that you owned a slave's body, soul, and offspring - just his labor. They didn't consider that it was important to keep them ignorant of reading and writing, or to convert them to Christianity. And, they weren't as strict in prohibiting gatherings of slaves to play music and share ideas as slave owners in Virginia, for example.

I'm not saying it was good to be a slave in New Orleans. Just that there were more opportunities for a fairly sophisticated black culture all its own to develop there, compared to cities and states where no slaves or their offspring were ever willingly freed or allowed any kind of education. Jazz grew out of that atmosphere.

Blues was more of a country thing originally, but the two genres are related, of course, and there was not a hard line drawn between them in the early days. However, most early blues musicians were self taught, and they combined their knowledge of African music with a very basic understanding "by ear" of western music. More Jazz musicians were trained in western music. That's not a value judgment. I prefer most Blues to most Jazz, myself.

The development of Jazz through the twentieth century tended toward refinement and musical virtuosity. The development of Blues tended toward tradition and folksier styles until the Blues were taken up by British rock and rollers. American Rock owed more to country music of the 40s and 50s until the British rockers started adding more Blues influences. And, of course, American R&B is another matter... I won't go off on that tangent.

The reflecting of Blues back at American rock by the British rockers from the early 60s onward is what arguably brought what we think of as Rock to have such a strong Blues influence today, although the strength of Memphis connection between Blues and Rock, and Elvis's early work, is just as important.

[silenthunterstudios]

I was unaware of Louisiana's "ideal" of slavery. Thanks for the 411!

[samhain73]

Heres some "Old Timey" for ya................http://www.homestarrunner.com/sneakvideo.html

[Drivetech]

Blues, Bluegrass, and Jazz just sound pure and real. :chuck: