A heated discussion on 'Race, Gender & the Blues'

[mannish]

key words 'wider black audience'  which may not mean Ray Charles or BB
King. It is a fact at blues shows you will see a lot of white people,
except for soul blues which has vocals that get in the way of the guitar
solo. If you go to a country show from Garth, Billy Joe Shaver to
Gillian Welch the audience will be real white. A white kid picking up an
instrument is way, way more likely to be influenced by black blues
music, than a black kid being influenced by white country music.

I think in the case of musicians or performers it is a totally different
appreciation.  A lot of musicians play other genres when the mood
strikes them, country players play blues all the time and I am sure
Lurrie Bell has been known to bang out a country song. However not many
black kids are enjoying country music but a helluva lot of white kids
are digging blues music

Blues & jazz has influenced all races & genre but I don't think the same
can not be said of country, folk, bluegrass

I do not know what that has to do with anything and maybe I
misunderstood but country music does not seem to have been that
influential to blues players - Honeslty I am not even sure country music
has been that influential to what is called country music today, sounds
more like southern rock influence.

Back to the original argument it is simple supply and demand.    I can
not imagine a promoter NOT booking someone that will bring in an
audience nor can I see them doing the opposite for very long.

L


On 5/28/2012 7:34 PM, Harri Haka wrote:
> Like I was saying, there was not a general interest for country music
> among the wider black audience. It is of course natural for a talent
> like B.B. King to have studied all genres including country and jazz.
> But does any of this reflect on his actual playing or singing? He has
> flirted with U2, Eric Clapton and others in the past years but I hardly
> find a c&w influence on any of his recordings. Mississippi John Hurt is
> greatly respected but he was a folk singer and story teller with a
> natural connection to country music of his time.
> Harri
>
>
> 29.5.2012 2:35, jinxblues@aol.com kirjoitti:
>>
>>     Not wanting to take part in the c&w discussion more than to say that
>>     there was never a general interest in country music within the black
>>     community.
>>
>>     ------------
>>
>>
>>
>>     This is absolutely not true.
>>
>>
>>
>>     Blues people growing up in the south in the 1930s and 1940s all
>> listened to WLAC (Nashville) with its powerful signal.
>>
>>
>>
>>     B.B.King told me in great detail how he had listen to Gene Autry
>> and Red Foley and Jimmy Rogers.
>>
>>
>>
>>     Mississippi John Hurt's "Let the Mermaids Flirt with me" is
>> unmistakably Jimmy Rogers'"All Around the Water Tank" a/k/a "Waiting
>> for a Train."
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Dick Waterman
>> 1601 Buchanan Avenue
>> Oxford, MS 38655
>>
>
>
>
>
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