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

[Ricky Stevens]

Tom,

Please don't make the mistake of trying to insert pesky things like facts and reality into this thread.  That approach obviously doesn't work.

Ricky Stevens 

Arkabutla, Mississippi

> Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 00:23:05 +0300
> From: harri.haka@GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Fwd: Re: A heated discussion on 'Race, Gender & the Blues'
> To: BLUES-L@LISTSERV.NETHELPS.COM
> 
> I had the priviilige of meeting Willie "Big Eyes" Smith two months
> before he died. We talked about white singers with a black voice e.g.
> Tom Jones. And Charley Pride and Ray Charles doing c&w. I doubt that
> blues musicians were actually influenced by c&w and  all of us can hear
> this on recordings and live shows. To be a smart ass, one might say that
> every musician is influenced by Beethoven. But Chuck Berry gave his
> answer to that question.
> Harri
> 
> 
> 29.5.2012 6:09, Tom Hyslop kirjoitti:
> > Harri,
> >
> >  Respectfully submitted, your position as stated is simply incorrect.
> >
> >  Every bluesman of a certain age that I have interviewed - including
> > Magic Slim, Phillip Walker, Big Jack Johnson, John Primer, and many
> > others - professed a deep and abiding love for country music. Whether
> > it was an innate feeling for the style or the fact that it was all
> > they heard on the radio, as has been mentioned, does not much matter.
> > Howlin' Wolf cited the yodeling of The Singing Brakeman, Jimmie
> > Rodgers, as the inspiration for his own vocalizations. Mel Brown
> > toured with Tompall Glaser, just as he did with Bobby Bland; Glaser is
> > a country artist. You can look it up. Or you can continue to believe
> > what you want, rather than to face facts.
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > tom
> >
> > At 3:34 AM +0300 5/29/12, 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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> 
> 
> 
> 
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