Preston
391 posts
May 31, 2009
7:17 PM
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Oooohhhh, nice one!
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Buddha
560 posts
May 31, 2009
7:38 PM
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now maybe you guys understand why my wife has never seen Jason Ricci and New Blood. I don't allow it.
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jawbone
55 posts
May 31, 2009
8:12 PM
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Zack - We're yankin' your chain 'cause we love ya!!!! I wish I had your youth on my side. You do it any way you want. As far as I can see - it's workin'for ya!!
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If it ain't got harp - it ain't really blues!!!!
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sopwithcamels266
81 posts
Jun 01, 2009
12:17 AM
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Zack:Well you have handled the unslaught with dignity and I admire that.
Everyones experiences in life are different, yours will be your road no one elses.
I would say go out and really enjoy life and do what you want to do and things will take care of themselves.
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ZackPomerleau
117 posts
Jun 01, 2009
5:16 AM
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Oh I figured you guys were kidding! But, yes I am just trying to get through, and being younger might make it easier to learn but makes it harder to be respected by the people you need to learn from.
Buddha, maybe it wouldn't Be Shawn who changes her, maybe she'll hear Jason do all those tongue flutters and slaps and wonder why YOU don't do them yourself so often.
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kudzurunner
487 posts
Jun 01, 2009
6:37 AM
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Zack:
This thread, with its locker-room bravura and chain-yanking--both of which you've responded to with appropriate aggression--prove my point: if you want to play the blues, the older guys will, at some point, demand that you make it clear why you belong. This isn't ageism, by the way. Or if it is, it's absolutely essential ageism, crucial to the production of seasoned and mature musicians. It is, and has always been, the way of the blues world. And the jazz world, as far as I know.
At some point soon I'm going to post a long excerpt from a 1995 interview with Junior Wells in LIVING BLUES magazine. He tells a story about his brief and explosive apprenticeship with Sonny Boy Williamson. It isn't pretty, but the lesson he draws from it--and that Sonny Boy explicitly highlights--is that Sonny Boy's seemingly harsh treatment was exactly what Junior needed in order to become a skilled blues player.
Last Edited by on Jun 01, 2009 6:38 AM
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Buddha
565 posts
Jun 01, 2009
7:11 AM
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"Sonny Boy's seemingly harsh treatment was exactly what Junior needed in order to become a skilled blues player."
see the thread on how I teach and then notice all of the accolades from people I have taught.
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The Gloth
66 posts
Jun 01, 2009
7:19 AM
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Did Sonny Boy hit Jimmy on the head with a stick, like Paï Meï in "Kill Bill II" ?
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ZackPomerleau
122 posts
Jun 01, 2009
8:23 AM
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Chris, you're right. I see that.
Adam, that's cool. But, if someone gets up in my face and says, "why you play the blues," then I will just walk. They don't need a reason, I just do. If that is not enough you aren't even a real blues musician. I have played with a few REAL blues guys, including a drummer who played with Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, and EVEN Paul Butterfield. And, yes, he is black. And he liked how I played the blues. He even told me we bleed the same color blood. If you ask me, it's us 'whitey's' that are screwing it all up and adding the huge race factor. Most blacks don't care.
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chromaticblues
124 posts
Jun 01, 2009
9:39 AM
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I'm 46 years old and I agree with Zach and these young dudes. Playing music is something you feel and have control over. It is part of who you are! If blues can't see colors then I don't think it can tell your age either. Being a young musician just means you haven't traveled that many roads yet. Some people read books to travel to places they can't go. If your a young blues man stock up on blues recordings and learn from different people. PRACTICE and MASTER as many techniques as possible!! Not just overblows cause that's cool and en vogue with all the hottest harp players. There are a lot of cool tongue blocking techniques that take years to master.
Don't apologize for your age! Practice and kick ass!
Last Edited by on Jun 01, 2009 10:07 AM
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ZackPomerleau
129 posts
Jun 01, 2009
10:21 AM
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Exactly. And, some young people have traveled 'roads' metaphorically that some never will. Tongue blocking? RULEZ...hahaha.
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Max-T
12 posts
Jun 03, 2009
3:04 AM
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lol Zack
I'm also only 17 and have just recently picked up the harmonica after playing piano for five years and guitar for three.
Now I'm not saying I'm good at it, I mean I can kinda make some passible wailing sounds along to records but I have a LOOOOOONNNG journey ahead of me. I'm happy to start out small and really I don't care if I don't make it big, I'd be happy to just go busking on the side of the street for the rest of my days. Now granted I'd like to get what I feel as good at the instrument but if someone comes along and says I've got no soul in the music or tells me that I can't play or tells me I'm rubbish, then I guesse I'd just have to shrug and keep on playing. Personally I don't think blues is a music which 13-14-15 year olds (and certainly not 12 year olds) Should be really thinking of playing because I don't think they have that kind of maturity you need for the blues (I think I'm starting to sound like a twat here )
But I feel two things about this topic :
1. All good original blues comes from some place deep in the soul, its this really heartfelt deep music that makes other people feel maybe a slice of your troubles. Take a look at Sonny Boy Williamson's Nine Below Zero, The kind of emotion in that song transcends the words he sings, its in his voice(I don't want to sound like an idiot here, he did do it originally didn't he? even if its not his original comp its a damn good song, full of emotion)
2. You can't really tap into this place, and create real blues without some kind of hardship behind you. Its all part of the blues, how can you get people to feel what you want, that sorrow and anger and possible sense of helplessness with out having expereienced it yourself?? its like someone asking you to build a computer without knowing what each part is (ok bad analogy but you kinda get the idea)
On a recent documentary about British blues one of the interviewees from a band (possibly fleet wood mac or the Rolling stones) said that when the blues came over to Brittian they could emulate that sound, but whenever they tried an original composition it always came out strange. He highlighted the fact that the people who came up with these songs were cotton field workers, the 17 and 18 year olds in Brittian who wanted to create blues had never had experiences like that. Its as if they were outsiders looking in on something.
I don't know if anyone will be able to decifer my ramblings but I guesse what I'm saying is yes I belive that you do need a hardship or you need to "pay your dues" You also need a level of maturity which 12-15 year olds wont nessicarily get.
as for me, well I think I have the maturity as for hardship, I ain't seen nothing yet, Lets hope it doesn't kill me.
I supose the saying what doesnt kill you makes you stronger would tie in well here
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"imagination is more important then knowledge" - Albert Einstien
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ZackPomerleau
139 posts
Jun 03, 2009
11:42 AM
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I am more mature than most people double my age, a fact. I know it from meeting many people. And, I do not speak of my personal life, but if the things I have been through don't allow me to be a 'bluesman' than nothing will.
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Max-T
14 posts
Jun 03, 2009
3:54 PM
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I hope I wasn't comming across as arrogant or such and I never mean any disrespect, I didn't realise there was a second page to this thread and I was laughing at your "I think I'll stay at home " comment.
That and my remarks were not really aimed at you but as a thought on the blues in general.
However you seem to have the right attitude for blues, and I'm not going to press on any personal issue you may have had, the fact is you have got or are getting through it, Keep it up buddy and don't stop feeling those blues!
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"imagination is more important then knowledge" - Albert Einstien
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ZackPomerleau
141 posts
Jun 03, 2009
5:17 PM
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Hey man, it's okay. I've just been fired up because some people have said some really stupid things. It's cool; lets chat sometimes!!!
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Elwood
69 posts
Jun 03, 2009
5:35 PM
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Well, now that we're all feeling good about one another again -- Adam, let's see that Junior Wells interview. I guess it must be the Living Blues #119 (January/February 1995).
- Murray, 22. Very little affinity for the blues.
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Greg Heumann
73 posts
Jun 04, 2009
10:15 PM
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I'm jumping in really late, but Adam replied to my earlier post "As for important qualifications for superior blues harp playing, according to you, including having played in jingles, TV commercials, and movie soundtracks and being widely known throughout the music industry: I disagree."
I didn't intend to mean those were qualifications for superior blues harp playing, only good indicators of who already is one. My interpretation of the thread was "can a kid be a blues player at the top of the profession" - not "can a kid be a great blues player."
I certainly do NOT think one has to do ad jingles to be a great blues player.
Given that, I hope we no longer disagree (though disagreement is completely cool too.)
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/Greg
http://www.BlowsMeAway.com
http://www.BlueStateBand.net
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gorignak
43 posts
Jun 04, 2009
11:55 PM
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I finally read the whole post, and I have nothing to add to the main topic that hasn't already been said, but Buddha, when you said:
"people who don't know shit about the harp will tell you that you play great and remind them of Bob Dylan. So then the ask you to play the piano man lick or love me do"
I laughed so hard. I'm 19, and when I was in high school I use to practice while walking from class to class and I heard that exact same thing every time someone commented on my playing. I got so sick of it! I learned those licks for the soul purpose of shutting people up.
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mikolune
6 posts
Jun 05, 2009
5:15 AM
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One thing that's for sure is that the young guys (I am not one of them) will inevitably get old and therefore go through the maturation process. Whatever the older guys can teach them about life, besides a little respect, they'll learn it sooner or later...
Last Edited by on Jun 05, 2009 5:15 AM
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GGiles
33 posts
Jun 05, 2009
5:27 AM
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Sounds like the way just about every thing is in this world.
As we age we demand our children to pay their dues.
When the new college grad takes his first job ... he gets a good sniffing from the older dogs.
That's life ... what to experience it real quick? Join the army at 18... you will pay some dues!
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sopwithcamels266
96 posts
Jun 06, 2009
9:38 AM
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Well some interesting comments overall and some not quite so interesting ha ha.
What is consistant with just about all forums are the levels of misinterpretation.( face to face interaction is still best, just like LIVE music is best.)
This misinterpretation (notice I use the word again) can be to some extent inexperience of life ie youth.This however dosen't always apply there are the odd one or two precocious types.
By the same token folk who have been around an awful long time who can be ignorant and shallow.We can all be guilty of it.
To me forums are bit like playing computer chess.
Make a move, wait the response,react.
Depending on the level of computer game or the state of the batteries.
There way be a euphemism here, ha
Last Edited by on Jun 06, 2009 9:40 AM
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Jim Rumbaugh
48 posts
Jun 06, 2009
2:39 PM
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Yes, as Adam said, I took up the harp because I wanted to get laid.
it didn't work.
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oldwailer
754 posts
Jun 06, 2009
5:31 PM
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People here are talking about "mature" as if it was a good thing--that just means to me that they ain't "mature" enough yet to really know--IT SUCKS!
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