Wake Up Call - 6/20
My CD organization is all over the place, but there are definite subsections, and ordering within them (an analyst is an analyst, even at home). One section is devoted to blues artists in alphabetical order (which doesn't prevail everywhere); in that order are several discs that begin with "Blind" and include Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Willie Johnson, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and this week's wake-up musician, Blind Blake. BTW, the handicapped name thing is a whole other story of an era whose time has clearly passed - anyone remember Pegleg Bates, the one-legged dancer or baseball player Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown? I suppose our modern sensitivity accounts for why artists (and recording industry publicists) have stopped marketing handicaps, and why we don't have recordings by Blind Stevie Wonder or Blind Jose Feliciano or Albino Johnny Winter - and no, Blind Faith and Blind Melon don't count.
Blake, who arrived mysteriously on the scene as an accompanist and vanished just as mysteriously a few years later (after cutting over 70 sides), is an absolute master of rag and country blues guitar. He's got a perfect rhythmic sense, and a light and agile style that allows him to play piano ragtime music with both the left and right hand lines going on together; some writers refer to him as the originator of country blues finger-picking style. He's also a pleasant mid-range vocalist who phrases as well with his voice as he does with his guitar.
The CD I've got put in the disc-alarm for this week, Blind Blake: Ragtime Guitar's Foremost Fingerpicker, is a 28-track Yazoo release, with Blake playing both solo and with other musicians, that I believe is now out of print; however, they've replaced it with a more recent compilation. My selected wake-up cut is "Police Dog Blues".
Blake's lightness of touch (on the selected cut, he hits harmonics like he was ringing bells), the jaunty rag-country blues rhythm, and his easy vocalizing make this disc just about perfect wake-up music. Be warned, though - if you're a finger-picking guitarist and haven't heard him before, (a) it's about time and (b) his playing will knock you out.
Blake, who arrived mysteriously on the scene as an accompanist and vanished just as mysteriously a few years later (after cutting over 70 sides), is an absolute master of rag and country blues guitar. He's got a perfect rhythmic sense, and a light and agile style that allows him to play piano ragtime music with both the left and right hand lines going on together; some writers refer to him as the originator of country blues finger-picking style. He's also a pleasant mid-range vocalist who phrases as well with his voice as he does with his guitar.
The CD I've got put in the disc-alarm for this week, Blind Blake: Ragtime Guitar's Foremost Fingerpicker, is a 28-track Yazoo release, with Blake playing both solo and with other musicians, that I believe is now out of print; however, they've replaced it with a more recent compilation. My selected wake-up cut is "Police Dog Blues".
Blake's lightness of touch (on the selected cut, he hits harmonics like he was ringing bells), the jaunty rag-country blues rhythm, and his easy vocalizing make this disc just about perfect wake-up music. Be warned, though - if you're a finger-picking guitarist and haven't heard him before, (a) it's about time and (b) his playing will knock you out.
posted by DJStan at 8:49 AM
1 Comments:
"My CD organization is all over the place, but there are definite subsections, and ordering within them (an analyst is an analyst, even at home)."
Library reference editor was my first profession and one I still claim. B's lucky I don't Dewey-decimal the whole house.
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