I got to thinking the other day, dangerous I know, that one’s definition of “old”, “elder”, these kind of terms differ with the perspective of one’s age. For instance, to me Franklin Delano Roosevelt would be old or an elder, but to my 19 year old son FDR would be ancient. Get the idea? So in the realm of blues men or women, we have an interesting proposition in the accepted hierarchy of the genre. Lets go ahead and say, the opinions are mine.
So lets take a look at this idea, in my perspective folks like Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie, Son House, Big Mama Thornton would be considered older almost on the ancient list. Then we have the BB Kings, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Lightning Hopkins of the world, along with Magic Sam, Little Walter, T-Bone Walker, with Albert and Freddie King, Buddy Guy coming a short bit later but definitely on the list. This list would be considered to be the elder statesmen of the blues genre.
Here’s is where it gets interesting and the lines become a bit blurred as far as the age of the reader is concerned. Whereas I have always thought of Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter, Peter Green, Jimmy Page, Mike Bloomfield, Jeff Beck, Robben Ford, Rory Gallagher, Lonnie Mack, Roy Buchanan, Albert Collins as the leaders in the resurgence of the blues genre that occurred in the 60’s. Stevie Ray Vaughn almost single-handedly brought the genre back from the near-dead when Texas Flood debuted in 1983. Then another resurgence occurred late 80’s well into the 90’s. You had artists like Kenny Wayne Shepard, Philip Sayce, Jeff Healey preaching the word. The hierarchy has been shifted up by 40 – 50 years.
Now, today’s kids see Clapton and his crowd the way we saw Robert Johnson and his fellow artists, that is, as almost ancient. Stevie and co, are now seen as the old crew. You following my logic? Now, the resurgence is people like Marcus King, Sean Chambers , Jeremiah Johnson, etc. This latest resurgence in blues and guitar in general was in all probability brought in with the popularity of Joe Bonamassa, like him or not, I believe he helped bring guitar back to the forefront. In this age of the auto-tuner and sampling Joe was indeed a breathe of fresh air. Yes, I know, I left your favorite or your, “how could he leave ” blank ” off this report”, well I’m sorry I couldn’t list every blues player that ever counted. I just wanted to give you an idea. As usual the thoughts and opinions are my own, your mileage may vary.
Make a JoyFull Noise,
dave