I know a dude trying to compile a book of Bix's daily life. this means that dude is trying to actually confirm the location of Bix for EVERY DAY of his professional career right up until his death. Can you imagine the following:
Saturday Dec 10th 1927 woke up at Small's hotel in Des Moines ate breakfast at same hotel wandered streets looking for gin mill found gin mill drank played gig at Dixie Motel same evening with blah blah blah personell drank more played second set met woman sex drank slept
all kidding aside, it is apparently something like this. WHAT AN ENDEAVOR!!!! i cannot imagine how he is doing it (other than going mad reading and interviewing..), but apparently it is happening. More power to him, and I guess that sums up one man's love of Bix!
does the fact that it's got a religious lean make it any less good?
of course not, i never said that. But honestly the vast majority of his songs don't sound like the blues at all, unless you consider everything with a guy and a guitar to be the blues.
does the fact that it's got a religious lean make it any less good?
of course not, i never said that. But honestly the vast majority of his songs don't sound like the blues at all, unless you consider everything with a guy and a guitar to be the blues.
Well, your idea of what constitutes the blues is far more restrictive than most people's, I guess. If anything I hear him referred to as gospel-blues, but I've never heard anybody try to argue that he's not a blues artist at all. When Blind Willie McTell does a song like "Lord Have Mercy If You Please" is it not a blues song because of the subject matter? The blues grew out of spirituals and work songs so I don't see how blues music with a spiritual bent is somehow not blues. The blues and spirituality were always intertwined.
Regardless, it really doesn't matter what you think or what I think. Somebody asked for suggestions on artists to check out and I gave a suggestion. I guess it's up to him to listen to Blind Willie Johnson if he wants and make up his own mind if it's something he likes. I don't want to hijack this thread arguing semantics.
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I know a dude trying to compile a book of Bix's daily life. this means that dude is trying to actually confirm the location of Bix for EVERY DAY of his professional career right up until his death. Can you imagine the following:
Saturday Dec 10th 1927
woke up at Small's hotel in Des Moines
ate breakfast at same hotel
wandered streets looking for gin mill
found gin mill
drank
played gig at Dixie Motel same evening with blah blah blah personell
drank more
played second set
met woman
sex
drank
slept
all kidding aside, it is apparently something like this. WHAT AN ENDEAVOR!!!! i cannot imagine how he is doing it (other than going mad reading and interviewing..), but apparently it is happening. More power to him, and I guess that sums up one man's love of Bix!
of course not, i never said that. But honestly the vast majority of his songs don't sound like the blues at all, unless you consider everything with a guy and a guitar to be the blues.
Well, your idea of what constitutes the blues is far more restrictive than most people's, I guess. If anything I hear him referred to as gospel-blues, but I've never heard anybody try to argue that he's not a blues artist at all. When Blind Willie McTell does a song like "Lord Have Mercy If You Please" is it not a blues song because of the subject matter? The blues grew out of spirituals and work songs so I don't see how blues music with a spiritual bent is somehow not blues. The blues and spirituality were always intertwined.
Regardless, it really doesn't matter what you think or what I think. Somebody asked for suggestions on artists to check out and I gave a suggestion. I guess it's up to him to listen to Blind Willie Johnson if he wants and make up his own mind if it's something he likes. I don't want to hijack this thread arguing semantics.