teej

[quote name='chris_b' post='731635' date='Feb 1 2010, 01:07 PM']That was good, but how come as soon as the bass solo starts the camera man looses interest in the band?[/quote] Yeah I spotted that Well, to be fair I started losing it myself towards the end by the sound of it! Not really a solo guy.

There must be thousands of photos and hundreds of video clips of us performing in the street out there, but if they are getting uploaded it's not generally with any key words that make sense to me, but... bingo! found one today from weekend before last. Here 'tis...

I think these sort of feelings creep in when we feel powerless. Try stepping out of your normal stomping grounds. Maybe try an established jam or open mic in another town - or in another part of town if you live somewhere big. Consider stepping outside your genre comfort zone (but still something you like). You'll probably feel like you're taking more control over your musical destiny; you'll have some fresh new experiences to widen your horizons; you'll make some new contacts; you'll take on a challenge or 2 to wake yourself up a bit musically. Even if nothing concrete comes from actions like these in terms of a new band, you'll have taken an active role and swept away some cobwebs, hopefully cheering yourself up along the way. Stick with it and good luck!

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='705758' date='Jan 8 2010, 05:14 PM']They wrote some great songs and they never saw a penny of royalties for any of 'em. [/quote] Oh great. Thanks. Now I have Guilt.

Oh yes. Bought an upright so I could play folk blues by the likes of Leadbelly, Tampa Red, and of course those two guys with the phenomenal output between them: Trad and Anon.

Worth remembering that he was around for quite a while and the stuff posted so far is long after he'd already made his name as a Rhythm & Blues artist (lost it again maybe? I don't know) and was making a comeback in a different direction. Here's some earlier stuff.

[quote name='JTUK' post='705122' date='Jan 8 2010, 08:50 AM']But...when it is played in a very basic form..and not so well by the whole band, then I can give it a big miss...[/quote] Glib or not, it certainly carried a kernel of truth! As a big blues fan and professional blues bassist I loathe the 'blues as a vehicle for rock-guitar cliches' approach that seems to dominate the contemporary blues scene. As buskers we see instantly what works well and what doesn't, and some of our biggest earners are when our front man puts the guitar down and we perform as a harp/drums/upright bass trio. I'll bet that back in the day Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf were regarded primarily as singers, not guitarists. Someone posted a comment about the best music being from a melting pot: and the blues always was - with big variations due to location, function (ie where it was performed and who to) and time period. A lot of bands sound like they've taken one narrow example (probably Elmore James' version of Dust My Broom, or something by Stevie Ray Vaughan) from this vast bewildering organic gumbo and not looked any further. I suspect a lot of the books/learning sites using blues as starting point will not actually point the learner to the broad scene of the '40s/'50s, but the narrower post '60s. After all, that earlier stuff is not always so easy.

[quote name='iconic' post='705104' date='Jan 8 2010, 08:33 AM']I wondered what the woman from the Tom and Jerry cartoons did during the week ? I agree that is fantastic [/quote] Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog was written for her by Leiber & Stoller, who were scared stiff of her! Lyrically it's clearly a woman's song. There is a male response: 'Bear Cat', by Rufus Thomas (Walking the Dog).

No idea how much it's worth - but I think I paid £85 for a new one, probably in '77. Sadly I had to sell it to raise the £275 for my Ric 4001!

[quote name='JTUK' post='704667' date='Jan 7 2010, 07:47 PM']So gtrs will play with you...or rather you can hold them up while they piddle over everything.. You can then bin it and do something more interesting[/quote] Sadly I think you might be right judging from some of the awful blues-rock outfits I've seen/heard over the years. Fortunately that's not the whole picture. Check out the rootsier contemporary blues outfits for better grooves, and better balance between the instruments, or head back and listen to the masters. I suspect that most of the blues I listen to on my iPod is piano/horn-led rather than guitar, f'rinstance. And not a 'donk-da-donk' anywhere to be heard. I think one of the best reasons for starting with blues is having a framework to quickly play with other musicians I did a quick look on youtube for some examples, I wanted one of the young Hubert Sumlin playing proto-funk with Howling Wolf back in the '50s, but can't find one. How about this one instead, kinda funky with electric bass riffing, cliched intro, but stick with it... ...and this, not exactly funky, but pure blues bass: some root and fifth, some walking, some riffing, all depending on what else is going on...

[quote name='Duarte' post='703039' date='Jan 6 2010, 04:24 PM']Awesome. Anyone have any experience getting across the underground with one?[/quote] I used to have a residency at 'Ain't Nothing But...' in Kingly St, Soho, and I'd come up from Winchester by train. I did it twice a month for a couple of years, but it's not far on the underground. Again no problems that I remember.

[quote name='Duarte' post='702773' date='Jan 6 2010, 01:08 PM']Thanks for the reply. I thought this might be the case - and it's true - a bass is not that much bigger than a few bikes or something like that. I'll just hop on the train and see what happens![/quote] I travel on trains with my upright regularly - by which I mean 4 or more journeys a week. No hassle. I often whip the strap off the case and wrap it around the neck and any suitable fixtures. Sometimes I get asked if it's mine, and usually get the response, 'just checking - did you know the door opens on that side at Woking?' or somesuch.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='700059' date='Jan 3 2010, 10:32 PM']1. Having just looked at the video, I found it a lot of fun. He's a good player with a good grasp of technique & didn't hook his thumb over the top of the neck once or look remotely sloppy in any way. 2. We see a lot of these threads on BC where people automatically decry anything technically interesting, or more to the point, automatically lambaste what they jealously realise they cannot emulate or hope to achieve themselves. My point? [i][b]Don't you dare[/b][/i] decry any professional musician until you've put thirty years' worth of hard practise into your own playing. 3. Stop arguing over nothing. You make yourselves look like a bunch of girls! 4. Here's 20p - You need to call someone who gives a f***![/quote] OK. I've been playing 33 years. Good grasp of technique apart, I still say it's a poor rendition of blues. It's a 'party-piece' rather than art. Johnson and Skip James both performed it at a far higher level of musicianship. My [i]automatic[/i] reaction to this thread when I saw Max's response and realised it was Hodgkinson he was writing about was 'pfah - what the hell's he on about?' Then I watched the performance and within a couple of 12-bars I knew exactly what he meant. It was my [i]reasoned[/i] response that I then gave. Why shouldn't we all be free to express our opinions here about music without our comments opening us up for personal attack?

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='699529' date='Jan 3 2010, 01:58 PM']It was good, but am I the only one who thinks it would have sounded better on guitar?[/quote] What? Like an old Gibson L1, maybe played with a bottleneck?

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='699448' date='Jan 3 2010, 01:13 PM']Wow... I really like Colin H., but the response to Max's relatively inoffensive comment is way out of proportion IMO.[/quote] Agreed. Seemed more like calling a spade a spade - blunt maybe, but not particularly rude.

[quote name='bassace' post='699295' date='Jan 3 2010, 10:24 AM']Funny the old saw thing. Some time ago I was clearing out my garage and found an old BG hard case. My young brother had just bought a BG after many years not having played and so I gave it to him. Later when I asked if it was OK he told me that after he had sawn an inch off the headstock the BG fitted perfectly. Thing is, he is such a perfectionist that when I saw his handiwork I couldn't tell that he had shortened it.[/quote] That's hilarious - you mean he actually took a saw to his bass just to take advantage of a free case? Brilliant story, thanks.

[quote name='maxrossell' post='699381' date='Jan 3 2010, 12:13 PM']Well, apologies if a video of some skinny white bloke with stupid hair in a crap sweater using one of the sh*ttest bass sounds I've ever heard to accompany himself murdering a Robert Johnson in a dull, toneless voice doesn't yank my crank.[/quote] I agree - this is a pretty poor rendition of a classic blues - no I couldn't do it, but I wouldn't want to: it falls into the classic trap of rocking up the blues, and losing the whole feel and soul of the genre in the process. Charlie Haden does this kind of thing much better. By the way, I remember now that I was mistaken by saying 'the Robert Johnson original' - this was recorded 6 years earlier by pianist Skip James as '22-20 Blues':

[quote name='maxrossell' post='699346' date='Jan 3 2010, 11:40 AM']Sorry, but that's just... Lame.[/quote] Not a great example of a great bass-player (the Robert Johnson original is fantastic, one of my favourite songs). I got into Back Door back in the '70s and was totally gobsmacked by Hodgkinson: a quick youtube search reveals this (clearly solo renditions of '30s blues classics is a bit of a party piece for him) - but I think you should delve into the band stuff available from the same gig (I haven't yet) - there's probably better playing in those.

Probably my fave ever electric bassline. Can't help with tab tho', sorry, never really got my head round it.

Hmmm. I guess I'm a professional blues musician, someone who listens to a lot of original blues artists, and someone who performs mainly privately (apart from the busking). I'd have to chip in and say that there's blues and there's [i]blues[/i]. Mostly the British blues scene is full of the rock-oriented electric stuff, which is what the majority of festival-going blues fans seem to go for, but which is also exactly what people who say they don't like blues are thinking of. Clearly the OP's band is in this category, so I think he's right to be concerned, but Mr Skank has already posted some excellent advice which I'd say is spot-on, and I particularly like this bit of his summary: [quote name='skankdelvar' post='667469' date='Nov 27 2009, 03:30 PM']...And remember, the early bluesmen all cut their teeth in Juke-Joints and house-parties. You're just following in a long tradition of blues as crowd-pleasing dance music...[/quote] There's nothing whatsoever wrong with blues as a genre or blues bands that makes it unsuitable for private functions: I'm doing it all the time, but not electric blues-rock - we play all sorts of stuff from Delta and Chicago Blues, New Orleans street grooves, Rhythm & Blues, Jump Blues, Country Blues, Boogie, Ragtime, Hokum and mix it up with some Soul, Rockabilly and Jazz. It's a perfect genre for a party. And because our performance is honed out on the street in front of a random assortment of ordinary folk going about their business, we know damn well it works.

[quote name='chris_b' post='672850' date='Dec 3 2009, 09:01 AM']Always try Youtube first![/quote] Oh right. Yes, that one. Totally different. Dig out the Dave Bartholomew track if you can, beautiful lazy New Orleans groove.

Is that the Dave Bartholomew song? 'I'm a little Country Boy, running wild in this big old town (x2) Yes, all the girls love me, 'cause they know what I'm putting down.' I want to slip this one into our set sometime next year...

[quote name='beardybass' post='671784' date='Dec 2 2009, 03:20 AM']I think you may be right, pretty sure we went together, one of many! Thinking about it, it was Newcastle, I am a blockhead. [/quote] Ha! Sounds like it was a great night out!

That's great! I used to play tea chest before getting my first upright, years ago. My mate Dave, drummer with Tragic Roundabout, has a superb tea chest technique he learned from an American busker in Italy. I tried it and thought it was a big improvement on the traditional approach. I'll try and explain it (and hope I get it right!). Assuming you're right handed... First off, the pole is positioned differently: instead of near left corner to pull back on, place the end of the pole at the far left corner to lean on; Second, instead of right foot up on the chest to steady it, use the left; Third, instead of plucking the string with your hand, hit it with a drumstick! I think that's right, but it's been a few years since he showed me and I haven't got a tea chest to test it on. Using this method eventually you can get a rolling motion with your right hand, and catch the top of the tea chest with the drumstick before the string and replicate the upright bass slap sound. Dave could, I didn't spend enough time trying it.

[quote name='Stewart' post='671258' date='Dec 1 2009, 04:35 PM']What you really need is filtered noise - best bet would be a detuned AM or FM radio feeding a wah or flanger![/quote] I'm no expert, but that sounds closer to the kind of thing Hawkwind would have used back in the day.