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"Born Under A Bad Sign" - Gospel and the Blues
We were talking about left handed guitars (great thread by Rick Cogbill) and it reminded me of Albert King who played left handed and left his strings inverted. But it also reminds me of blues musicians in general.
Many of these guys were surly characters - drunken, infected with diseases that one can avoid or just plain bad attitudes. However, this angst produced a perfect musical genre to express lament. I call the blues the "genre of human lament".
Unfortunately, this often included a clueless outlook on life:
born under a bad sign, been down since I could crawl
If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
wine and women is all I crave..
Clearly the guy didn't get it. But if one can overlook this unfortunate outlook on life, one will find a delightful catalogue of musical phrasing and vocal technique. And it occurs to me that this musical style has great application for Christian themes. Most of our songs are about glory and praise, and that's good. But many Psalms were laments. In fact, we are also called to be mournful and sad for what goes on around us.
So, does anyone else have thoughts around this? Can we Christian musicians bring some blues into the mix?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Stevo on -
Yea, that is my pain as well. Perhaps I gravitated toward this subject because blues is such the opposite of the plastic stuff.
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Permalink Reply by Stevo on
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That's real music to me. Whenever our pianist is out and we don't have prelude music, one of the sound techs usually puts in some Gaither or Maranatha CD. It's so very canned and plastic.
Triplet? I don't know, I just "do a little of this with these fingers" and "hold it like that just beforehand". Is that a triplet? I don't know, but my friends always clap and start dancing around the campfire when I do it.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Letus on -
"Whenever our pianist is out and we don't have prelude music, one of the sound techs usually puts in some Gaither or Maranatha CD"
AAUUGGHH!!! A fate worse than death!!!!! ;-}
All depends on the congregation you're in I guess.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Letus on
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Greg,
"the minor scale steps that slide up a half step - and then sometimes go just sharp on purpose
Can you explain this one. I'm having trouble following it in my head. As a 'single note instrument' player I love to play a bit outside the box of what you expect to hear and the concept of what you write above is interesting--I just don't understand it right off.
Agree 100% about the use of programmed music.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Letus on
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I understand why I was having difficulty following your point----I'm a sax player. We add instrumental verses/sections to most of the material we do and I do throw in a lot of swoops/slurs/flattened notes on songs like 'God With Us', 'Revelation Song', 'I Am Free, etc. as well as doing some relatively unknown stuff that easily lends itself to this. I've never flattened the 5th though and will look for a chance to do so.
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Permalink Reply by Stevo on
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@ Carl
We used to have a song called "heart of worship" that was a sort of repentance/confession kind of sober song. Several of the younger folks loved it, but it seemed weird to do it on que without any known immediate or recent issue to relate to. With a good lament, one can see that being useful. But I'm not sure it's something you would do corporately on a regular basis. The are more suited as a response to a personal event.
Thanks for the comment!
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Permalink Reply by Isaac Gonzalez on -
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Permalink Reply by Charles Wolff on -
That URL wasn't working when I tried it, but his MySpace page is http://www.myspace.com/blues_crusader
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Permalink Reply by Michael Letus on
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I'm sure we're not going to get a 12 bar blues as the norm in a worship setting regardless of the tempo. I think I'm hearing more of a bluesy 'feel' to more Christian music the past few years compared to the prior few years, but it's a slow process. I remember for awhile hoping to find something----anything---new in a minor key!
When it comes down to it though, we 'have the power' to change up most any song to how we wish to do it, even to the point of changing a few chords to make it want we want. I remember hearing--just once unfortunately--a version of "Something About That Name" that few Christian artists collaborated on. The only one I remember on it is Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad fame.
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Permalink Reply by Carl W. Carlson on -
Ahhh ... my home boy Mark! Pretty crazy huh? God chooses each for His purpose.
God Bless!
Carl
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Permalink Reply by David Estes on -
We play "My Redeemer Lives" from Hillsong.
In a blues structure tune.
verse
/E7 / A7 / Bsus /
Chorus
We play straight
Now this is the basic framework but---
E7 = E13, E9, E11, E7sus4,
A7 = A13, A13 A 11, A7sus4 = all the b5 and #5 permutations. Example. A713b5
As well as using Ab passing chord permutations going into the A chord.
It is buckets O' fun. Lol
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Permalink Reply by Benjamin Luce on -
We've done this before. We do it "full-on." I would only do this with the right bunch of musicians though.
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