OLD BLUES, NEW TRICKS
Who says the blues is an old man’s game? As the scorching mix of artists over the next few pages shows, age just doesn’t come into it.
New blues gets a bad rap, often accused of being bland or overly polished. But in a world that’s moved on in so many ways – and where a gazillion clips of YouTube ‘guitar heroes’ having glossy stabs at They Call It Stormy Monday are never more than a click away – such flak is sometimes justified. Certainly the most slavishly purist end of the blues can feel pretty uninspiring.
But to assume that’s all there is to it would be a great shame, because really today the blues is in healthier shape and more diverse than ever. Whether you like your blues stately and traditional or subversive and spicy, there’s almost certainly something for you out there.
You’ve got the classic torch carriers like Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Rock’n’soul innovators like the Tedeschi Trucks Band and Marcus King. Contemporary blues rock big hitters like Joe Bonamassa (in the US) and Joanne Shaw Taylor (in the UK). Fusers of hip-hop and old-school blues like Fantastic Negrito (pictured) and Gary Clark Jr. Fifties fans like Samantha Fish. R&B shitkickers like The Record Company… We’ll meet some of these, and many more, over the following pages.
Of course, it’s impossible to talk about 21st-century blues without mentioning Jack White, which is why we got Classic Rock writer and Jack White biographer Nick Hasted to write about White’s unique empire, carved from the blues. Through The White Stripes, solo work, Third Man Records and more, he’s celebrated the music of the early bluesers that inspired him, transferring the oldest of Delta-born sounds to a cutting-edge environment.
We also sent our Nashville correspondent Bill DeMain to meet Megan and Rebecca Lovell, the two sisters behind blues rock bright sparks Larkin Poe, and proponents of some of the most fiery, commanding slide-fuelled noise currently in rock’n’roll.
To quote South Africa’s funked-up Stevie Ray Vaughan-channelling virtuoso Dan Patlansky: “This is not your daddy’s blues, this is renegade blues.”
So turn the page and discover why the blues is back again, stronger, more powerful and more diverse than ever.