The blues

Fenian you never told us the 3rd thing to do in Indy

 

Boom --.
I was looking to you for the answer and you delivered. The Chatterbox will see me on my next trip.

 

Gotcha - if you want to know some clubs in Washington Heights now that you know where it is, I can help you there as well.

 

You are the mapQuest of good tunes... and a lot easier to understand.

 

Yeah, Fenian, you're right. I saw Buddy Guy one night and he just phoned it in - short set, predictable set list, cliched solos. It was one of the most disappointing shows I've ever seen.

 

I've seen Buddy many times. His annual January shows at his club are always pretty strong. There's nothing like seeing him in that setting. And he likes to hang out there and is very approachable and a great, uh, guy. His brother Phil plays the House of Blues (Chicago) small stage quite often and is very good.
Buddy opened for the Stones in '99 at the United Center and venues that size are too large for his act.
Lonnie Brooks is a personal favorite of mine. His son, Ronnie Baker Brooks, plays a MEAN guitar.
I also like Alvin "Youngblood" Heart, Muddy, Thorogood and, at the risk of sounding cliche, I love Robert Johnson's recordings.

 

Lets not forget Bonnie Rait - who can belt out the Blues with the best of them ,

Obscure but favorite of mine - Blind Mississippi Big Feets Dupree- plays a lot of small clubs.

 

I can't get into Buddy's stuff on CD, but he's pretty amazing live every time I've seen him.
Props on the cat who brought up RL Burnside.
Our music guy got me onto Rory Gallagher, who's pretty amazing. Irish blues. Great guitar.

 

I would put jazz right up there, especially once Miles Davis started experimenting.

 

Personally I think "It never rains in Southern California" was Toni Tony Tone!'s best song, but "The Blues" is definitely a close second.

 

Speaking of Robert Johnson, the lyric that always gets to me (an Illinoisan, Chicago-born) is his "Back to that land of California, to my sweet home Chicago." Doesn't have the weird juju of his other great lines, and may well have been simply bad geography. But I like to think he's using California as a metaphor, for something like a land of milk and honey. To him (and to me), that meant (means) Chicago. Always found that sort of touching.

 

Robert Johnson's "I love my baby, but my baby don't love me" was the line that hooked me into the blues back in the day.