I just saw Black Snake Moan with Samuel L Jackson and Christina Ricci. The movie was ok, and Christina was great, specially given her skimpy outfits for 1/2 of the movie.
But moreover what I really, really liked was a lot of the music in this movie! It was fantastic, raw, beautiful guitar and lyrics. I don’t know anything about blues, and the little I’ve been exposed to was maybe a little bb king which I thought was rather boring.
But this, this music felt alive, moody, this was not just “I have the heart broken, living in the poor house blues” This was more “My woman gone done me wrong and I’m a gonna kill somebody mother f***a blues”!
My question is, where do I find lyrics and guitar like that in the movie? Is there even better stuff out there? Any recommendations, I got lots of microsoft points over at the zune store and I’ve got itunes too So please point me in the direction!
One of the models for Sam Jackson’s portrait of a bluesman was my good great mentor RL Burnside. He passed on a few years ago, one of the last great Mississippi bluesmen. He was a tremendous soul, to put it succinctly. From his legacy, you can also listen to John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Junior Kimbrough, Lightnin Hopkins, Fred McDowell, and. really, so many other guys that have been forgotten, but are amazing musicians.
Check out Fat Possum Records, Rounder Records, Arhoolie Records, Alligator Records, for keeping blues alive. If you haven’t been exposed to real blues, once you get it, your whole listening to music changes. It is the root of all American music, and, all the old guys really knew how to make it happen musically. If nothing else, check out RL Burnside and JR Kimbrough for music that kicks it all out, even in the 90’s.
Muddy Waters, Son Seals, Howlin’ Wolf, Luther Allison, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Willie McTell, John Lee Hooker, Leadbelly, Skip James, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Memphis Slim, Guitar Shorty, there’s a ton of stuff out there, all better than the soundtrack of that crappy movie.
“my good great mentor” - are you saying you knew the man? If so I would like to hear it.
RL played a solid drone blues - kinda Hooker-ish, but all his own. I enjoyed the cuts I heard off “An Ass Pocket of Whiskey” which I think he did with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion…
As for the blues in general - search this forum, there are a few very long, good threads on blues players worth checking out…
It isn’t the best entry in the library, but it is a good start. Old timey Delta blues is all about Son House, Robert Johnson, and Leadbelly. I think Leadbelly is closest to what you are asking for. Really good stuff, Son House and Robert Johnson are great too. Blind Lemon Jefferson is good stuff too. You can’t really go wrong with any of the old guys who have a disability and a fruit in thier name. Also, check out Mississippi John Hurt. An underrated and almost forgotten (for a time) Delta blues man. Most of his stuf was recorded on modern equipment in the 70s(?) so you can hear that authentic Delta sound with decent recording technology.
For Chicago Blues (mostly electric with a band of some sort, not just a single guy with an acoustic guitar.)
Albert King, Elmore James, Muddy Watters, and Howlin’ Wolf will get you started. Almost anyone who recorded with Chess Records.
People love BB King, I don’t really, but he has to be mentioned.
But Leadbelly is my strongest recommendation for what you are asking for. If you like that and Son House, get the complete Robert Johnson set. And start exploring Delta Blues from there. If you like the general idea, but want more electric guitar and full band arangements start looking at the early Chicago Bluesmen.
I did, and consider him to be one of my best spiritual mentors, in learning how to live life fully, even without cash money. I was glad to have been there when Fat Possum first formed, was there for the early recordings, and took their early cover photos. Jr. Kimbrough’s juke joint was my second home, where he and Burnside, and all their musical kids and neighbors played, to me still the most amazing music I’ve heard, all night long. It was a priviledge to help the world hear that music.
I drove Jr. and RL on some early tours, along with other Delta musicians. Those old guys helped to raise me right. The modern Fat Possum paints these guys as bad ass dudes, but, that wasn’t my experience. They were elders in the community, not in the Church sense, but in a rather thwarted African griot sense. As they are gone on yond now, I treasure those friendships. That music changed my life, away from music as “cool”, to music as a social celebration, and the fact that it had held up through Time, and you could really hear African roots in that North Mississippi sound.
So many good suggestions here for good blues, and I’ll add a couple, too.
To learn about blues, a great magazine is Living Blues, three decades of great blues documentation.
And, some fellows who learned from the same great old guys: The North Mississippi Allstars, Luther and Cody Dickinson, sons of Jim Dickinson, who is great in his own right. He learned from the Memphis area greats, Furry Lewis, Fred McDowell, etc, and his kids play it on well.
Another really neat project is Afrisippi,
a Senegalese musician who moved to Oxford, MS, and has played with the musicians from the Burnside/Kimbrough clan,(as well as the excellent bass player who rents my house in MSPI). It’s a great unification of the two traditions:
It’s rich, great music, being carried on by young musicians now. Jimbo Mathus, who y’all might recognize as the frontman for The Squirrel Nut Zippers, has moved back down to his homeland, Clarksdale, MS, and has set up a recording studio there, keeping it all going on with music-biz aplomb.
From the above post: yes, but he is really in the right time/place to be recording the great musicians already in Mississippi. He is not making that music, but facilitating it. that should be clear. The musicians are there, wanting good recording. I’m glad he set up the studio to do that.
**elelle ** - wow; thank you for so much story and insight. You really got to experience some wonderful people and, from the sound of it, culture. I am sure it colors the sound of the music and how you hear it - I envy that.
We saw JImbo last weekend, along with Super Chikan and a whole bunch of other folks I have no idea their names. Clarksdale Juke joint fetaval was awesome!
I’m happy to see R.L. Burnside gettin’ his props here, he doesn’t get mentioned in blues threads all that often. A friend gave me Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down about six years ago and I played it constantly for months.
Jeez, that was really a crappy post by me, truly. Sorry, it came out in a snitty manner, and, uncalled for :smack: Jimbo Mathus is a great musician, and does raw blues well done. He moved back to Mississippi at the right time, too, to open a recording studio. Jim O Neal, founding editor of Living Blues, and record producer for Rooster Blues, in Clarksdale, had moved to KC, leaving a big void for a community recording studio. Jimbo has filled that with aplomb, much needed. I havta eat crow for that post, very poorly worded. Caw.
adhemar I’m in NC now. Yer post on the Clarksdale fest is making me muy homesick. I took a look at the webpage, and am thrilled at the development in C’dale.
This is a new festival since I moved, and it’s great to see it happening!
I totally had this same experience when I saw this movie- it just made the whole concept of Blues REALLY visceral and “cool” as HELL to me. One very obvious and easy suggestion that I liked- was go and grab the soundtrack to the album, as it really is a NICE soundtrack with most of all the songs in the film in it- that was my starting point, and I liked the variety that the album offered me when I want to listen to it, as it doesn’t really get old- I love hearing Sam Jackson sing “Black Snake Moan” and also the final song in the credits: “Mean old wind died down” By i think the North Mississippi All-stars it was? Not sure, but that’s the sorta stuff I enjoyed (As well as the song “When the Lights Go Out” by the Black Keys)
If you liked “Mean Old Wind Died Down”, then you might- just maybe want to look at “Southern Rock Opera” by the Drive By Truckers- they’re not quite the Blues, but they’ve got that feel and bluesy spirit to them and their music, but with obviously a lot more southern Rock influence (like Lynyrd Skynyrd).
However, it’s totally not what one would think of when they think of “the Blues” at least in my mind, but it’s worth a listen if you liked that one song on the album.
So please point me in the direction!
Also, check out Mississippi John Hurt. An underrated and almost forgotten (for a time) Delta blues man. Most of his stuf was recorded on modern equipment in the 70s(?) so you can hear that authentic Delta sound with decent recording technology.