One southern blues artist that influences The North Mississippi Allstars is R.L. Burnsides, who wrote a song called Po Black Mattie. This song is about Burnside’s past lover, who has gotten kicked out of her present lover’s house and the fact that Burnside wants to see her again. N.M.A covered this song and made it much more contemporary compared to Burnside’s acoustic original because of the use of distortion on the electric guitar. Other than the obvious mention about Memphis, this songs lyrical material is Southern rock/ blues because the southern dialect used to tell the story conveys a Southern vibe.
Other famous musicians at this time period were Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lead belly, and Memphis Minnie. Furthermore, the birth of Rhythm and Blues, which included genres such as Gospel music, Doo Wop, Spirituals, Chicago Blues, and Urban Blues. African Americans migrated to cities and collaborated music and formed groups. The rhythm section included: bass, drums, electric guitar and piano. Some great Urban Blues musicians were T-Bone Walker and B.B.
Anson Funderburgh and his group have been performing since the late seventies blending a mixture of Mississippi Delta Blues with Texas funk. Sam Meyers intensified the influence of the delta blues when he joined the band in the eighties. Sam Meyers, age 63 is legally blind and a diabetic, brings a deep bluesy voice to the band that combines the basic blues progression with Texas funk to form an unique style of rhythm and blues. The group appeared not to favor any particular period as their set ranged from the basic blues AAB form to a fast paced funk, and a blues style rock. The group is comprised of: Anson Funderburgh on lead guitar.
Soul and rap music comes under the term ‘African American music’. This is because their origins are in musical forms that arose out of the historical condition of slavery that characterized the lives of African Americans prior to the civil war. Soul and R&B became a major influence on surf music. Soul music remained popular among blacks through highly evolved forms such as Funk. Soul music is a mixture of gospel with rhythm and blues.
African American Artists Music has always had its rules and mediums, but rules were meant to be broken. This essay will prove and defend the statement: African American artists didn’t do what they were expected to, and created the mediums for today’s music. In this paper you will be presented with the cases of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley and Billie holiday Jimi Hendrix changed the way we hear about modern music. He was a power house of a guitar player. "Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel.
Armstrong was a famous jazz artist during the Harlem renaissance. Another form of music that was originated down south in the early 20th century by African American Americans was blues. Blues was a different type of music, which was nothing like the old traditional European music. “Frequently ironic and often bawdy, the music expressed the longings and philosophical perspectives of the black working class” (Britannica). This type of music was different from most modern types of that day of music.
Born in the country. blues was the original influencer of jazz and continued to be popular long after jazz took off. Blues music, along with jazz, continued to influence and inspire musicians for decades to come to continue playing blues as well as to create new styles of music. Musicians such as Ma Rainey, “The Mother of Blues” and Jimmie Rodgers “The Father of Blues” made blues the success it was in the 1920s and the foundation for new music later on. Guitarists such as Blind Blake and banjo players like Charlie Poole inspired musicians with their styles and techniques (“1920s Jazz, Blues, Radio”).
Being the “melting pot” country, led to many immigrants coming from many different countries, and they bring the sounds with them. During the early stages of America, many immigrants come from Europe and Africa. In the beginning the term “Root music” was used to describe music made by white of European ancestry music, often in the south. As the century progressed, the definition of folk music expanded to include the song styles - particularly the blues - of Southern blacks as well. In general, folk music was viewed as a window into the cultural life of these groups.
Recently diseased Amiri Baraka discusses the emergence of the Blues through the history of African slaves music’s transformation during the generations in America in an excerpt of his book Blues People: Negro Music in White America. The author begins by addressing the cultural customs of the African music and the alteration that the slaves had to do to it in order to appease their white masters. Following, Baraka continues by analyzing some of the mixed-language working songs of the second-generation slaves in America. Finally, he goes over the differences between African and Euro-American culture, the difference between each one’s musical technicality, and lastly the difference between the two cultures cannon of beauty. The excerpt brings
There is the acoustic country blues and the electrified city blues. Three distinctive regional styles-Delta, Piedmont, and Texas blues--evolved into three urban styles: Chicago, East Coast, and West Coast. The blues has two basic musical forms. One form follows a basic A-A-B pattern. The performer sings a verse and then repeats the first line, sometimes with some variation.