#46
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Most of the groups I've played with do it. Never heard that Wishbone Ash version, and it's a hoot. So — thanks!
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#47
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So I worry about singers. Where are all the Laura Nyros, Sam Cooks, Janis Joplins, Otis Reddings, Grace Slicks, Linda Ronstadts, and Aretha Franklins? Who will replace Mick Jagger, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Mavis Staples, and Van Morrison? Where are the Johnny Cashes, Loretta Lynns, Roy Orbesons, and Patsy Clines? Who will replace Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, and Dolly Parton? Sure, there are still some good singers, but not many of them are making it to the top of the charts. |
#48
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Music has been made available to the masses through digital technology and streaming for much lower cost these days but as a result, there is way less money available for musicians to make a living. I realize this is a subject for another thread, so I will not belabor this. But I will state again that great singers are still around. - Glenn
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My You Tube Channel |
#49
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Yup, of course they are, as I said. You just wouldn't know it to turn on the radio. You have to drag the river. Everything in American culture began stagnating in the eighties. The river scum stench is overwhelming the roses.
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#50
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When I read names of artists that people on this forum mention, a lot of them do not have a huge following and would be considered obscure. They may not be huge, but can be incredible nevertheless. So there could be incredible singers outside of this AGF world (imagine that), singers obscure or unknown to us. It's possible that people think there are no great singers even if there are great singers who just don't happen to be household names the way Joni Mitchell or Jackson Browne was. |
#51
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Likewise, I miss the days when you could hear the Stones, Louie Armstrong, Sinatra, the Supremes, Buck Owens, Hendrix, and Johnny Cash and June Carter on the radio without changing the station. In spite of our deep social and political divisions, it was one world. Amazing, when you remember that our continent is three thousand miles wide — twice as far as the distance from London to Moscow. Now we're hopelessly — I think dangerously — fragmented. Are there any quick fixes? Music can bring people together, but only when we can all hear it. |
#52
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I have received great reactions from some newer stuff that I have been playing. Tyler Childers - Nose to the Grindstone, Whitehouse Road, and Feathers Indians have had huge reactions. Anything by Zack Bryan, but particularly Something in the Orange, Revival, and Heading South.
I also do Pride and Joy on acoustic, and if my buddy is available he will lay down some harp over it for me, that really gets the crowd going. We did a medley of that into Voodo Chile on acoustic that had the place going nuts last week. Midnight train to Memphis and If it hadn't been for lover are good upbeat songs that get the crowd going too. For older stuff, Into the Mystic, which I usually medely into Free by Zac Brown, Let it Be, Free Falling, and Thunder Road have all earned me some good tips in the jar! I also throw in Wonderwall, Wagon Wheel, and Nutshell by Alice in Chains, and Let Her Cry by Hootie that seem to be real crowd pleasers too. |
#53
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Cleaner and faster is arguable, and anyway that’s small change. I’m talking about soul, impact and originality. |
#54
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At the same time, being Gen X, I spent an embarrassing amount of time railing against whatever we considered mainstream. As a generation, Gen X tended to devalue what's popular (i.e., what's "pop"), even artists we previously adored but whom we accused of selling out. Times and attitudes have changed I think for the better at least in this area. Nowadays, even Gen Xers can agree that popularity doesn't automatically make something bad. (A silly idea to begin with.) BUT I'll say I still have a great appreciation for the unjustly underappreciated, all those oddballs we found by diggin' in record stores, because there are so many gems among them. While monoculture maybe fleetingly unites people, I think love of the obscure can help you find your people, which I think as valuable. |
#55
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#56
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A beloved LP was The Who Sell Out, for obvious reasons. A popular nonfiction book was Theodore Roszak's The Making of a Counterculture. It's some of what Leary's Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out was about: rejection of mainstream culture. (Though I confess, I still think the peak of Clapton's career was with Cream.) I've always been impressed by the more underground artists who figured out how to hold onto their early followings when they got more popular, like the Dead, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Lou Reed, and Johnny Cash. What I saw that was different about Gen X wasn't the iconoclasm. That was a core sixties value, too. It was the birth of the snark-and-irony zeitgeist, which has only gotten stronger over the years.* I mean, boomers had it, too, but it didn't define the generation. "Kumbaya" was sincere, not a cynical joke. (Tell me if I'm off base here. I can take it!) Quote:
----------- *Don't get me wrong. There's certainly plenty to be snarky and ironic about! Last edited by Charlie Bernstein; 01-07-2024 at 02:22 PM. |