#billy branch

[giuliobrouzet]

[anamon-book]

ブルース&ソウル・レコーズ NO.2　1994年 月刊ブラック・ミュージック・リヴュー 1994年9月号増刊号 ブルース・インターアクションズ Cover＝Billy Branch & Sons of Blues Harp 特集：ブルース・ハープの魅力

[blackrockandrollmusic-blog]

Young bluesmen take up the torch for a musical tradition

For many young black musicians, especially those growing up in the South, learning about the blues came by accident and outside the home. Many in the older generation moved away from traditional blues because they considered it antiquated, or representing hardships endured by previous generations they’d prefer to forget.

“A lot of my white friends knew more about the blues than I did. Their parents educated them about it. But we didn’t listen to that type of music when I was growing up,” says Jarekus Singleton, 29, from Clinton, Miss. “I kind of feel bad for my generation because we didn’t have those people teaching us. But we have the responsibility now.”

Even in the cradle of the blues, the Mississippi Delta, the music has fallen in stature among millennial-aged African Americans: According to polling conducted last August by University of Mississippi doctoral candidate Nicholas Gorrell, when asked to name their favorite music, those aged 18 to 29 in the Delta said they most preferred R&B and hip-hop, with the blues a distant third.

The racial shift among blues audiences started decades ago, following the folk revival and, later, the British Invasion, when much of white America heard black music for the first time. At the same time, black audiences identified more with soul, funk and, eventually, hip-hop; up-and-coming black musicians, to stay commercially relevant, followed suit.

“Young black audiences no longer viewed the blues as pop music,” says Adam Gussow, a professor of Southern studies at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. “Music of the now became soul music because it was about rebellion and it was about pride.”

Among blues purists, there was concern that blacks would abandon the music altogether, a scenario many thought might distort the very qualities that made it feel genuine.

Jim O’Neal, founder of Living Blues magazine, said the publication earned its name in 1970 “because people said [blues] was dead.” “We didn’t see any young black musicians coming up and we felt the old music was dying out,” he says. “But it continued.”For decades, stars such as guitarist Buddy Guy have carried the torch while complaining that the blues has been relegated to the back seat of the music industry as radio programmers, club operators and major record labels became less interested in supporting what they consider the foundation of black music.

“My children didn’t know who the hell I was until they turned 21 and could come to my club and see me play,” Guy says. “They grew up in the house with me and would say ‘cut it out playing the blues!’ At one point, I thought that maybe, lyrically, the blues was unfit to sing around kids. But then hip-hop stepped in.

”With second-generation blues artists such as Robert Cray, Billy Branch and Kenny Neal now playing elder-statesmen roles, the crop of younger black blues musicians who can take the tradition and transform it with their own identity is relatively slim. Besides Birchwood and Singleton, other emerging up-and-comers include Marquise Knox, 24, of St. Louis, Blind Boy Paxton, 25, of Los Angeles, and the Peterson Brothers, ages 15 and 17, of Austin.

Otis Clay, the soul music legend from Chicago who entered the Blues Hall of Fame last year, says that once radio segregated blues from other genres, “fans and the music suffered.”

“It’s understandable that young blacks are not getting the chance to hear blues,” he says. He worries that there will soon be a dearth of teachers who will be able to coach younger players in the music: “I learned from the older guys, but what about the other black guys who are out there that want to genuinely play the music? That says a lot about where the music is going to go.” [Read More]

[americanahighways]

REVIEW: Billy Branch & The Sons of the Blues “The Blues Is My Biography” @bbranch103 @americanahighways #johnapice #americanamusic #americanahighways #johnapice #musicreviews #albumreviews #newmusic2025 #thebluesismybiography

REVIEW: Billy Branch & The Sons of the Blues “The Blues Is My Biography”

[chaunceyandchumleysdad]

I kicked off the summer outdoor concert/festival season by attending Blues On The Fox. This annual event takes place on the banks of the Fox River in beautiful RiverEdge Park in Aurora, IL. (Excellent!)

A two day event, we attended the second day. The artists included:

Melody Angel, a fine young guitarist from Chicago. https://www.melodyangelmusic.com/

Billy Branch, the Chicago Blues harp playing extraordinaire. https://billybranch.com/index.html

Saxophonist Mindi Abair and The Boneshakers. https://www.mindiabair.com/

And the legendary Chicago Blues artist Buddy Guy, who at age 85, is still an incredible Blues guitar player. https://www.buddyguy.net/

With gorgeous summer weather, a beautiful setting, great music, and the company of my wife and friends, it was a marvelous afternoon/evening!

[bluestownmusic]

New Release: Dave Weld & The Imperial Flames - Nightwalk

  Dave Weld & The Imperial Flames – Nightwalk   Dave Weld & The Imperial Flames – Nightwalk Format: CD Label: Delmark Records Release: 2022 Release date: May 27, 2022 Chicago blues is Dave Weld’s lifeblood. From his beginnings mentored by JB Hutto to his decades with Lil Ed Williams and his Blues Imperials, he has taken the blues around the world. Weld and his Imperial Flames have a brand new…

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[aprokopage]

Skin Deep featuring Buddy Guy | Playing For Change | Song Across America

Skin Deep featuring Buddy Guy | Playing For Change | Song Across America

We kindly invite you to SUPPORT OUR WORK AND GET ACCESS to more videos and free downloads: http://bit.ly/JoinAndSupportPFC

Playing For Change and Buddy Guy united to record and film his anthem, “Skin Deep” across America. The song includes over 50 musicians from coast to coast featuring Buddy Guy, Tom Morello, Billy Branch, Chicago Children’s Choir, and Roots Gospel Voices of Mississippi.…

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[karasexplores]

The 2019 Chicago Jazz Festival

I’m recollecting places and events I didn’t blog about last year. Here’s a very fond memory. With the current situation, this is the best I could do.

Music.  So much can be said about that five letter word.  The word defines an element of life that’s very hard to describe, especially to someone who has never experienced it before.  Today, it’s a huge industry that feeds our kids and young adults with the hippest and latest contrivances of the new generation.  However, as I get older and my Rock favorites gather dust at local radio stations,(Do…

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