Anyone have any underrated/appreciated blues artists to add?
Underrated/under appreciated blues artists
Underrated/under appreciated blues artists
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Blues Bass Club
- Thread starter Tazziedevil
- Start date
-
- Tags
- blues
For blues bass fans, great interviews and far superior to anything in bassplayer magazine in a long time.
That looks like an interesting magazine. I’ve never seen it here!
I subscribe to it, I haven't seen it around much in stores either. It's great mag that digs deep into blues and not just the current stuff. The cd reviews alone hit my credit card hard.
jerry,
Thanks so much for the heads up on this issue. I use to pick up the occasional LB magazine when I was playing Blues Harmonica.
Usually the local Barnes and Noble bookstores carry the magazine but there either were out or did not get this issue in (they did have the previous #263 issue in stock).
So I went to the Living Blues website (see link on previous post) and ordered a copy. It was $8.00 (including tax and shipping). In case others here want to pick it up but can't find it locally.
Blues bass player here. I’m in a blues band and I go to blues jams. Love playing blues in bass with a great drummer!
I subscribe to it, I haven't seen it around much in stores either. It's great mag that digs deep into blues and not just the current stuff. The cd reviews alone hit my credit card hard.
I might see if they have a digital subscription. Niche magazines from overseas are sometimes hard to come by in my neck of the woods
Hey hey,
Check out this thread in another forum. I'm hosting a blues jam for the first time and would love some advice!
Hosting a Blues Jam
Check out this thread in another forum. I'm hosting a blues jam for the first time and would love some advice!
Hosting a Blues Jam
I have a two part question that is specific to bass players who play the blues:
1. How much music theory do you know (or think we should know) for playing mostly the blues? Besides the Major and Minor scale, Maj7, Dom7, Intervals, Arpeggios, and the different blues structures, is there a requirement for being able to sight read music notation? I do not see the popularity of sheet music for Blues like there is for Jazz.
2. What is a workable blues rig that you use (or have seen)? I am not talking about a touring pro's backline, but something a steady weekend warrior would use, that is great for Old School blues (Chicago, Texas style).
I am asking specifically on here because I want to hear what others in a similar situation use.
FWIW, my main bass is a MIM Fender P bass with LaBella Flats. I have a Rumble 500 Head with a Rumble 1x15 cab (with either another 1x15 or 210 as next purchase). No pedals or effects.
1. How much music theory do you know (or think we should know) for playing mostly the blues? Besides the Major and Minor scale, Maj7, Dom7, Intervals, Arpeggios, and the different blues structures, is there a requirement for being able to sight read music notation? I do not see the popularity of sheet music for Blues like there is for Jazz.
2. What is a workable blues rig that you use (or have seen)? I am not talking about a touring pro's backline, but something a steady weekend warrior would use, that is great for Old School blues (Chicago, Texas style).
I am asking specifically on here because I want to hear what others in a similar situation use.
FWIW, my main bass is a MIM Fender P bass with LaBella Flats. I have a Rumble 500 Head with a Rumble 1x15 cab (with either another 1x15 or 210 as next purchase). No pedals or effects.
I mostly use a mark bass LMII and a 1x15 and a couple of overdrive pedals (as needed) my main bass is a 1983 Peavey T45.
When I started I didn't know much, and kind of just went along with it. Never have been able to sight read, but I can hold my own in a jam.
2. I used my fretless roscoe LG 3005 into an SWR SM-400s with an Eden 115 and 210 for almost 20 years, sometimes using a TC SCF and an addrock ole yeller guitar pedal on a blend looper.
Recently I had Keith Roscoe build me a fretted PJ, and I switched to an Aguilar AG700 into an SL212, and I use a broughton terraformer and a broughton rumblefish fuzz.
Still have the SWR/Eden rig though. It's pretty bulletproof.
With respect to music theory, I think being able to hear/recognize 2-5-1 and 1-6-2-5 in their various incarnations is helpful. And with respect to different blues structures, knowing a few variations of the swing/jazz blues and things like 16 bar forms (Watermelon Man). I've never been asked to read at a blues jam, but once someone wanted to do "My Funny Valentine", which I've never heard or played, so I called up a chart on my phone on iRealPro and read the chords and created a fake jazz bass line.
I play Fender AVRI basses (62 J, 63 P, 75 J) strung with flats. No effects. I played for many years through an Ampeg B2R head and SWR Goliath Jr cab, and a few years ago I sold it and got a Rumble 500 combo. Anywhere I've played in Toronto or Collingwood, this has been plenty of rig. I have bigger rigs - Mesa D800+, Barefaced Two10 and Super Twin just for giggles, but I've never not had the Rumble 500C be enough.
You better not bring sheet music to a blues gig... 95% of blues is I-IV-V; the power of blues is its simplicity. (Simplicity of structure is one thing that convinces lots of people blues is easy; it's not...) Your hardest job as a blues bassist is making a 4-hour gig not sound like 4 hours of the same song, which it kinda is... I'll almost always have a song list by title with notes e.g. "Tore Town - C - Intro from the V - Uptown - watch for stops." There are a lot of blues standards that are not 12-bar I-IV-V and it helps a lot if you can just learn them by their exceptions. Key to the Highway is 8-bar form. Thrill Is Gone has a b6 - V - IV - 1 turnaround. I'll Play The Blues For You uses a biii and some chromatic walks you have to watch out for. As was mentioned, there are some "bluesey" jazz songs that sometimes get called. OTOH - "Blue Monk" is a "jazz standard" but it's just I-IV-V with a quick-IV...
Touring pros are probably using whatever the local rental company provided that's close to whats on the rider ;-)...
99% of the time I'm playing a fretless Roscoe 6 and Blues Nazi's can either stuff it or come to terms with the fact that every 6-string bass has a 4-string bass right in the middle. TI Jazz Flats on that. 60% neck pickup, Treble either flat or rolled off completely depending on whether I'm doing older "P-Bass with flats / upright" tone or something more modern. If I'm doing a solo (e.g. Crossroads) I'll turn up the mids a quarter turn. If I'm doing sound for the show, I'm probably just in the PA with a DarkGlass Vintage Ultra V2 with CabSim as the DI set for just a little bit of vintage tubey color. Ahead of that is a Becos Stella compressor set for very light (maybe 3 dB peak reduction, 3:1 ratio, high threshold) compression just for evenness and a little bit of tape saturation color.
If I'm bringing an amp, it's almost always a GK MB500Fusion set pretty flat, but probably highs rolled down a good bit. 1 Hartke 1x12 set for 8 Ohms throttles back the amp to ~300W which is what the cab can handle. For larger/louder shows I'll add a second 1x12 which means I've got 500W into 2 12's without increasing my footprint on stage. Outdoors it's the Harke LH1000 into a 410 HyDrive or if I've got the stage space, a GK 412 (this is rare ;-) ... 500W into 2 12's is always enough onstage, especially if I've got FOH support (not as rare as it used to be). I always bring a spare bass to a paying gig or an audition; it'll be a fretted Roscoe.
Last edited:
The “blues nazis” you speak of are 99% of the time folks who are wannabe blues guys.
I can tell you from 1st hand experience that’s not the case here, the guys actually working Beale street play every kind of bass out there. 5 string 6 string and 4 string. I’ve seen Leroy Hodges of the famous Hi records studio band playing a Peavey fiver. In the past I’ve played a Precision sunburst with flats and tort but not because it fit some preconceived idea of what a blues bass should be, it was just what I had at the time.
I’ve done blues on Beale for years and I’m using a Peavey T45 with rounds, so play what ya want and don’t worry about it.
I can tell you from 1st hand experience that’s not the case here, the guys actually working Beale street play every kind of bass out there. 5 string 6 string and 4 string. I’ve seen Leroy Hodges of the famous Hi records studio band playing a Peavey fiver. In the past I’ve played a Precision sunburst with flats and tort but not because it fit some preconceived idea of what a blues bass should be, it was just what I had at the time.
I’ve done blues on Beale for years and I’m using a Peavey T45 with rounds, so play what ya want and don’t worry about it.
I know.
If I was worried about it, I wouldn't be telling them to stuff it ;-)
I play a bass with a B string 'cause there's always that One Guy who's a SRV or Jimi wannabe who's tuned to Eb.
The C string? I (almost) never hit it, especially in blues. Donno why people wanna care so much about a string I don't use.
( -Once- I started a song in E on the D string (instead of B, like I normally do) and it was an uptown pattern so there I was, hitting an octave on the C. There. That's the complete story of my using the High-C in a blues context. Brain-fade. )
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,167
- 256,935
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
I appreciate the input from everyone here. Some good points to consider.
For question #2, I was more interested in the amp setup that you use more so than the bass itself. I am happy with my Rumble 500 Head and 1x15 cab, but always interested in what others have used that works in blues. I have heard others use the likes of a Hartke KB12 Kickback 500W Combo while others like separate head and cabs.
Even though both of my basses are 4 string, I get the reason for having a 5 string.
Larry McCray's bass player uses a 5 string Squier VM Jazz that he plays upside down left handed. FWIW, I have the same bass in 4 string, but lefthanded and I keep roundwounds on it.
