mndart
OH! Dog walker
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2004
- Messages
- 1,869
For years now, I have been bombarding my poor wife with John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Lightinin Hopkins, Memphis Slim, Son House, Willie Dixon, EC, Robert Johnson, and of host of others including blues great John Hammond.
So I decided to torture her last night by taking her to a John Hammond concert and we were both just blown away.
John Hammond is 67 years old and still going strong. Near fifty years of playing the blues with everybody who is anybody. Hammond plays like a man possessed. One man on stage with vocals that seem to trick you in to thinking there are two or three on stage. And while singing his blues, he is somehow dropping incredible blues harp riffs into the vocals. His left foot is tapping a perfect beat. He strums and finger picks his guitar or Dobro as though he is taking an easy sip of java. His left hand is often a blur, running up and down the fretboard making perfect complex chords while intricate blues finger style riffs ring out perfectly at the same time. It seems like simple work for him. And then an amazing harp solo kicks in and you wonder where the other one or two guitarists or harpists are hiding to make this incredible sound.
All of this time, his eyes are closed and his head is tilted a bit, moving back and forth with much joy in his face; pointing up at the blues gods, singing, picking, strumming, wailing the harp and never hitting a bad note. He'd tell brief and humble stories of his wanderings,meeting the blues greats along his way. You understood how they contributed to his greatness. He mentioned Robert Johnson and his incredible contribution to the blues. He then played Johnson's blues standard "Come On In My Kitchen".
He blew us all away. Incredible.
Robert Johnson was a blues man possessing no real differentiating style or talent. Legend says that he took his guitar to the crossroads near Dockery Plantation at midnight. There, he was met by a man who tuned his guitar, played a few songs, then returned the guitar to Johnson. Johnson returned to play the blues a changed man, a master of the guitar, a real blues man. It was said this meeting was with the devil; Robert Johnson signing his soul away to become this incredible blues man for the rest of his short life.
I don't feel like Hammond made a deal with the devil, but I do believe I was watching an incredible blues man possessed. I imagined seeing Robert Johnson must have been this incredible. Do yourself a tremendous favor, if Hammond is coming through your town, witness some true talent and be totally blown away by some truly great blues. At $20 a ticket you cannot go wrong.
Hammond tour schedule link
Bad cell phone pic, but this is it; One man, a guitar, a Dobro, three harps.
Booty.
So I decided to torture her last night by taking her to a John Hammond concert and we were both just blown away.
John Hammond is 67 years old and still going strong. Near fifty years of playing the blues with everybody who is anybody. Hammond plays like a man possessed. One man on stage with vocals that seem to trick you in to thinking there are two or three on stage. And while singing his blues, he is somehow dropping incredible blues harp riffs into the vocals. His left foot is tapping a perfect beat. He strums and finger picks his guitar or Dobro as though he is taking an easy sip of java. His left hand is often a blur, running up and down the fretboard making perfect complex chords while intricate blues finger style riffs ring out perfectly at the same time. It seems like simple work for him. And then an amazing harp solo kicks in and you wonder where the other one or two guitarists or harpists are hiding to make this incredible sound.
All of this time, his eyes are closed and his head is tilted a bit, moving back and forth with much joy in his face; pointing up at the blues gods, singing, picking, strumming, wailing the harp and never hitting a bad note. He'd tell brief and humble stories of his wanderings,meeting the blues greats along his way. You understood how they contributed to his greatness. He mentioned Robert Johnson and his incredible contribution to the blues. He then played Johnson's blues standard "Come On In My Kitchen".
He blew us all away. Incredible.
Robert Johnson was a blues man possessing no real differentiating style or talent. Legend says that he took his guitar to the crossroads near Dockery Plantation at midnight. There, he was met by a man who tuned his guitar, played a few songs, then returned the guitar to Johnson. Johnson returned to play the blues a changed man, a master of the guitar, a real blues man. It was said this meeting was with the devil; Robert Johnson signing his soul away to become this incredible blues man for the rest of his short life.
I don't feel like Hammond made a deal with the devil, but I do believe I was watching an incredible blues man possessed. I imagined seeing Robert Johnson must have been this incredible. Do yourself a tremendous favor, if Hammond is coming through your town, witness some true talent and be totally blown away by some truly great blues. At $20 a ticket you cannot go wrong.
Hammond tour schedule link
Bad cell phone pic, but this is it; One man, a guitar, a Dobro, three harps.
Booty.
:thumbup: