1. "something tells me you're thinking of pedal steel guitar." In response to Reply # 0 Tue Nov-05-13 11:01 AM by AFKAP_of_Darkness
>Anyway, can anybody post some "black songs" that uses slide >guitar? > >Even more so, not in.a Cheeky " hey I'm taking a stab at >country haha " kinda way
5. "could also be thinking of Dobro/lap steel" In response to Reply # 1
but I got the distinct impression his intention was to look for slide guitar in post-blues/modern Black music.
For either pedal steel or slide, he could check out Robert Randolph - while it's a pedal steel, in most of his music I've heard it doesn't really sound particularly different from an electric guitar played with slide.
8. "we just set off okp jefleejohnson's Randolph-alarm" In response to Reply # 6
good memories of early 00s Lesson... Brandard and jeflee rode hard for Randolph.
I have to wonder if I'd like him better playing traditional sacred steel songs instead of tired blues-rock... I've got the ropeadope 'None but the Righteous' compilation and it's pretty great, and I did really enjoy the Campbell Bros. when I saw them a few years ago.
(ironically, it was at a festival where the real Jef Lee Johnson took the stage after them as part of Lester Chambers's band.)
14. "Not sure... Does the Ropeadope audience still exist?" In response to Reply # 12
I'm not in close proximity to a lot of college students these days so I don't know if that particular jam band audience still exists. But I'd like to believe that it must persist in *some* form... like maybe they throw in some Skrillex and shit with it too
16. "I don't know, haven't been to shows in years" In response to Reply # 14
ropeadope's doing okay, far as I can tell, but they've broadened their offering (though that kind of funky jazz is still at their core; that new Snarky Puppy film project is apparently doing really well).
jambase.com seems to have kinda morphed into just a live-music database, the way Bonnaroo has gone from a jam festival to an eclectic pop festival.
I picture Robert's audience as being fans of Dave Matthews's later work, if that makes sense. Brahs in baseball caps.
Looks like all his records were on Warner Bros. up to the last one, which is on Blue Note, so somebody's gotta be buying them.
19. "I haven't really kept up..." In response to Reply # 16
but I'm pretty sure he's made it into that sort of guitar virtuoso circuit, a la Clapton's Crossroads tour... could be on wrong on that though. Aside from that, jam band-ish and mid-range blues audiences, most likely.
I like Randolph's *sound* and *style* a lot, the music itself rarely does it for me. He's a super talented player with a lot of passion - that comes through. But something always seems lacking in the total execution. But I haven't checked in on him in a long time, so who knows...
My favorite of what I've heard from him though is *always* the gospel material. No real surprise here, but I think it's where he sounds most comfortable ... did he ever release just a straight-ahead gospel/sacred steel record? Or get in on those House of Blues gospel performances that I know a lot of the venues host on a regular basis?
20. "that 'The Word' record is pretty good, as I recall it" In response to Reply # 19
>My favorite of what I've heard from him though is *always* the >gospel material. No real surprise here, but I think it's where >he sounds most comfortable ... did he ever release just a >straight-ahead gospel/sacred steel record?
As far as I can tell, that's the closest thing. All instrumental, far degree of sacred repertoire.
There is a good point to this post, though it's not the question asked in the first post.
It is interesting to me that, for the most part, slide in RnB didn't really survive the electrification process. Elmore James died in 1963 and there's a huge contrast between the huge number of incredible Black single-string soloists in and the very small numbers of Black guitarists who specialize in slide after that point.
Wonder what the reason for that is. The simple hypothesis would be that slide was seen as too rural... even Elmore James was a hybrid guitarist who started on diddley bow and never made the transition to a modern electric guitar (he played an acoustic jimmied with a homemade pickup and amp).
By the late '60s of course there were plenty of white guys who were playing slide in blues-rock bands - not just Duane Almman, but Alan Wilson from Canned Heat, Ry Cooder, Lowell George, etc. So at that point maybe it was a lost cause.
9. "I think it was the rural stigma." In response to Reply # 7
Something about that sound is just inherently country, and by the 1960s upwardly-mobile blacks were trying to escape that kind of association.
>By the late '60s of course there were plenty of white guys who >were playing slide in blues-rock bands - not just Duane >Almman, but Alan Wilson from Canned Heat, Ry Cooder, Lowell >George, etc. So at that point maybe it was a lost cause.
13. "I feel like there's an alternate explanation out there somewhere" In response to Reply # 9
I don't always like the 'rural stigma' theory because it feels a bit lazy.... like in the disappearance of the banjo from Black music in the mid-'20s (where I've read arguments that in the advance of amplification and recording techniques, its chief advantage - that it was loud - was no longer a selling point, and the guitar offered much greater versatility.)
I dunno. If it were the rural issue, by the early '60s when urban blues masters and (white) promoters were actively courting white audiences by touting their music's folk origins, it could have made a comeback in Black blues. But it didn't.
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