on:1) The black/white music connections that flow between country music and rock and roll. If you look at 4 key contemporary country musicians - Brad Paisley, Brooks and Dunn, Trace Adkins and Martina McBride - there are overt inter-racial references in their videos and musical styles. I see that going on all the way back to both Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry - morphing in some unique ways with Beatles/Stones/Dylan - continuing in a genre sharing way with Ray Charles and continuing to mature in new ways with Springsteen and others. What is fascinating to me is that the contemporary country folk seem to be working this vein much more intentionally than the rockers. I think of Willie Nelson here and so many more. So here's what I would like to know:
+ Are there other country/gospel/blues/rock connections that are important to you?
+ In many ways the current country artists are ahead of the social curve - and I want to celebrate it - what do you think?
2) I want to explore the ways drugs and alcohol have played a part in the early careers of rock performers - for whatever reason - and then consider what happens as they mature:
+ some burn out and literally die
+ some remain trapped in addiction (what role does that play in their music?)
+ some get clean and fail to be creative (think Eddie Van Halen)
+ and some get clean and go on to greatness (think Clapton and Lou Reed)
Please let me know who is important to you and where you think they fit into this outline, ok?
3) And finally I am working on overview of a "spirituality of rock music" for a Christian arts magazine. The emphasis would be:
+ As a clergy person who has incorporated rock music into worship and prayer, I see how using this popular culture art form can both deepen our encounter with God in everyday life as well as how the rock experience can help believers mature in their acts of prayer, compassion and justice.
+ The article would then touch on the following: 1) A brief understanding of how rock and liturgy are similar and different; 2) the way rock gives us a bold language for naming God's presence and absence in our everyday experience (incarnational theology); and 3) How the use of rock music (and other popular forms of music) can both deepen and broaden the diversity of worship and community.
Anything else grab you? Please let me know: it is my experience and commitment that God is still speaking - and well beyond the institutional settings, too - but all too often the institution is either afraid or tone deaf.
credits: irene nowicki @ http://fineartamerica.com/shop/irene-nowicki.html
No wisdom, just nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteMy older brother plays in a country band (has for many years), so my way into country music was through his music and bluegrass. You must have seen the movie Songcatcher - those ballads and songs that found their way from UK into the mountains here. They are full of themes like death, religion, love, getting by.
I know you're concentrating on blues, but bluegrass holds a special place in my heart (along with folk music).
First tune I learned on my guitar at age 14 was Wildwood Flower. :-)
I love that movie - and love both the bluegrass and country tunes that flow back to the UK - what a great reminder. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThere was a time when the black and the white musicians sang together and when the musical cultures mixed--like the line in Job (if memory serves) about the morning stars singing together.
ReplyDeleteI saw a documentary on folk (as in what was created in the back yards and the front porches) music in the US from the 1960s, and in one scene, three or four men were step dancing (a form of clog dancing) together to some hot string band music. It was an interracial group, just ordinary guys who happened to be at the dance that night, and as the commentator put it, their steps, except for minor variations in amount of movement and style, were pretty much the same.
If you look at (listen to) Celtic airs, especially the keening ones, and a capella blues and gospel shouts, you've got different children by the same mama. And you can find connections all over the place: slide guitar and slip jigs, for example.
I look forward to the day when a hybrid band brings together some black and Celtic soul in one place at one time. Oysterband is close...
This is another helpful clue, Pete: I know that mountain dulcimers mirror the pipes of the highlands. This is going to be a fun one to write. Please keep the connections and ideas flowing.
ReplyDeleteYes! The drones in 4ths and 5ths in dulcimers and pipes are speaking the same language!
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