Recently a friend of mine posted that she was eagerly anticipating watching Alabama Shakes be the musical guest on SNL (Saturday Night Live). She is someone who I have discussed music tastes with since high school, and she stays on top of the music world crossing all genres, so when she was taken aback by them at the Grammys, I thought I definitely need to tune in. I had heard their music, but I had no clue that yet again another wonderful blues rock band was on the scene. This seems to be a growing trend...and one I am very happy about, especially with the Firefly Music Festival being in my home state and the 2013 lineup being released tomorrow.
So I am feeling musically inspired and completely anticipating tomorrow's news about the lineup. I looked back at last year's festival and thought, I don't know how they are going to beat it, but man what an amazing event! How do you beat Jack White taking off his Beatles style white boots and play in his bare feet, and sing along with him and the rest of the audience, We Are Gonna Be Friends..."Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell, brand new shoes, walking blues, climb the fence, book and pens, I can tell that we are gonna be friends".
When I think of this Blues Rock Revival, and it is upon us..the last one from the 60s and 70s and well early 80s brought us some great music, most people reflect upon the Beatles, but let us not forget B.B.King, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Cream, Jimmy Page, Bluesbreakers, Stevie Ray Vaughan and many, many more. Today the Blues Rock Revival that is growing, yet no one has seemed to deem it what it really is, includes Jack White, Dan Auerbach and the Black Keys, Mumford & Sons, Monsters of Folk,Wolfmother, Black Belles and Brittany Howard and the Alabama Shakes.
I think all of us can enjoy music, but that some of us appreciate it on a little different scale. I know that I was eager to learn guitar, so I saved and paid for not only my own guitar, but I also paid for my own lessons. I loved Dolores O'Riordan and her unique yodeling abilities, but I knew I could never be a singer, I just didn't have that gift, so I turned to guitar. I quickly learned that you can only learn so much from one teacher, that to truly grow as an artist, I needed to play with a variety of people and try to play a variety of music as well. So I bought a grey guitar, because Counting Crows told me to...it was really silver, but I liked to think it was grey. I quickly became frustrated because I have short fingers and so trying to master power chords was difficult for me, I never really became good at it. But it allowed me to have an appreciation for bands and musicians that played them with so much grit and soul. I found I was drawn to many songs with groovy and wicked bass lines. Little did I know later on, I would be confronted to pick up a bass guitar, which is similar to guitar, but not so much. (I learned to play a few songs on bass guitar in a band my husband and I were both in, but again my hands became an issue. I even sold my first bass, to buy one like Paul McCartney's because the Hofner viola bass has a much smaller neck which makes it much easier to play. I had discovered Hofner guitars when I started following a British girl band called The Staves).Okay so what I am getting at is not all of us are gifted to be legends, but that does not stop us from admiring them. However, we must also take in account the instruments we use too..and I am talking about amps, tube amps, and then all the actual instruments, and then finally the soul-the blues soul. The Black Keys sound tech team was an amazing thing to watch, they spent Flaming Lips entire set time checking and rechecking the sound, and when they hit the stage, it was literally better than the album, just spot on, brilliant!!!
The soul is back, when you listen to a Blues Rock style band you feel your blood driving like the music, bouncing when the drum kick is hit and feeling it soar when the guitarist rocks out a killer lead. I am a very short woman and when I went to Firefly I drove my husband and my father-in-law to be my bodyguards so I could get as close to the stage as I could, because I wanted to be as close to these music legends as possible, and I was right up front, not center, but just as close. (I am very thankful to them for getting bumped, elbowed and stepped on, it was really great having personal bodyguards). They are taking us on a journey, telling us a story, one that often we have shared a similar human connection to, which is why we feel so moved by it.
Now you might ask why is it coming back? I think it has always been there, just simmering there on the back burner waiting to show itself again. I mean lets face it, my generation went through it with legendary artist dying on us: Kurt Cobain Nirvana, Bradley Nowell Sublime, Shannon Hoon Blind Melon, just to name a few. I think we have mourned those losses and are ready to be revived, so bring on the REVIVAL.
If you want a little encouragement to help you get in on this revival, I ask you first to get the Black Snake Moan Soundtrack...that is where I first heard the Black Keys. Listen to it at least 3 times, you will find yourself quickly drawn to specific songs, and one of those should be Samuel L. Jackson singing Stack O Lee. After that then move onto Jack White's Blunderbuss, Wolfmother, slow it down a bit with some Monsters of Folk and Mumford & Sons, kick it back up with The Black Keys Magic Potion and El Camino and then finish up with some Alabama Shakes and some Dan Auerbach.
And to the rest of you anticipating Firefly's Lineup, I am right there with you!!!
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