Chicago Blues/Mississippi Delta

neither! both are terribly overrated!

north mississippi hill country blues all the way!

Howlin' Wolf
Little Walter
Muddy Waters
Sonny Boy Williamson (#2)
(all have recent cheapo best ofs on Chess/MCA that sound INCREDIBLE due to remastering)
Skip James
Tommy Johnson
Son House
Charley Patton
Robert Wilkins
That other Johnson guy, of course

Your favorite BLUES albums?

Some fave tracks here-

Blues Compilation

I think Charley Patton and Skip James are the best '20s/'30s Miss. singers and guitar players. Skip James was truly experimental. Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin' Wolf are my fave Miss./Memphis-to-Chicago guys. I'm in the minority of folks who just don't go for Muddy Waters too much, to me Wolf kicks his ass all over the map. Little Walter, from Louisiana, is why I listen to Muddy Waters. Jimmy Rogers is also good, again, though, it's Little Walter that makes stuff like "Sloppy Drunk" great. Buddy Guy early '60s on Chess is quite good. B. B. King has his moments but overall, he's always been kind of a shuck-and-jive. Guitar--I like the way he attacks the notes, but he's not a good singer.

Overall, is it overrated? I don't know. I perfer New Orleans r&b myself anyway...Earl King, Chris Kenner, Smiley Lewis, Huey Smith. It's richer, and it's more fun to listen to. I maintain that Snooks Eaglin is a better "blues" guitarist than any of the commonly mentioned names, because he's more of a complete musician. New Orleans is only 200 miles from Jackson but it might as well be 2000.

Of all of 'em, Wolf and especially Sonny Boy Willimson are the best, with Elmore James a close third. Sonny Boy Williamson was so fucking sly, wrote such cool songs, and was something a bit different from the rest of 'em. When I want to hear a singer-songwriter, I listen to Rice Miller not Bob Dylan. Howlin' Wolf makes Iggy Pop look like Mr. Acker Bilk.

Mississippi Fred McDowell - another ferocious guitarist in the trad. Delta bottleneck slide fashion. Split the difference between Delta (technique) and Hill Country blues (lyrical tropes).

Hound Dog Taylor's a bad motherfucker as well, though he came a little later. Look for Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers. Great sleazy production.

also, not from even from America (from the Bahamas), but sorta sounds like these guys, and i love hims to death: Joseph Spence. sounds like all of his guitar strings and vocal chords are broken.

-Mississippi John Hurting

And yeah, I don't care about the appellations, Piedmont, Delta, whatever.

I did an interview for Steve Calt, author of the Da Capo Skip James bio, and I'm proud to be listed in the index of that book next to John Hurt...

Blind Willie Johnson was a great slide guitarist. Not really Delta/Chicago blues but great anyways. Blind Willie McTell is great too (but from Atlanta so again not Delta/Chicago). Lately I have been really enjoying Crying Sam Collins who actually predates most of these artists. But my favorite is without a doubt Charlie Patton.

north mississippi hill country blues all the way!

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, October 6, 2004 10:01 AM (10 years ago)

wikipedia says It is characterized by a strong emphasis on rhythm and percussion, steady guitar riffs, few chord changes, unconventional song structures, and heavy emphasis on the "groove" - more affectionately known as "the hypnotic boogie."

what is the droningest hill country blues?

looking for stuff like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8RtayjqqIw

i dunno if this is the droningest but i still think this is what you want:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP2Wus-MBtQ

you should also listen to jessie mae hemphill if you haven't already

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QniNWShXdRY

wow! excellent! i'd only heard hemphill's contribution to that spacemen themed sonic boom comp ("i'm so glad") and never heard of lonnie

lonnnie pitchford has a whole album that is great, but i think it's out of print, sadly.

there are a few copies on amazon for $15, i'd recommend picking it up: http://www.amazon.com/All-Around-Man-Lonnie-Pitchford/dp/B000000DOV

19. DRINKIN' ANTISEPTIC

Mississippi Fred Mcdowell, RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough

Right, Mississippi John Hurt's Avalon Blues is contemplative, unpretentious, remembering how various deals went down. Can call the fluid quality "genteel," but he's pretty straight-forward, and a good picker.
Mississippi Sheiks' Stop and Listen is along the same lines, but more ambitious: they wanted to cross over, get some of that Jimmie Rodgers money, and they do have music hall x radio-ready, Asheville-before-Nashville, travelling country blues appeal. On Yazoo Records, later replaced with Best Of, which I haven't heard. Collections on other labels too.
McKinley Morganfield AKA Muddy Waters incl. lot of his earlier sides, when the vocals were more flexible and dynamic; Hard Again, produced and w some accompaniment by Johnny Winter, is a real good later album. I also used to play the hell out of Fathers and Sons, a live/studio double-LP with Waters, Otis Spann, Mike Bloomfield, others; Mud's the main man here for sure.
Chester Burnett AKA Howlin Wolf and Back Door Wolf are also good earlier and later recordings.
Also check a couple of books, Charles Keil's Urban Blues and Robert Palmer'sDeep Blues.
The Martin Scorsese-produced public tv documentary blues series on the is really good too.

john hurt isn't Drone-y at all though. very melodic by blues standards.

19. DRINKIN' ANTISEPTIC

underrated IMO

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/life/2015/08/26/fife-drum-tradition-heartbeat-annual-picnic/32351381/

Bet that was fun. Sharde Turner is keeping her grandfather's fife and drum tradition alive

Made it to the Barbequecued Goat Fest in Senatobia , MS that Sharde runs. She and her drummers performed between sets of the other acts. I also saw Anthony Sherrod and his band do a nice set at Red's in Clarksdale, MS.

This is coming up in Mississippi (see below). I don't know of these folks-- the next generation of great bluesmen, Jontavious Willis, Marquise Knox and Kingfish Ingram

http://www.deltastate.edu/news-and-events/2017/08/fourth-blues-conference-feature-aaron-neville/

•an opening reception and tour of the John Lee Hooker exhibit at GRAMMY Museum Mississippi
•a keynote breakfast featuring Alan Lomax scholar, Dr. John Szwed of Columbia University, New York City
•a free, open-to-the-public John Lee Hooker tribute concert at Bolivar County Courthouse in downtown Cleveland featuring a trio of the next generation of great bluesmen, Jontavious Willis, Marquise Knox and Kingfish Ingram
•an open mic “Blues in the Round” event at Mississippi Grounds coffee shop in downtown Cleveland
•a lunch conversation with Aaron Neville
•a blues-related film festival in the Sanders Theater at GRAMMY Museum Mississippi
•a presentation by renowned blues photographer Dick Waterman
•free admission to GRAMMY Museum Mississippi with paid conference registration
•a closing concert performance by Aaron Neville at Delta State’s Bologna Performing Arts Center with tickets ranging from $25-$50 and a special 10 percent discount for conference registrants

The conference is scheduled for Oct. 1-3.