So apparently I'm having a bit of a genre crisis.
From the Blues Recommendations thread:
Quote:
Originally Posted by EPOCH6
Having a hard time finding what I'm looking for lately.
I've been questing for some southern country / delta blues, preferably multi-instrumental (slide / steel guitar, banjo, harmonica, mandolin, accordion, upright bass etc) and extra swampy but I'm looking for albums with decent studio production, which understandably excludes a lot of great **** from the 20s - 50s, but I'm looking for thick multi-layered blues with confident and ambitious instrumental backing, the kind of stuff that I'd imagine played significant role in influencing bands like The Allman Brothers.
Try to keep it acoustic, keep it busy, keep it twangy, big jams, no generic bare naked 12-bars.
Huge bonus points for slide guitar and banjo, bonus points for harmonicas, bonus points for open tunings, bonus points for instrumentals.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blarobbarg
It sounds to me that what you're really looking for is bluegrass.
|
Over the last half a year or so I've really been sinking my teeth into southern styles of music, whether that means southern rock (The Allman Brothers, Skynyrd etc), desert rock & stoner metal (Kyuss, Soundgarden etc), alternative country (16 Horsepower, Wovenhand etc), delta blues (Skip James, Muddy Waters etc), and whatever else. It has really started leaking into my playing style and my songwriting and I'm hungry for more but I've been having a hell of a time finding the musical inspiration I'm really looking for.
The Allman Brother's music really seems to be the undisputed culmination of these genres (of course excluding the styles that came later, desert rock / stoner metal and so on). When all of the influence from each of these styles, delta blues, electric blues, country, bluegrass, folk, and early rock and roll seeped its way into the right group of musicians we ended up with absolutely colossal masterpieces like Jessica, Whipping Post, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, and a landslide of other lengthy and complex multi-instrumental jams that have pretty much remained unparalleled for decades (as far as I know).
And now I'm all torn up over not being able to find more of this. There has to be similar groups out there that either directly influenced The Allman Brothers or were directly influenced by The Allman Brothers, groups that don't fall outside of that mixed fusion style. I've sifted through so much but it's always too blues or too country or too folk or too rock or too metal, The Allman Brothers seem to occupy this perfect sweet spot right in the middle of it all that nobody else has conquered.
TL;DR:
Basically I'm looking for ambitious and genuinely talented multi-instrumental music, preferably acoustic, that effectively incorporates elements from blues, country, and bluegrass, without evolving into pure rock and roll. Bands that experiment and push these styles together and forward, bands where every member and instrument is bringing something crucial to the table, no backup bands passively holding a solid 12-bar while a prodigy noodles above them (ex: Stevie Ray Vaughan).
I realize it's frowned upon to ask directly for recommendations outside of dedicated recommendation threads, but I've had no luck inside of them, it's hard to find fusions of genres in genre specific threads. I'm hoping this thread can become more than me begging for music and move more towards finding out how we ended up with incredible groups like The Allman Brothers and investigating Southern influence in the development of other more complex fusion genres. Perhaps the easiest way to get this going would be to start listing groups that were clearly born out of the fusion of country, blues, bluegrass, and rock.