Blues vocabulary recommended listening

nickp

Righty oh. I am going on the IGF blues course in the summer. A full pass out of home for a week of playing. Trouble is that although I think I know blues actually I don't listen to much so I am short of ideas and inspiration. I have got some Matt scofield, robben ford, stevie ray and bonamassa. Who should I be listening to and which albums?. Suggestions please. Cheers. Nick.

wayneirie

Freddie king sings, paul butterfield blues band and east west by paul butterfield, a best of muddy waters and folk singer as well, best of howlin wolf. Would be a good place to start for electric blues. Folk singer is a great stripped down acoustic version of chicago/delta blues. Ooh and taj mahals first album. And john lee hooker and some lightning hopkins for some mean funky stuff. These would be my suggestions. What's the course cover?

relic245

Any bb king compilation.

bigjon

Bluesbreakers Beano album will surely feature heavily on the course - Neville Marten is a massive fan

EricTheWeary

Very broad question really.
But listen to T Bone Walker, Muddy Waters and Lightnin Hopkins for the roots of electric blues. If you want to know who they were listening to try Charlie Christian and Lonnie Johnson.

Freddie, BB and Albert King and Otis Rush for where the electric guitar went next. Within these four are pretty much everything that's in modern electric blues guitar. Clapton nicked Freddie and Albert licks, SRV nicked Albert and Otis and so on.

Clapton on the Beano album plus Mike Bloomfield and Johnny Winter for the transition to blues rock. SRV and Robert Cray for the 80's revival.
White Stripes for nu blues.

For slide and energy try Hound Dog Taylor. Just the dogs bollox.

Jimmie Vaughan is probably the best keeper of the flame, subtle and brilliant. But, yes, he sings like a drain.

Then there are feckin thousands of others. Listen to Paul Jones every week on Radio 2, try internet blues radio stations.

YouTube probably isn't your friend here. We are talking artists who are pre video age or more modern artists who aren't net savvy so they are often poorly represented on there.

ChrisMusic

These 4 programs on iPlayer might help too.

"First transmitted in 1979, Alexis Korner delves into the soulful world of black American Blues music. Exploring its origins and reviewing unique footage of acclaimed Blues artists."

Episode 1 (& just follow the links for the others)  (note - these are available till 2038 - YES 2038 !!!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00lk3lz/The_Devils_Music_Series_2_Episode_1/

HAL9000

Some great suggestions already. I'd also add the Elmore James album The Sky is Crying, Texas Flood by SRV, Riding with the King by Clapton and BB, anything by Howlin' Wolf where Hubert Sumlin is playing guitar, any early Fleetwood Mac when they were a blues band rather than a pop group - Peter Green's playing was really very tasty indeed. Oh, and Buddy Guy - a seriously good guitarist and singer.

nickp

@wayneirie - the course looks general but takes a look at albert king, srv, bonamassa so the more modern blues guys

not really sure of content but I thought if I listened to more blues then some more vocab would seep into my playing (as well as practicing improvising etc and copying some stuff)

I have started on the albert king and paul butterfield recommendations at the moment - spotify is my friend

close2u

There are several recommendations for BB King.
If you are after a pool of blues licks and phrases to last a life-time, the album to check out is Spotlight On Lucille.
Just a man, a guitar and a fantastic backing band.

wayneirie

Sounds cool @nickp here's a link to some bloomfield lessons http://www.mikebloomfieldamericanmusic.com/mblessons.htm. I found it helpful because he's pretty quick, if you get chance search for the old school blues guitar channel on YouTube. His teaching style is a little dry. But he covers a lot of different guys styles. In 20 minute chunks. I feel like I get a lot out of it, you may find differently.