2008 >PLAY THE BLUES IS MUSICROOM'S BEST SELLING CD
AVAILABLE FROM MUSICROOM.COM
OVER 3 HOURS OF AUTHENTIC BLUES TRACKS TO
JAM WITH
TO READ THE REVIEWS OF PLAY
THE BLUES CLICK HERE
Ever wanted to play along with a world class blues band in
the comfort of your own living room?
Well now you can do just that! With PLAY THE
BLUES you can put one of the three CDs in
your CD player, pick up your guitar and PLAY THE BLUES!
This exceptional & versatile album can be
used for fun, for practice or as an aid for music teachers.
Learn some words and a guitar part and entertain your friends, or just pick up
your guitar when you
come home from work in the evening and PLAY THE BLUES!
Each of the 26 tracks on PLAY THE BLUES has
been recorded to sound like an authentic blues
recording from its respective period in history. Authentic vintage instruments
and recording techniques
were used to really get that classic blues sound, which so often gets lost in
modern recordings.
The music has been mixed in an intimate way to give you the feeling of being in
the same room as the band.
Each
track is indexed as two tracks – the first is a one or two verse version with a
demonstration lead
guitar solo as an example of the style in which you can play blues guitar with
that particular track.
Then you get the full version (without our lead guitarist) to play along with.
The tracks vary in length
from 5 to 10 minutes, allowing you, the guitarist, to really stretch out and
PLAY THE BLUES with the band.
"I was most impressed with the CDs - they're unique to the
market having such
really authentic live blues tracks - a great idea and a well produced product."
Tony Skinner, Director of the Registry of Guitar Tutors,
London College of Music Principal Guitar Examiner
PLAY THE BLUES -
Produced by Michael Messer
BLUES GUITAR, A BRIEF HISTORY > Get It Licked > PLAY THE BLUES
Blues guitar is one of the most popular
musical styles played in the world today.
Influenced by artists such as Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Rolling
Stones, Buddy Guy
and BB King, blues guitar is now played and understood in almost every part of
the world.
These days, mostly with electric guitars,
the modern blues band plays a contemporary style of music
which has its roots firmly planted in the past. This art-form, blues guitar,
goes back to the turn of the 20th
century to the rural southern states of America, when African-American farm
workers starting using
western stringed instruments to play their folk music. These included banjos,
fiddles, mandolins and guitars.
The tradition of the solo story-telling blues musician arrived with the slaves
from West Africa and
the banjo and guitar were perfect instruments for accompanying the singer.
The earliest blues guitar players would
play alone or with one other guitarist and tell stories in the
form of what we now call a blues song. Guitar players from different regions of
the southern states
would use a variety of techniques, from elaborate African-style finger-picking
to primitive slide playing
using knives or bottles on the strings. ‘Schools’ of guitar styles developed in
many local regions, but the
most influential was around the Mississippi Delta. This area spawned some of the
greatest ever blues
performers, including Charley Patton, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.
In
the 1940’s and 50’s the rural African-American community started to move north
to Chicago and
other cities in search of work. When they got there they found that the urban
environment demanded
a less rural feel to their music. The atmosphere of the urban night club
compared to the country
jook-joint required loud electric guitars and big bands.
These elements added a whole new dimension and accessibility to their music.
More than any other city, Chicago is
responsible for popularizing the electric guitar. In the1950’s
its leading players, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Buddy
Guy and Elmore James,
were the ambassadors who helped make blues a musical form that is known
worldwide.
In the early 1960’s in Britain and America,
the baby-boom generation embraced the blues and
used it as a vehicle to create their own high energy pop music. The Rolling
Stones, Eric Clapton,
the Animals and Canned Heat, among others, helped the original blues artists to
become accepted
by white American and European audiences. In the early 1980’s a young Texan
guitarist, Stevie Ray Vaughan,
stormed the world with his wonderful blend of traditional blues and modern rock
music. In the late 1980’s,
the legendary blues performer, John Lee Hooker, recorded two albums, “The
Healer” and “Mr Lucky”, which
became the biggest selling blues records ever and took deep Mississippi Delta
Blues to all parts of the world.
Then the explosion of new technology came
along and almost every old blues recording was re-issued on CD.
Also with the new technology the instrument factories were able to produce large
quantities of high quality
guitars at affordable prices. By the mid 1990’s blues was being heard and played
all over the world.
There are now more guitars, amplifiers, blues records, blues bands and solo
blues
performers than at any other time in history.
This is a healthy, vibrant and ever growing
art-form. With our GET IT LICKED series of play-along CDs
and tuition DVDs, we hope to help perpetuate the popularity of this great music.
So, put the
CD in the player, pick up your guitar and ….PLAY THE BLUES!
PLAY THE BLUES IS AVAILABLE
FROM YOUR LOCAL GUITAR/MUSICAL INSTRUMENT STORE
ORDER YOUR COPY FROM MUSICROOM.COM
CLICK THE CD TO BUY FROM MUSICROOM
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