Help needed from you Blues Boys

GuyWithSticks

Junior Member
Hi all, I've recently just started studying music at a college level (JMC for any Australians, beautiful place). I can't express how in love I am with all this learning and knowledge getting thrown at me. But I've come to realise my own technical ability as a drummer isn't where it should be. RIght now we're doing Blues, my drum teacher at the college has set me up with a training routine that I'm happy with. But I was just wondering if you guys could give me some great Blues artists and drummers to listen to. Just some names that I can listen to and groove a long to. All help appreciated :)
 
Ta da! (slides in on my knees, arms spread wide, with a top hat and cane!)

Loving blues the way I do you'd think I would have a list of drummers to check out, I don't. There's a few different eras of blues, 1900 to 1940 I'd call the first era, then from the 40's to the 60's I'd call another era, then the 70's on I'd call the more modern era. So I'd listen to music from all 3 eras. Instead of drummers, it's easier to name bands.

Not a ton of drumming in the first era to point to, but it's good to understand the roots. The 2nd era is where blues drumming really starts to get a foothold. Bands like Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf, T Bone Walker are must listens. TBH, I would get a subscription to satellite radio. There you get a nice mix of blues from all eras. And when you need to listen to a different genre, they're all there. I'd say it's not so much studying this drummer or that drummer, it's more like absorbing the style by listening to a big variety. Modern Blues has more dynamic drumming, you can tell it was influenced by the rock generation. The 40's 50's and 60's stuff sounds (meaning the actual drum tones) a little old fashioned by today's standards, drums didn't sound like they do today. Like I remember listening to the 2nd era blues drummers and saying that's it? I actually thought I could do a better job. I think it's safe to say that the shuffle masters, at least the ones who really knock me out, didn't really start appearing until the modern era. They took what was done before them and injected some of the energy of rock into the blues drumming. Modern era drummers, I'd study the shuffle masters, Frank Beard, Mark Teixeira, Chris Layton.... There's a lot of great shuffle masters who I don't even know their names but I hear them on satellite radio.

Still I have a few names, Fred Below, S.P. Leary, Francis Clay, Willie Big Eyes Smith....these are guys from the 2nd era that kind of set the mold more or less.
 
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Ta da! (slides in on my knees, arms spread wide, with a top hat and cane!)

Loving blues the way I do you'd think I would have a list of drummers to check out, I don't. There's a few different eras of blues, 1900 to 1940 I'd call the first era, then from the 40's to the 60's I'd call another era, then the 70's on I'd call the more modern era. So I'd listen to music from all 3 eras. Instead of drummers, it's easier to name bands.

Not a ton of drumming in the first era to point to, but it's good to understand the roots. The 2nd era is where blues drumming really starts to get a foothold. Bands like Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf are must listens. TBH, I would get a subscription to satellite radio. There you get a nice mix of blues from all eras. I'd say it's not so much studying this drummer or that drummer, it's more like absorbing the style by listening.

Still I have a few names, Fred Below, S.P. Leary, Francis Clay, Willie Big Eyes Smith....these are guys from the 2nd era that kind of set the mold more or less.

agree Lar

i think we could learn a ton about the music and the actual rhythms of the music from blues artists who didn't even have drummers

first guy that comes to mind is Skip James ... killer rhythm

my favorite skip tune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlSIQmFQPBM

studio version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhKHi-fyaTA
 
I was always a fan of the slow lazy stuff like Jimmy Reed, and the funk/soul crossover stuff like Albert King.
 
Oh yea Jimmy Reed...loose, sloppy, (not really it's just the feeling it creates)

Albert King had good drummers. His drummers were pretty modern sounding considering it was the 2nd era

Great Skip James track Tony. His vocal style retains that haunting quality that was a hallmark of the first era. Him and Robert Johnson were contemporaries. , pretty sure Robert lifted some ideas from him. Yea, the rhythms these guys played....where the hell did they get them from? They sound so....primitive...No one plays them much anymore, they kind of fell out of favor. Still they provide inspiration for blues fans.

Here's my favorite Blues song of all times, there's no drums. This song is LOADED with raw material to mine, even though a lot of it goes right by unless you listen hard, kind of like Robert Johnson's music.

Charley Patton's "Spoonful", a song about cocaine.

You can listen to this song a hundred times and each time you will pick up on something that passed you by earlier. How he sang and played this I'll never know

Read the lyrics. You can't understand a word the guy says, until you read the lyrics, then it all makes sense. He's got elements that knock me out. He only says the word "spoonful" once in the beginning, spoken. Every time it comes around to that word afterwards, he substitutes a slide guitar figure. I love it, it's so blues. The tempo doubles by the end, the song never resolves until the very last note, it's always building tension, and the way he sings it, at first I thought it was 2 different guys, one talking and one singing. It's all him. The guys voice, he's a walking megaphone. He could project like no one else. It's what REAL blues was. This style is all but extinct. Howlin Wolf took this song and made it more palatable for the white audience to digest.

The great Charley Patton on probably his best recording, "Spoonful Blues" (with no ads!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyIquE0izAg

Lyrics:

(spoken: I'm about to go to jail about this spoonful)
In all a spoon', 'all that spoon'
The women goin' crazy, every day in their life 'bout a...
It's all I want, in this creation is a...
I go home (spoken: wanna fight!) 'bout a...
Doctor's dyin' (way in Hot Springs !)
just 'bout a...
These women goin' crazy every day in their life 'bout a...
Would you kill a man dead? (spoken: yes, I will!) just 'bout a...
Ah babe, I'm a fool about my...
(spoken: Don't take me long!) to get my...
Hey baby, you know I need my...
It's mens on Parchman (done lifetime) just 'bout a...
Hey baby, (spoken: you know I ain't long) about my...
It's all I want (spoken: honey, in this creation) is a...
I go to bed, get up and wanna fight 'bout a...
(spoken: Look-y here, baby, would you slap me? Yes I will!) just 'bout a...
Hey baby,
(spoken: you know I'm a fool a-)
'bout my...
Would you kill a man?
(spoken: Yes I would, you know I'd kill him)
just 'bout a...
Most every man (spoken: that you see is)
fool 'bout his...
(spoken: You know baby, I need)
that ol'...
Hey baby,
(spoken: I wanna hit the judge 'bout a)
'bout a...
(spoken: Baby, you gonna quit me? Yeah honey!)
just 'bout a...
It's all I want, baby, this creation is a...
(spoken: look-y here, baby, I'm leavin' town!)
just 'bout a...
Hey baby, (spoken: you know I need)
that ol'...
(spoken: Don't make me mad, baby!)
'cause I want my...
Hey baby, I'm a fool 'bout that...
(spoken: Look-y here, honey!)
I need that...
Most every man leaves without a...
Sundays' mean (spoken: I know they are)
'bout a...
Hey baby, (spoken: I'm sneakin' around here)
and ain't got me no...
Oh, that spoon', hey baby, you know I need my...

Parchmen was an infamous prison in the South. The Hot Springs reference (Hot Springs is a town in Arkansas) is about a local story of the day. Not a very politically correct song at all...slapping women, hitting judges, killing men, doing cocaine...

I love the song form. He stretches it in places to accomodate himself, it's not a set pattern AFAICT.
 
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Hi all, I've recently just started studying music at a college level (JMC for any Australians, beautiful place). I can't express how in love I am with all this learning and knowledge getting thrown at me. But I've come to realise my own technical ability as a drummer isn't where it should be. RIght now we're doing Blues, my drum teacher at the college has set me up with a training routine that I'm happy with. But I was just wondering if you guys could give me some great Blues artists and drummers to listen to. Just some names that I can listen to and groove a long to. All help appreciated :)

Here are some good older blues drummers to check out:

Fred Below (a ton of people in Chicago--check out Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson records that he's on)
Odie Payne (another guy on a lot of Chicago sides)
Sonny Freeman (B.B. King)
Clifton James (Sonny Boy Williamson and other Chicago guys)
Al Duncan (Otis Rush, Sonny Boy, et al)
S.P. Leary (Muddy Waters, et al)
Francis Clay (Muddy Waters)
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith (Muddy Waters)
Earl Phillips (Jimmy Reed, Howlin' Wolf)
Philip Paul (Freddie King)
Elga Edmonds (aka Elgin Evans) (Muddy Waters)

Some guys that aren't necessarily categorized as "blues drummers" per se, but played wonderfully on some great blues albums:

Al Jackson, Jr. (Albert King)
Jim Keltner (Eric Clapton, et al)
Jim Gordon (Derek and the Dominoes)

My favorite more current blues drummers are Richard Innes and George Rains. Chris Layton and Portland's Jimi Bott are also fantastic.
 
Now that's a list, thanks Eddy.

Wasn't Earl Palmer on a lot of blues sides too?
 
Now that's a list, thanks Eddy.

Wasn't Earl Palmer on a lot of blues sides too?

Yeah, I should have listed Earl Palmer, who is one of my favorite drummers. I tend to think of him as an R&B/New Orleans/rock and roll drummer more than a "blues" drummer, but he could play anything, and was one of the most influential drummers of the 1950's (on blues drummers as well as everyone else). His playing on the 1950's Little Richard and Fats Domino sides is the bomb.

To the OP: for an in-depth look at blues drumming techniques, as well as a wealth of information on the drummers who created the style, check out Daniel Glass and Zoro's book, the Commandments of Early R&B Drumming. Glass covers all of the drummers in the 1940's and 1950's who were playing blues, jump blues, earl R&B, etc.
 
Thanks for the help guys! That should give me a wealth of tunes to groove and shuffle to. We're not strictly tied down to Chicago or Mississippi Blues, we look at and play all the different styles that came from blues i.e. almost everything. Just needed to increase the music library so I'm listening to more shuffles throughout the week
 
Have to give a shout out to my buddy June Core. http://youtu.be/hU68lV0dr_0 There's a whole series of these from this show with Musslewhite and a host of other harmonica players. June plays a really odd shuffle in the first half of the vid, a more conventional shuffle in the 2nd half. But everything he plays swings. He can play really busy stuff and it still sounds like traditional blues.
 
I would love to be able to swing and shuffle like a blues drummer.....but alas....My rock ways are hindering me.
 
I have the opposite problem, playing a straight med speed 4 without getting a hip hop loopyness or swing into it. Have a rock gig in a couple weeks so I need to work on that. Special guest that night is a soul blues guy so shifting gears will be good. Only hope I can revert to rock mode at the end.

Think: chew tabacca, chew tabacca, chew tabacca.

Since I also play guitar, I learned long ago at blues jams with an unknown drummer, always call something straight first before calling a shuffle. If they put a bit of swing into the 4 on the floor, they can probably do some sort of shuffle. If they're clumsy with funk or a straight beat, then "slow blues". Don't even think about a blues rumba.

The more vocabulary you have under your belt, the better you'll be at everything else.
 
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