say what you want
What kind of musician would think of using a music contest as a way to get exposure? Oh, right. I forgot. If you’re not totally burned out on the concept of art as competition, check out the International Blues Challenge. Here, you get to vote on the early rounds from the comfort of your local juke joint. The final rounds are left to the pros, but if you make it to Memphis, you’ll hear some good stuff.
Said finals don’t take place until January, but early rounds are cropping up in true blues fashion: whenever local promoting organizations get around to it. Since they’re happening this week where I live, I figured the same might be true for you, so check your local blues society pages for info.
I actually was intending this as an open thread(and it is) but wanted to get the above out in case, like me, people had blues to catch this week. Here’s last year’s winners in the solo/duo category, Nathan James and Ben Hernandez, sponsored by Blues Lovers United of San Diego. These guys are terrific:
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=PKNDdZoq_aA]
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=5gHRSO6G4JU]
categories: open discussion
posted by what at 11:02 pm
Hicks said he had never watched American Idol before he tried out for it. If he had he may have changed his mind or maybe not.
The only reason Taylor said that he rarely watched American Idol before was that was when he was usually performing his own gigs…
I would think that watching a TV show & performing at the same time is sort of impossible, you know?
Anyway, considering how focused Taylor is while on stage, even if there was a TV on wherever he was performing, I do not know if he would even see it! Maybe for a football game? LOL!
Well, I’m ambivalent about the whole contest thing. On the surface, it strikes me as being kind of anti-art in a way. But I certainly wouldn’t have run across Hicks anytime soon if not for his AI stint, and I’d probably not have run across Hernandez and James but for this IBC challenge. I’m really digging Hernandez’ style.
But maybe the supposed oddity of singing contests is just me being ignorant. It now occurs to me that there were those medieval German singing contests or something. Maybe this has always been the way. I had a friend who used a pitch pipe when listening to opera and kept score on who could and couldn’t hit the high notes. Maybe the line between music and sport is pretty thin - it’s all entertainment.
i didn’t know san diego sang the blues…
Many moons ago, I heard a beautiful piano solo being played in the background of a restaurant scene of a soap opera my mother was watching. I loved it so much that my mother took the trouble to find out what it was so that I could get the sheet music. The song was “Forgotten Dreams,” by Leroy Anderson. I love and play it to this day, but would never have heard it if it hadn’t been for the soap opera exposure.
So I don’t care where I find my art. If I didn’t already love Wilco, I’d be trying to find out about them after hearing the Volkswagen commercials.
Spoons - find out about these guys. I just can’t get enough of Hernandez’ voice right now. You have to go hear him in proxy for me.
re: Hernandez voice.
funny thing, the city in which he resides (it’s America’s finest city for crying out out) and the face doesn’t match his voice. the dude looks like he should be out in Pacific Beach and being a surfer dude/ beach bum. so *where* does he get *that* from??
“I feel good when I play this kind of music”
best heard live….. yup, he said it. that duo definitely has got talent.
these guys are evidence that the soul of the music, regardless of where you’re from, and its excellence is universal truth.
p.s. I like Nathan James’ voice just as much as Hernandez’, if not more.