The blues was just made for remixing — the inchoate howls, the minimal rhythms, the mantra-like phrasings, the raw goods just waiting for someone to take them and shape them in the studio. Iterations are among the sincerest forms of flattery in the age of digital home studios. Case in point: Grassy Knoll (aka Bob Green) has posted his second mix of a track by blues legend Junior Kimbrough, titled “Lonesome Road,” and his mix is subtle, less a rethink than an upgrade (MP3). The beat is hard, the lyrics more abstract, less about words than about syllables. The heart of the Knoll version begins midway through, with what seems like a bridge, a brief instrumental haze that leads not back into the song, but into broken beats that dissect the original right in front of your ears.
The track was originally posted at the Grassy Knoll website, feedtheenemy.com.
Grassy Knoll’s previous Junior Kimbrough remix, “Done Got Old,” was the subject of an early June 2009 post here: disquiet.com.
I love this. I had high hopes that this sort of hybrid would catch on. Rick Holmstrom’s “Hydraulic Blues” was a great followup to his work on the R.L. Burnside’s “Wish I was In Heaven Sitting Down.” Like the Burnside, it combined solid blues grounding with hip-hop and remix production. Around the same time, Chris Thomas King came out with “Dirty South Hip-Hop Blues” another great combo of blues and modern sounds. Unfortunately blues audiences are reactionary and apparently the hip-hop and electronic music fans that caught on were not enough for either artist to continue in that direction. Also there was a great record by Snakefarm, a duo that disappeared after one record, and Clothesline revival who combined mountain music with beats and pedal steel. Glad to see someone carrying the torch.
What about Little Axe? Made a number of ambient blues releases, still extant. first record pretty durned good.
Yeah, there was some good Little Axe material. In some ways, I feel like one starting point for that technified blues was ZZ Top’s “Rough Boy.”
Bob green, john porter, andy kaulkin, adrian sherwood, tino gross and so on and on…carry the torch, recreating the blues, the blues infected music. I like Michael Ross comment, very wise. at the moment “country days” by blind mississippi morris and brad webb excites me…