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Roots of Crazy


I love looking for moments in Blues and Country that prefigure the raw nerves that got fully exposed in Rock 'n' Roll. Right from the start, Rock was about going nuts, but it didn't come out of nowhere. It's not a challenge to find jive artists from the Forties with maniac stage personalities, but the wildman pose is rarer among white artists.

Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys are known best for putting a jazz feel into string band arrangements and becoming the foremost of the Western Swing bands. Their open, lanky sound has long been acknowledged as a source for rock, but their biggest hits, songs like "Stay a Little Longer" and "New San Antonio Rose" are C&W nuggets that are chipper and clean.

These two 1930's tracks are as close at they got to Swing's jiving side. "Oozlin' Daddy Blues" has a call and response structure that's kinda like Cab Calloway, down to the banter at the opening. The couplets follow with the same goofy humor. "Who Walks In" is a fast number, too fast for dancing really, with Delta Blues lyrics. The most fascinating thing about it is the guitar solo, which is build on a middle-eastern scale, like the songs Duke Ellington collaborated on with Juan Tizol, "Caravan" and "Pyramid."

Bob Wills - Oozlin Daddy Blues

Bob Wills - Who Walks In When I Walk Out?

The Maddox Bros. & Rose came straight outta Bakersfield California in the late Forties, role models of the Okie attitude that made the town a honky tonk capital. Their elaborate outfits- sequin-studded, three-tone cowboy yoked suits and dresses- upped the ante for outrageousness in western wear. And when rock came along, they played it with authority. Rose sits this 1956 session out, as the boys tell what qualities they look for in a woman. The harmonies are Appalachian, but the tone is badass.

Maddox Bros. - Ugly and Slouchy

posted by bendy @ 9/07/2005 12:19:00 AM [permanent link]

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Blackstrap is a rockpunk band that was formed in 2002 by several disgruntled music fans. Some had played in bands for years, some had never been involved in music.  All of us were upset with the direction the USA was moving. As you can tell, our impact on all that has been overwhelming.

We broke up in 2004, just before releasing a debut EP. We still feel bad about messing up 307 Knox Records like that. We got back together in 2005.  We might drive each other crazy again, so no promises.

We're a band that doesn't have many options as far as money and time and touring and all those other thing that could make a band be your life. The web is the main way we promote ourselves. We figured out we should share what meager knowledge we have obtained.

RESOURCES

or "Promoting Your Music as the Music Industry We Know and Dislike Dies...."

Websites are a lot of work to figure out, and don't work any magic on their own. Most people who view your website are already going to know you exist. Just having a website doesn't mean anyone is going to visit. So don't worry about securing an Internet domain right away.  Stick some music on MySpace, and then participate in sites that might actually drive interested listeners to your music.  Blackstrap gets more hits from our link on ncpunkonline.com than from higher-profile sites where we get lost in the shuffle.

There are advantages to having your own custom built website and domain name, but it's only as useful to the extent that it gets linked to.

Here are some sites that are important and help to get noticed. They aren't all music sites, specifically. Alot of them require participation. But hey, you wanted to be on stage, right?



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