Raw British Urban Blues

If you haven't heard of Rory McLeod, you deserve to check him out. He's one of the most intense and distinctive folk musicians out there (and even calling his stuff folk is restrictive). He's also an amazing multi-instrumentalist and plays - amongst guitar, trombone, spoons and various percussion instruments - diatonic harmonica. I was looking for a clip on Youtube this morning that featured him on harmonica, and I found this superb declamatory street blues that sounds nothing like a blues. Unfortunately, embedding is deactivated for this clip, so here's a link to enjoy it directly on the tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO_xCvYGtxY

Comments

[Jp]

That is some down and dirty stuff, mon frere. Thanks for the clip. Surprised you say it "sounds nothing like the blues" though, considering it obviously (to my ears) borrows from a long tradition of blues, both in content and in style (Sonny Terry leaps immediately to mind, but so does Jesse Fuller). Not take away from Rory's originality, but what do you think qualifies it as "nothing like the blues"?

[Benoit FELTEN]

Hey JP !

Glad to see you're still reading me !

I'm not deing that there's lots of components in this song that are straight out of blues. But the groove, the flow, the unabashed accent, all this make this - to - absolutely non-blues.

But hey, who cares ? It's great stuff and that's all that counts !

[Jp]

You know, you make it hard to argue with you! ;)

[hoog]

hey Ben ;)

that clip is just amazing...