“Covering” the Bluesman from a Distance

Introduction In many ways, my journey towards this thesis topic began with my brother’s music collection. Throughout my teens he would introduce me to a wide range of local and international acts, many of which were influenced by African-American blues artists. This influence is evident in both their construction of sound and the old songs that they rerecorded. From there I began tracing musical influences from song credits and interview excerpts—a path often travelled by musicians and fans alike—that would eventually lead me to an appreciation of blues music. The penultimate step towards this topic came in the form of my honours thesis—a creative project that involved rerecording several tracks from the catalogue of an early Australian country music artist, one of which was titled “Blue Mountain Blues”.1 From there I turned to blues music in Australia. Initially conceived as a history of “Australian blues”, it became apparent that this proposed sub-genre struggled to unify and explain the disparate musical styles contained therein. Although each artist was clearly addressing the musical characteristics and influences I had come to recognise as “blues music”, it all sounded different. In the meantime, I developed a keen interest in a fellow colleague’s thesis topic that addressed the role of “covers” within the Australian music industry (Giuffre, 2005). My epiphany—and catalyst for the current thesis topic—eventually presented itself while viewing a live performance from Peter Green Splinter Group. The concert was split into two courses: an acoustic entrée featuring several Robert Johnson “covers”; and, an electric main with side dishes of early Fleetwood Mac material—the band Green had help found many years ago. As I sat there listening, I began to wonder why I was always coming across contemporary musicians performing “covers” of old blues songs and making a point of drawing attention to their “original” African-American author—especially when that author was Robert Johnson. For some time I had noticed this recurring tendency to construct, 1 address and enforce a canon of blues artists and repertoire, as well as an overwhelming need to replicate blues as a strictly acoustic form replete with finger-picking and slide guitar. I had also become aware of a difference in approach. Some musicians strived to imitate the sound and image of early African-American bluesmen and their songs while others seemed determined to perform blues in their own “new” way interpolated with a wide range of musical influences. What I want to examine in this thesis is why contemporary artists continue to perform and record these songs, what purpose(s) this process serves, as well as which songs and African-American blues artists are the most significant. Discourses concerning canon construction and practices of reinterpretation in blues music are as relevant today as they were some 40 or 50 years ago when white writers, fans and musicians first took interest in the genre en masse during the blues revival of the late 1950s and 1960s. Though writers such as Charles Keil (1966) and David Evans (1976; 1982a) touch on the topic area, these issues bear increasing significance for an emergent school of revisionist researchers within contemporary blues discourse. This has been demonstrated in recent studies examining blues “cover” songs, the construction of blues canons, and perceptions of early blues culture.2 All of these writers, however, are American and, subsequently, their studies deal primarily—if not exclusively—with the situation in the United States. This presents several gaps in the current research. The first is that blues literature neglects to address the topics of canonisation and reinterpretation within internationally disseminated contexts. Accordingly, part of my task is to extend the blues discourse to a contemporary Australian context. Another primary objective is to contribute to the recent revisionist discourse on blues through analyses and discussions that incorporate local (Australian) subject matter. More specifically, it will identify Australian artists who regularly engage with the blues genre, examine their recorded reinterpretations of old blues texts, and 2 consider their role as agents of the blues canon. Many of these aspects of contemporary blues performance are on display in the recent compilation The dig Australian Blues Project (Various, 2005a). This recording was conducted as part of The ABC Blues Festival—a three- month Australian celebration of blues music that followed and incorporated the promotional projects that came out of the US Year of the Blues initiative in 2003. Likewise, in addition to the countless blues festivals that are held every year around the country, other recent events such as the 2005 Sydney Festival concerts3 and the Vanguard’s annual Robert Johnson Tribute Night highlight the contemporary significance of blues music to Australian culture along with its attendant issues of canonisation and reinterpretation. Despite this obvious interest, local coverage of the genre remains drastically limited—if not non-existent—within both academic discourse and local mass media (i.e. radio, television, print). Though largely concerned with Australia and its development of blues music culture, this thesis is by no means limited to a historical overview of blues music in Australia. Another key objective of this thesis is to address spaces within the current revisionist scholarship that apply to the blues idiom on a universal level. For instance, Marybeth Hamilton (2001; 2007), John Dougan (2001; 2003), Elijah Wald (2004), and Howell Evans (2004) each discuss the actions that have contributed to the construction of the blues canon. Though all four acknowledge the significance of commercial recorded sources, none conduct a thorough evaluation of the musician’s role as a canonising agent. Similarly, Thomas Schneider (2001) addresses the history of reinterpreting previously recorded blues songs without ever referring to how these musicians and recordings both reinforce and disseminate a canon of African-American blues artists as well as a repertoire of “blues standards”. David Evans (1982a), on the other hand, performs an in-depth analysis of reinterpretive practices in blues but limits his study to African-American performers and, thus, omits a large proportion of musicians involved with the genre. Furthermore, his subsequent list of interpretive 3 processes is insufficient and does not allow for other creative possibilities as demonstrated by contemporary Australian performers. What these studies have in common is that none of the writers investigate in detail how canonising agents contribute to the common perceptions, representations and constructions of “the bluesman”, and how these, in turn, shape audiences’ understandings of blues music. Additionally, none effectively combine the topic of canonisation with discussion pertaining to the ingrained practices of reinterpretation in blues music. Considering the incredibly intertwined nature of these two fields of blues research, it is particularly significant that these subjects are being addressed simultaneously for the first time in this thesis. Following the methodology, the first chapter conducts a survey of the literature on blues music with a predominant focus on issues of canonisation and historically established practices of reinterpretation. Chapter two investigates the process that creates and lionises the image of the African-American bluesman. This begins with an assessment of how recordings have contributed to defining “blues” and is followed by a discussion of the pervasive and iconic image of “the bluesman”—specifically, how it is reinforced by the canonising process and how it is passively received and accepted by audiences on a grand scale. This chapter then identifies the playing styles, equipment, songs and artists that represent what is commonly understood as the blues canon. Subsequently, chapter two concludes by analysing the manner in which musicians, as agents of the canon, reinforce its pertinence. Chapter three examines the canonising role of musicians through the act of performing and recording reinterpretations of old blues songs, which are often referred to as “standards”. In doing so, this chapter commences with a broad examination of reinterpretive practices in popular music and addresses the need to develop both a new terminology and methodology for discussing and measuring musical creativity. Discussion then deals with the 4 issues of canonisation and reinterpretation directly in relation to Australia’s blues music culture via an analysis of the recent compilation of blues reinterpretations, The dig Australian Blues Project (Various, 2005a). Chapter four continues to study Australian performers and the Australian context by introducing a brief historical overview of blues music in Australia. Preceded by a consideration of the international revivals that contributed to the genre’s dissemination, this overview begins with the emergence of the country’s first consciously-dedicated blues bands in the 1960s and continues through to the present climate. Moreover, the chapter concludes by reflecting upon the parallels between Australia, the United States and other areas of dissemination, the allure and uptake of blues music among Australians, as well as the associations between this foreign musical idiom and local youth counterculture. The following three chapters (five, six and seven) are case studies, each one examining a contemporary

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