Most of the blues legends have either died—in 2005 alone we lost Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, RL Burnside and (Las Vegan) Little Milton—or are getting way up in years. Are the blues in danger of becoming an underground art form?
It really always has been underground. It's always kind of been the music that you have to seek out. We have more clubs that feature blues, and the casinos do now, but it isn't a music that gets a lot of airplay. And when you think about the young kids, the Kanye Wests and all, how much attention have they paid to Little Milton and Gatemouth Brown?
You're one of the few recognizable names among thirty-, forty- and fiftysomething bluesmen. How much would the genre benefit from another Stevie Ray Vaughan-type phenomenon?
Over the last 20 to 30 years, we've lost Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf ... the innovators. And there isn't somebody that's come out of nowhere to create a new music, nobody that's come out and made a stand, a statement, a proclamation that, "I own this music." That would be cool. Like when Jimi Hendrix first came along.
I've read that a few folks have walked out of your shows during "Twenty" (the anti-Iraq War-themed title track on Cray's latest album). Did it surprise you that serious fans would bail out that way?
I expect that. I don't expect everybody to sit and listen to me preach. And at the same time, we get a lot of positive responses during the song and have had conversations with veterans who agree. I think the way the Iraq situation has gone on deserves more than Page 5 or Page 6 of the daily newspaper. It's part of life, and life is what the blues is about.
Sex Pistols Experience vs. Badfish |
The Sex Pistols effectively ended when Johnny Rotten left. Sublime effectively ended with the departure of Brad Nowell. Is it any wonder that both have inspired tribute bands? But which gets it right and which is destined to open for Yellow Brick Road?
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Coming to Town |
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Kingfinger
Love Change (1 star)
This LA outfit likes to brag about its singer's recent 30-day prison stint on vehicular charges, probably because that story is far more compelling than anything on a disc that, at its absolute best, approximates The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Perhaps a stretch in solitary confinement would help Kingfinger find its voice.
Action Action
An Army of Shapes Between Wars (2.5 stars)
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Venerable hard-core and emo label Victory jumps on the new wave revival bandwagon with this Long Island quartet, whose second album recalls the dance rock of the Killers and Franz Ferdinand. A couple of tunes—"A Tornado; An Owl," "Don't Shoot the Messenger (Not My Idea)"— sound like perfect re-creations of 1986, but the rest are too often droning, atonal and messy.