The Blog
The following article is an unabridged version of one published in shorter form in “Americana Rhythm Music Magazine.”
The spectacle of the street corner, sidewalk and back alley jamming in the streets of Floyd, Virginia on Friday nights attracts thousands of musicians and music lovers every summer. While the Friday Night Jamboree stage at the Floyd Country Store schedules a gospel set followed by old time bands that cater to the flatfoot dancers, the street picking is more representative of the breadth of the music of this region.
Here, in addition to old time ballads and fiddle tunes, you can hear bluegrass, country and blues and even more contemporary styles. When I’m able to join the jamming, I pack up my nickel plated steel guitar and search the streets for fellow reso-phonic enthusiast Carlton Harmon. Read More »
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I’ve been through an extended creative “dry spell” for the last several months. You artists and writers out there know the feeling. The loss of inspiration or motivation to create is at best tortuous; when you lose both it is devastating.
Inspiration usually motivates us to create, yet motivation can only prepare us for inspiration. We can create solely through motivation, but without inspiration the results are, well, uninspired! Knowing that Inspiration comes and goes, an artist of any sort keeps up a daily creative practice to be “ready” when she visits. My problem was that I had given up on my daily regimen.
As a musician, specifically a blues musician, I often associate the creative process with a certain degree of magic and mysticism. A daily artistic practice allows me to tap into this power. Without it, I had lost my mojo. It doesn’t matter how or what happened to bring this about, it happens to all “creative types” sooner or later, one way or another.
So, how to “get my mojo working?” Read More on Scott’s Blog…
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N
at Reese, born in 1924, is a stunning acoustic blues singer from the southwest Virginia area.
Interview by Scott Perry
NR: You know the Blues Quarterly magazine that comes from in West Virginia?
SP: I do.
NR: I helped Bob Vorell start that magazine.
SP: Well, I was going to say when I wanted to do some research about you, the only one I found was in BRQ, back in the old days, back when it was in newsprint.
NR: That’s right. Read More »
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Scott spent much of his life traveling up and down the East Coast and into the Midwest learning and honing his craft. He was first introduced to this music while in college by a Taj Mahal record, but soon was studying the records of Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson and other country blues players from the 1920s and 30s.
While in Chicago he learned directly from several of the recognized masters of traditional and Chicago blues including David “Honeyboy” Edwards, “Big Smokey” Smothers, Jimmy Walker, Carl Weathersby and Billy Branch. Read More »
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Taj Majal
My introduction to blues was a record by Taj Mahal called “Oh So Good and Blue.” A friend turned me on to it in college and the blues bug bit me hard! From the moment I heard that record I knew that all I wanted to do was play the guitar like that!
I had an old Guild guitar stowed under my bed that I had bought as a youngster and never learned to play. With a copy of Taj’s record and my dusty ax, I went down to the Music Department and started knockin’ on doors until I found my first guitar mentor, Carl Dimow.
During my first lesson, Carl introduced me to a Mississippi John Hurt tune called “Oh Papa”. It took me weeks to play this passably (a fact that drove my poor roommate to the brink of psychosis)! But from that point on I was guitar crazy. I quit the football team (not to mention much of my studies), and dedicated myself to learning tunes by all the acknowledged masters of “country blues” guitar.
I’ve learned a lot of tunes since I first started plunking around with “Oh Papa.” But like your first kiss, you never forget your first tune, and so when it came time to “go legit” with my musical endeavors there was only one choice for it’s name, Oh Papa Music!
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