This is very cool, I love Blind Blake. No modern guitarists have ever been able to get this stuff right. Even Ry Cooder fumbles through stuff like this, it's a mofo to get this down. Amazing clarity from his sides too, most are well preserved. Blind Blake

Johnny was amazing, everything he did is worth checking out especially Showdown with Albert Collins and Robert Cray.

Yep. Deep Blues is great. Must reads are Chasin' That Devil Music by Gayle Dean Wardlow, Nothing But The Blues by Lawrence Cohn and Escaping The Delta by Elijah Wald. Also check out the Robert Johnson thread here, I posted links to a few informative articles. Nothing But The Blues takes it all the way back to Africa.

This guy is a pretty killer player. Alber Castiglia

Yeah fire is a cool thing for relaxing in the yard, beer helps too. Our new yard isn't as nice as the old place but we'll make do. I actually scored a pretty good deal on the pit, it's propane but kicks out a big flame and with the fake logs it looks pretty cool. It was marked down at Target at the end of the season, which is late spring now, sheesh they put out summer gear and patio furnishings right after New Year. Anyway it was $128. With a few plants and a fountain I had in the shed and it was a pretty cool place to hang. When and if I have the money to finsh the basement I intend to put in an indoor pit, fountain, spa and fake turf, instead of carpet, so I can enjoy the "outdoors" all year. I saw some cool things at the home and garden show a few weeks ago. They had several contractors there that specialize in custom basements. However the economy needs to right me first, work is pretty scary these days, I fear I may lose my job and home.

Hmm, I've browsed and none posted so far are all that show stopping for me, I prefer realistic to the Hollywood sex kitten. Admittedly I'm not fond of the hardcore rock-skank look either. Womanly is nice but if I had to pick a star than exemplifies that look for me it'd be a lady like Laura San Giacomo or Janeane Garofalo, I prefer brains and genuine curves to the dope sick and starved look.

Thanks, I do\did like that patio, I've moved and miss it myself. Other than that I think you need new glasses . Still have the fire pit! In seriousness thanks, you made me smile on a rough day and right back at you, you are a beautiful person for being nice to me.

My dogs greeting me as I get up is always nice and the sun on my face just reminded me that despite things being pretty scary right now I'm lucky to be able to enjoy a nice day.

You're welcome. I try to make a point of keeping up with the current stuff if I can, it's really easy for me to get stuck in music's past. It's somewhat easy to stay abreast of what's happening in blues now we have a great blues scene in Denver. Every night of the week there is a national act here and the local bands are great too. If the economy wasn't so messed up I'd be out every night dancing, drinkning and attending jams.

Blues is my thing, I listen to blues more than anything. As much as I like the old stuff there are many great newer and somewhat recent blues artists out there that are exciting. Among my faves are; Michael Burks Guy Forsythe Steve Guyger Watermelon Slim Paul Filipowicz

I'm seeing more and more people wearing ear plugs at shows these days. I don't enjoy it if it's too loud so I may be doing the ear plug thing myself. I actually have a few sets of Hearos that I bought for a friend and didn't get used.

Found this on my hard drive, makes me excited spring is just around the corner. I'm ready to sit on the patio and drink cherry wine again.

I bought a few blues comps on Testament Records, Robert Nighthawk and JB Hutto.

Music Choice on cable TV, the blues channel is always on at my house. At the moment it's playing Albert King.

Muddy Waters-Newport 1960. I am addicted to this, it's like music crack.

Heck yeah, all of Jimmy's Vee-Jay era stuff is killer. Even songs that bands like the Stones and Yardbirds covered sound better in Jimmy's original version to my ears. If you've never heard his original of Honest I Do that the Stones covered it's a must hear tune and despite the Yardbirds taking his song I Ain't Got You and turning it into a showpiece for Clapton to burn on the original is a lot funkier. The sad thing is Jimmy was swindled by the folks at Vee-Jay. Many of those songs he wrote ended up being credited to his handlers and people that ran the company because he was ignorant and had no idea as to what he signed because he couldn't read or write.

Jimmy Reed-some greatest hits comp History of Delta Blues-again a Rhino comp I bought because it had some Robert Nighthawk on it and I didn't feel like waiting for an order to show from an online retailer. Good blues cd's are scarce, even the good indie stores are usually lacking in blues stuff.

Not to mention The Faces carried on after Lane left the band while alive and even toured with a 2nd guitarist for the last tour, they changed before Lane died. No disrespect to RL.

Yeah Fanny were definitely pre Runaway's and honestly I always thought the Runaways had more in common with the punk movement anyway. Fanny rocked pretty hard and yeah the Runaways were damn cool too.

Muddy Waters-At Newport 1960 Next up; The Ventures-In Space

Sure whatever you say. How about you get off my back. I've said all along it is my opinion not a fact and I'm not beating it down anyone's throat that I am some supreme being that is right.

I suppose I should elaborate, I'm not implying PF are an electronica band. To my ears it sounds like some of the effects they use came before the music, as in they made that more important than developing the bones of the songs. That's why I don't like some of their work, like Dark Side, I don't think the riffs in a song are like Money are all that interesting on it's own. It takes the background stuff to make it somewhat interesting, as in if stripped that away there isn't much left. Like I said it's my opinion not a fact, re-read what I wrote, I stated clearly it's how I interpret it not a fact.

Not really a pic but a pic I tried to get 'arty' with because I was bored Thu afternoon, I don't get into football and the usual 'guy stuff' on Thanksgiving. Sadly I don't have that Les Paul anymore, that pic was a few months ago.

Eh I don't know that I'd go that far. If I had to sum up PF my personal opinion would be they had what it took to write a good stripped back song, Wish You Were Here is a decent song. But I feel they relied on synths, filters and other electronic gadgetry to a fault when a few simple notes or chords could\would have been a better choice. It's not a good thing or bad thing and it was an essential part of their style. I feel if you stripped all of the sonic "tricks" away much of their stuff is musically stagnant, like the song is secondary to electronic blips. What others see as a form of expression I see as a crutch.

One thing Gilmour deserves credit for with his slide playing is he used it in a very non-blues way. Echoes is pretty far from the Mississippi delta. A+ for originality, but yeah not very technical. Though I'm surprised I would mention something like that, creating good music has little to do with how technical the finished product is. For example I prefer to listen to Johnny Thunders any day before I'd toss on a Yngwie cd, any day.