Ears out of the box - Ep. I - Alive and Well at 81YO

In this world, there are individuals that just keep on impressing the auditorium even when nobody would be expecting them to impress. Music is one of those domains in which those individuals, the incredible ones that HAVE TO express themselves (not us, the decent folks that struggle to eat some loaf of bread daily), can dwell inside and can develop those minds to infinite lengths. In music, the talented minds and souls of the people who dedicate their lives to it can find that right dose of eccentricity, vivacity and differentiation while us, the crowds who love to wave our hands in front of those stages and lose ourselves inside that dopey track, can awe in gratefulness, thanking God that allowed us to share the planet with those great artists.

As I like to explore new music, I discovered more than one year ago that the best solution I have is to use iTunes. Sorry Android users, Apple is a pioneer in what "music distribution" should be and even though I have to agree with Grohl of Foo Fighters when he said that "iTunes destroyed the music industry", I will agree by completing his introspection: "it destroyed the music industry only to reinvent it in a much better, affordable and close to the listener form". In this sense, I found a new way of discovering and listening to ALBUMS (yes, that's right! and I'll come back at the end of this article in order to explain why I listen to albums).

^{Some time ago I started respecting the artists and decided that stealing from them is too low; iTunes deal/month is the best one out there IMO.}

"the Blues is alive and well"

There's this special individual, that since he was born, all the reasons were given to him by nature in order to become one of the greatest artists of all times. Being born in Louisiana was maybe this guy's biggest advantage in the face of others that were born in that period and tried the blues. Also, having a name as Buddy Guy and that happy face all the time made him like the most liked fellow in the village. His parents were probably not the most inspired people, giving that name to him, but heck...they were lucky through happenings because a name like that is the name of a star for sure.

So, yes! This article is about Buddy Guy, the guitar player which Eric Clapton considers to be the best still alive, the blues singer that decided to take out a 15 songs albums in the year he turned 81. It's like a statement after you turn 80: everybody expects you to drop dead soon and instead you go on and show them the finger by starting a new decade in your life...just like that.

^{The instrument on which Buddy learned to play the guitar is called a "Didley Bow", an improvised wood-like guitar, with one or two strings (source)}

Listening to this album is like taking a breath of fresh air. And I mean "listening to the album", not only the star song, on which I'll stay a little bit longer in a minute. I discovered this when I was in the gym (best time for me to explore my iTunes suggestions) and I guess that the people around me thought I'm on acid or something because I was moving my head in the rhythm of Baton Rouge's blues though on the speakers there was some EDM. When I saw that Buddy Guy had a new album I was like "where did he launch it from? The grave?". This iconic guitarist has no ties to death, illness or tiredness it seems.

I know people that at 81 years old have been rotting for more than 10 years. And I know people that at 60 don't even GO to concerts so what can we speak about taking a 6 months worldwide tour to promote this new album like Buddy's doing?

It's all about that guitar screaming

Of course, the big star on this album is the song "the Blues is Alive and Well". It gives the title of this studio production.

And of course, it's about him, it's not about the blues. He is alive. And he is well. You wouldn't expect that would you eh? It's a metaphor, a perfect sync between him and his guitar that is twitching under those Louisiana black fingers like an 18 years old virgin under the experience of an older man. "Killing me softly" with that guitar. So fresh yet so perfectly balanced, a balance that only a lifetime of concerts and composition can give you. But you are not Buddy. Along with Johnson, the guy who is said to have made a deal with the devil in order to play the guitar like that, Buddy Guy got me suspecting that he also did the same. Surely though, the horned one is not in a rush to take him.

If life is decent with genius men, then this will not be the last album of Buddy Guy and he will give us another strong reason to listen to the blues. Who da' fuck is still making blues in 2018?! Buddy is, ladies and gentleman! Let's hope he will be doing this a long time from now on.

Still, this is a perfect circle with a song from his youth "First time I met the Blues" (1960). Just listen to that dampened sound, that incredible fidelity for those times, so round and so nicely enriched with the harmonics provided by the tubes they were using in all the amps. It's lush like I imagine the bayou to be.

^{There's no encouragement big enough to make you listen to this guy's Greatest}

Another piece that you've got to listen to, on this album, is "Whiskey for sale". Man, I'd kill for those stems in order to put it a little inside a DAW and try to remix it a little bit. Listen to how modern those drums are and how the production seems to ask for the remix. Some "blues-EDM intervention" would do Buddy a great honour and would place this old American sound on the international map again.

The joy of an album

I probably can't stress enough about how important it is to listen to a whole album (when the artist made one). Especially old school artists like this one. The product is the album, not one song. Listening to just one song on the album it's like going to the store and buying only the eggs out of the mayonnaise. Listening to an entire album, over and over again, is like shaking hands with the artist and getting the full experience of staying with him for about an hour, getting him to show you his best skills. Listening to it a second time is even better usually. You get to check the details you've missed. You can concentrate on those things that are out there in the back and the whole IDEA to mix them like that was to be subtle and not "in your face".

I guess the younger people, the 2000 generation, is more inclined to listen to those "singles". And I don't blame them. Singles are sometimes incredible compositions; because they are so good and populist the "juice" is concentrated in them just enough to bring all the attention around on them. But children... albums get the luxury to spread in time, to "open their legs" and you can take your time with them. You can study them. They are like a book that on some occasions you either return on some paragraphs or even go on read it all over again in its totality.

There's no stressing enough:

Listen to albums!

 

Posted also on my blog www.ddma.ro, a place on the world wide web where I'm trying to promote Steemit, my writings and my country. In that order. I post through the @steempress-io plugin and I make my life easier (writing and formatting in Wordpress is much easier than on steemit.com or busy.org).