Quality Vinyl Records sold at discount prices.  Collectors, Traders and Music Lovers find Rarities, Imports, Collectibles and Common and Clean Classics ---- Daily.  Specialty is British Blues Rock.  "Where the bond between the Brits and The Yanks is the tightest, Blues and Rock Music. "

Blues-rock is a hybrid musical genre combining elements of the blues with rock and roll, with an emphasis on the electric guitar. It began to develop as a particular style in the mid-1960s in England and the United States through the work of bands such as Cream and The Rolling Stones, who experimented with music from the older American bluesmen like Elmore James, Bo Diddley, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters.^[3]

Contents [hide] 1 Characteristics 1.1 Instrumentation 1.2 Structure 2 History 3 Sample artists 4 References

[edit] Characteristics

Blues-rock can be characterized by bluesy improvisation, the 12-bar blues, extended boogie jams typically focused on the electric guitar player, and often a heavier, riff-oriented sound and feel to the songs than might be found in traditional Chicago-style blues. It is also often played at a fast tempo, again distinguishing it from the blues.^[3]

[edit] Instrumentation

Central to blues-rock are the electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit. Vocals also typically play a key role, although this is not always true, considering the number of instrumental blues-rock pieces. Keyboard, piano and organ are also occasionally used. Often two guitars are played, one playing the accompaniment and one playing the lead.^[3]

[edit] Structure

Minor pentatonic blues scale on A

Blues-rock pieces normally follow the 12-bar blues structure, but often follow a slightly different structure, as seen in the Allman Brothers version of the T-Bone Walker song "Stormy Monday", which follows the general format of a 12-bar blues, but with altered chords, playing:

G⁹ | C⁹ | G⁹ | G⁹ | C⁹ | C⁹ | G⁹ / A minor⁷ | B minor⁷ / B♭⁷ | A minor⁷ | A♭ major⁷ | G⁹ / C⁹ | G⁹ / D augmented

...instead of the expected G | C | G | G | C | C | G | G | D | C | G | G (D) progression. The progression is usually repeated, with only one section of the song, though there are exceptions, some pieces having a "B" section. The key is traditionally major, but can also be minor, a common technique being the use the minor pentatonic scale, with blue notes, over a major chord progression, as employed by Albert King in nearly all of his pieces. The lead guitar typically uses the pentatonic scale, either major or minor, when soloing.

A classic example of blues-rock is Cream's "Crossroads", adapted from Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues" and "Traveling Riverside Blues"; it fuses some of the lyrical and musical styles of blues with rock-styled tempo and guitar solos.

The first two bars of the guitar part to "Stormy Monday" by the Allman Brothers

[edit] History

While rock and blues have historically always been closely linked, blues-rock as a distinctly recognizable genre did not arise until the late 1960s. American guitarist Lonnie Mack has been credited with recording the earliest blues-rock guitar instrumentals, beginning in 1963 with hit singles "Memphis", "Wham!" and "Chicken-Pickin'". However, the genre in its more complete, ensemble form first took shape in Britain, when several noted artists, including Alexis Korner and John Mayall formed blues-oriented groups that acted as a training ground for future stars of the blues-rock genre such as Free, Savoy Brown and the earliest incarnations of Fleetwood Mac. American players like Johnny Winter, Paul Butterfield and the group Canned Heat were also pioneers.

The revolutionary electric guitar playing of Jimi Hendrix (a veteran of many American rhythm & blues and soul groups from the early-mid 1960s) and his power trios, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys, has had broad and lasting influence on the development of blues-rock, especially for guitarists.

Eric Clapton was another guitarist with a lasting influence on the genre; his work in the 1960s and 1970s with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, The Yardbirds, supergroups Blind Faith, Cream and Derek and the Dominos, and an extensive solo career has been seminal in bringing blues-rock into the mainstream.

In the late '60s Jeff Beck a former member of The Yardbirds, revolutionised blues rock into a form of heavy rock, taking the UK and the USA by storm with his band, The Jeff Beck Group. Jimmy Page, a third alumnus of The Yardbirds, went out to form The New Yardbirds which would soon become known as Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin was a huge force in the early 70s blues-rock scene. Other blues-rock musicians influential on the English scene of the 1970s included Rory Gallagher and Robin Trower.

Beginning in the early 1970s, American bands such as Aerosmith fused blues and heavy metal in a similar way that Led Zeppelin had just a few years earlier. Blues-rock grew to include Southern rock and hard rock bands like the Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd while - except for the advent of groups such as Foghat (founded by former Savoy Brown members) - the British scene became focused on heavy metal innovation. Blues-rock had a re-birth in the early 1990s and continues to have lasting influence today, with many artists such as John Mayer, The Black Crowes, The Black Keys, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Silvertide, and Joe Bonamassa performing and releasing albums to enthusiastic fans.

[edit] Sample artists

• Allman Brothers Band
• The Answer
• Mike Bloomfield
• Joe Bonamassa
• Canned Heat
• Eric Clapton
• Cream
• Fleetwood Mac
• Rory Gallagher
• Jimi Hendrix
• Led Zeppelin
• Jeff Beck Group
• Lonnie Mack
• John Mayall
• Gary Moore
• The Rolling Stones
• George Thorogood
• Robin Trower
• Status Quo
• Stevie Ray Vaughan
• Ten Years After
• David Wilcox
• Johnny Winter
• ZZ Top

The British blues is a type of blues music that originated in the late 1950s. American blues musicians like B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf were massively popular in Britain at the time. Muddy Waters is said to have been the first electric blues player to have performed in front of British audiences circa 1959, and others like Sonny Boy Williamson, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry followed him. British teens began playing the blues, imitating various styles of American blues. Gradually, a new distinctly British sound arose by the mid-1960s, called Beat. This form of the blues, and various derivatives, became massively popular in the US, leading to the British Invasion and British R&B.

The scene coalesced around two figures, Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies, who started a blues club in London’s Soho, The London Blues and Barrelhouse Club, at a time when many American blues artists were also playing in London. Skiffle had run its course, and some musicians were seeking the real American roots music.

It was through the clubs Korner and Davies ran that the original Rolling Stones came together in 1962 at The Ealing Club, where he introduced Brian Jones to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (Charlie Watts, at the time, was drumming with Korner’s group, Blues Incorporated). Korner's London blues scene, as well as suburban venues like Klook’s Kleek, gave a start to many of Britain's blues-influenced musicians in the 1960s, including Eric Clapton, Long John Baldry and the Yardbirds. Acoustic guitarist Davy Graham, regarded as one of the early heroes of the instrument, performed widely, but had come to the music independently

Curiously, the other towering figure of British blues, John Mayall, came to the music on his own, while living in Manchester.

The acoustic blues boom in Britain fully came together a little later, in the mid ‘60s, as blues clubs sprang up around the country, forming a touring circuit for young musicians such as Jo Ann Kelly and Mike Cooper. Everything culminated in the National Blues Convention in London in 1968, after which it faded away rapidly.

[edit] Performers

• The Animals
• Long John Baldry
• Jeff Beck
• Duster Bennett
• Bluesology
• The Blues Band
• Chicken Shack
• Graham Bond
• Jack Bruce
• Billy Childish
• Eric Clapton
• Roger Cotton
• Rory Gallagher
• Cream
• Cyril Davies
• Fleetwood Mac
• Humble Pie
• John Mayall
• Peter Green
• Paul Jones
• Jo Ann Kelly
• Alexis Korner
• Led Zeppelin
• Manfred Mann
• Steve Marriott
• The Malchicks
• Jimmy Page
• Mark Thornley
• The Rolling Stones
• Savoy Brown
• Jeremy Spencer
• Taste (Irish Blues Band)
• Ten Years After
• Them
• The Yardbirds
• The Pretty Things
• Chris Youlden

[edit] External links