Electric blues in this day and age is, I think we can all agree, about ritual rather than absolute novelty. A good night in a blues bar in Chicago or for that matter in Kiev is about going to the familiar source, reconnecting with the trinity of I-IV-V, with the familiar language of the twelve bars, the bent note, the repeated phrase, and the sweet release of finding company in blackest misery. The blues structure is as well known, as dear and familiar to its devotees, as the Mass is to lifelong Catholics. Sure, okay, all the songs sound alike - it's the ritual that counts.
But what ritual! The rhythms don't always change much and the melodies don't either, but that's not the point. The point is the astonishing amount of energy, of feeling, of meaning a good player can put into one little moan, one note, one line that skids right across the song without regard for the form or the changes, that makes you want to stand up and holler right along. That's where the originality comes in - a good blues player can find something new for you in material you know by heart. A good band on a good night can do practically anything and leave you wrung out, serene, and (for a little while anyway) all right with the world.
So, sure yeah all right, to non-believers the blues sounds like the same basic thing over and over again. But then again, so is sex, and I don't see many folks getting tired of that. And like sex, (wait, John... so you contend the blues is like sex? How novel!), it's all about the moment. That band, on that night, in that room, is going to put on a show and try to make some magic happen.
Case in point: Delmark has just released Live at Theresa's 1975 by the great Junior Wells, a legendary blues harpist and certified magician, that shows why he was considered one of the Chicago's all-time finest. Wells was a prototypical harp player (that's "harmonica") in the Chicago mold, blowing riffs and phrases through a warm and fuzzy microphone that muddies up the sound and buffs the sharp edges off the harmonica's shrill sound. When he was on, his playing was incredibly thrilling, one of the definitive sounds of the Chicago style.
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