After years of watching white artists and fans dominate a genre pioneered by Black people, artists like Buffalo Nichols are trying to bring the music they love back to its roots.
Nichols is unapologetically blunt when he discusses the way the music he loves has become disconnected from its cultural roots. He admires the way someone like Jack White used the blues as a jumping-off point for a style of his own 20 years ago. But in general, Nichols is rattled by what the traditional blues scene has become.
St. Louis-based singer and guitarist Marquise Knox, who opened for ZZ Top and Cheap Trick on a recent tour, has seen the same dynamic in the blues business, where most of the leading indie labels who specialize and support the music, like Alligator and Blind Pig, are not Black-owned.Knox says. “But these are generally people who say they love us, that they care about us and have respect for us. Then they get ready to book these festivals, and even if they hire us, it’s maybe three of us.
Their quest raises many fascinating and difficult questions. In 2022, how can the blues connect to young music fans of all backgrounds raised on hip-hop and pop music? In that context, where even a guitar solo can be seen as an archaic convention, what’s the future of the blues? His interest in other forms of guitar music blossomed when he spent time with friends in Milwaukee’s West African community, who introduced him to artists like Ali Farka Touré, the late Malian guitarist and singer. “That put me on the journey of really understanding what folk music and cultural roots music are,” he says. “I saw what it meant to these people, and I felt this connection to it.
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