This month, I thought I would click around the web for some live blues. The WWW surely has given many people the blues, but I wanted to check out what was available through Windows Media Player 7, the latest Microsoft product that promises to bring audio and video home. I found a few great sites, but still think the web has a long way to go in bringing blues shows to my desktop. The Windows Media Player site at Microsoft has several audio clips online, but I was surprised that this site only had two videos: one from Taj Mahal and another from Italian bluesman, Zucchero. With so many content mavens working at Microsoft, I had expected more in terms of blues content on the video side. There's a lot online audio, but I wanted my little two-inch screen to show more than these two clips. (Confidential to Redmond: I'm available to suggest content for your site, a Blues 101 if you will).

Undaunted, I looked a little further. I found Yahoo's Bluestown (http://www.bluestown.com), and was pleasantly surprised at the video archives available. There's a link to a great Buddy Guy performance at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi, http://www.lalive.com/deltablues/. Another featured concert was Portland, Oregon's own Mason Ruffner, from his Blue Cat Blues gig in Dallas, Texas promoting his latest CD on Burnside Records, You Can't Win. Both of these look good confined to a small, two-inch box on my screen, but when I enlarged them, my screen was a mess of colors. The audio, though, was very clear and I wish I had the facilities to record both of these shows.

For me, both concerts show how powerful the Internet can be in promoting and preserving the blues. The majority of my online experience, however, has been limited to sites that buffer information while they are downloading, causing the streaming audio or video to "hiccup" on my screen. Sort of a "blues interruptus." Also, I've noticed a fair amount of herky-jerky stop motion video, but I'm afraid that this is a result of far more advance audio opportunities over video online. I'm hopeful, though, that one day, there will be more blues video available. Until that day comes, one of my first stops for blues content will be Yahoo's Bluestown.com. As I discover more site that feature Windows Media Player blues content, I'll be sure to pass those URLs on. The power of the Internet to promote and preserve the blues is limitless, and I look forward to the day when I'll be able to download some real blues masters like Muddy, B.B., or the Wolf.

From Chicago to New Orleans

I've long been partial to postwar Chicago blues. The plugged-in electric style of Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Son Seals or Fenton Robinson gets my mojo workin' and reconnects me with memories of my favorite evenings spent in blues clubs on Chicago's North Side. Don't get me wrong; I like the country blues of Mississippi Fred McDowell, or the pared-down acoustic sound of Honeyboy Edwards or R. L. Burnside just fine. To me, the electric guitar has taken blues to another level, particularly when Elmore James shouts "Dust My Broom" or when Hound Dog Taylor screams through "Look on Yonder Wall," both classic songs that trace their heritage back to blues master emeritus, Robert Johnson.

For the past 25 years, I've been a big fan of Chicago blues. Friends would tell me that there was great blues in Memphis, St. Louis or even the Seattle area, but I wouldn't listen. Lately, though, I've discovered a world of blues outside of Cook County, Illinois. Not out to the suburbs or to Lake Michigan, but way down South to the Big Easy, New Orleans, Louisiana. I know Buddy Guy got his start in Baton Rouge, but he's made most of his 40-year blues career in the Chicago area, and his Chicago club, Buddy Guy's Legends, is a must for musicians and fans alike passing through Carl Sandburg's City of Big Shoulders. Last month, I widened my blues horizons a little bit at San Francisco's Biscuits & Blues, an intimate basement venue that won the 1999 W.C. Handy Award for Best Blues Club in America. In that small club just off of Geary and Mason Streets in what the locals call "The City," Mem Shannon and the Membership introduced me to some serious funk and some great blues.

Getting A Little Funky with Mem Shannon and the Membership

I know that funk has been around a long time, and for a long time, I've ignored it. There's just too much musically going on in funk for me to keep up! Until I saw Mem Shannon play a funky brand of blues, I didn't think that there was a place for funk in the blues. When it came to funk, I thought the Godfather of Soul said it all. Or, I thought funk was exclusively Ohio Players territory, or reserved for acts that shouldn't play the blues. Boy, was I wrong. In a big way. Mem's blues isn't quite the Chicago blues of Elmore James or Muddy Waters, nor is it nearly the Memphis blues of B.B. King or Preston Shannon. They're different. When Mem launched into one of his trademark solos, backed by his tight four-piece band, he showed me that the blues could get funky by adding a few extra beats into a standard chord-driven blues riff. In Mem's hands, funk is good, especially if it is laced with some thoughtful songwriting.

Mem Shannon and the Membership is recognized as one of the best New Orleans blues acts around. Last year, Mem was listed for Best 1999 Blues Album by a Louisiana Artist and Best Blues Band or Performer in Best of the Beat Awards, honoring the best in New Orleans music. That record, Spend Some Time With Me, was released on Fat Tuesday, and Mem's promoting the CD on an international tour that will take the band to Europe in November and December. OffBeat Magazine awarded his 1996 release, A Cab Driver's Blues (Hannibal/Rykodisc) Best Blues Album by a Louisiana artist, and he was nominated for the Best New Blues Artist Award at the nation-wide W.C. Handy Awards.

While Mem's guitar shines on many extended solos, his songwriting is decidedly different.

In "Who Are They," an up tempo number with just a touch of funk, Mem asks about all those style setters or pundits who tell us we should dress or act a certain way. In "My Humble Opinion," Mem simply tells it straight: "if you don't want to get funky/don't come knockin' on my door." Mem's blues is infectious, and once I got the hang of those extra beats that is the trademark of funky blues, I was hooked. Whether he's behind the wheel of his cab or bending notes on his guitar, Mem has paid his dues, and "Paying My Dues" is a funny/sad story about how his band leaves him behind. On a more serious, soulful number, Mem asked us to "Pray for the Children," which is one of the many high points on Spend Some Time With Me.

Mem's songs tell stories, and one of my favorites was told from his father's point of view. Mem's dad didn't want his son to grow up as a laborer in the lumber mill, so he kept urging him to "Play That Guitar, Son."

Mem's truly a memorable player. One of the best blues pickers around, particularly if you like your blues funky.

(C) 2000 - Eric Steiner