Domingo 4 Jun 2006, 12:40

I have finally tracked down an article I remeber reading in The Observer - a UK sunday newspaper - in 2003. The full article, by Charles Shaar Murray, can be found at the addresses below. It is highly recommended reading.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1083275,00.html

and

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1087227,00.html

However here are a couple of paragraphs from the article.

Quote - tags added
"So where is the new blues, and what does it sound like? The younger blues players, broadly speaking, fall into three distinct camps: the folkies, the post-Vaughanists and the punks. The godfather of the folkies is the ever-ebullient Taj Mahal and the distinguishing marks of his successors tend to be broad-brimmed hats and steel-bodied National guitars. The most successful is Keb' Mo' - formerly Kevin Moore of Los Angeles - closely shadowed by Eric Bibb, Alvin 'Youngblood' Hart and the spooky, haunted Kelly Joe Phelps.

The post-Vaughanists aspire to the sombrero and poncho of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and in most cases the guitar playing is astonishing, the vocals somewhat less so and the songwriting decidedly iffy. Post-Vaughanists include some promising players in or barely out of their teens, including Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jonny Lang (both of whom are blond and pretty enough to be distant relatives of Hanson), Monster Mike Welch and Derek Trucks, nephew of the splendidly-named Allman Brothers band drummer Butch Trucks. There are also some highly impressive female post-Vaughanists, notably Sue Foley, Susan Tedeschi, Ana Popovic, Joanna Connor and former Albert Collins sidewoman Debbie Davies.

It's the punks who are not only the most interesting, but the ones most most intimately connected to the music's roots. The pioneers were The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, whose bassless two-guitars-and-drums line-up consciously mimicked that of Hound Dog Taylor & The Houserockers, the most unself-consciously primitive of Chicago's early-Seventies barroom combos.

The inspiration for the present-day punk-blues movement came from the hill country of North Mississippi. In 1991 the late critic and producer Robert Palmer (no relation to the recently deceased British singer of the same name) documented the north Mississippi scene with a film and album both entitled Deep Blues , in which local musicians were recorded for the first time. Their blues, heavily influenced by the legacy of the late Mississippi Fred McDowell and played on cheap off-brand guitars and amplifiers, provided inspiration for the likes of The White Stripes, The Black Keys and The North Mississippi All Stars, and upcoming British bands like the 22-20s (whose debut EP contains a version of Slim Harpo's 'I'm A King Bee'). "
EndQuote

In general, I tend to favour "the folkies" or "men in broad-brimmed hats" over the "post-Vaughanists", but not exclusively so. I also listen to female blues artists, but those I know tend to fall into the "post-Vaughanists" category. So the question is can anyone recomend any "women in broad-brimmed hats" or "folkie" style female blues artists ?

Mike