1- Gary Moore

Gary Moore is an Irish blues guitarist and singer. As I’ve already mentioned in my older posts, Gary has always been my guitar idol since my very early guitar experience. His guitar tone is unique and warm. I never watched him live yet, but I will definitely do. I guess it’s still very early for him to quit the blues world. What really makes this guitarist amazing is his bendings! they’re just perfect. His music is very easy to assimilate due to the pattern he always follows but in the same time, you cannot expect the next note.

My favorite tunes for Gary Moore are “Still Got The Blues”, “Parisienne Walkways (watch my video)” and “Story of the Blues”.

2- Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong, a cornet, trumpet player and singer, is the king of Jazz Ballads. When I listen to Louis, I can think of a bottle of wine, a cheminee or an old cosy house in the mountain :). Louis’ topics are all based on optimistic romance unlike the blues musicians. His music is very joyful and goes straight to the heart. One funny thing about Louis is that he had always claimed to be born on the USA Independence day (July 4, 1900), but in fact, he was born on July 4, 1901 and he was recorded as an illegitimate black child. Louis died on July 6, 1971.

My favorite tunes for Louis Armstrong are “What a Wonderful World” and “A Kiss to Build a Dream on”.

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Let’s thank Mr. George W. Johnson for recording the 1st blues song ever. It was recorded in 1896! “The Laughing Song”. Well, you can imagine the recording quality by that time, it was quite noisy…

Here it is: The Laughing Song

Enjoy it!

Dear musicians friends,

I sampled the midi of a song I composed few months ago (Where can she be) and I felt like improvising some guitar solos over that backing track… I plugged my guitar and improvised only once!… the sounds is not great, but it’s not that bad too!

The guitar is out of tune.. and actually I did not like the melody that much

Here it is: Elie Khoury - Blues Improvisation

Hey my blues buddies,

Have you ever wondered why you never understand some blues songs? Well… they have their own language, or their own vocabulary! for example, what do you understand if they’re talking about the “Black Cat Bone”? or “Eagle Fliges on Friday”?

Here are few words explained:

• back door man/friend: The lover of a married woman who sneaks out the back door before the man of the house gets home
• barrelhouse: a cheap drinking and dancing establishment
• biscuit: a young woman
• black cat bone: a good luck charm that is carried in a mojo bag
• The Blues: a style of music developed in the South whose roots are African tribal calls and American gospel music
• boogie: to move quickly, to get going, to dance, to party
• boogie-woogie: a percussive style of playing the blues on the piano
• canned heat: Sterno, alcohol-based, liquid in a can used to cook outdoors
• captain: form of address Southern white men demanded from their black employees / a prison guard
• chillun: children or people
• cold in hand: having no money
• dry so long: being poor
• dust my broom: breaking up with a woman
• eagle flies on Friday: payday
• easy rider: guitar hung on the back of a traveling blues man / an unfaithful lover
• flagging (a train, a ride): to signal for a train or ride to stop / to hitch a ride
• goin’ up the line/ goin’ down the line: line meaning railroad route; up the line means going North, down the line means going South
• hokum: pretentious nonsense
• hoochie coochie man: one who preaches voodoo
• hoodoo: voodoo / something that brings bad luck
• John the Conqueroo: a root kept in the mojo bag for good luck
• juju: magic or luck
• juke joint: establishment for eating, drinking, and dancing to the music of a jukebox
• killing floor: slaughter house where many Southern blacks worked when they migrated to the North
• mojo: magic spell, hex or charm used against someone else
• nation sack: donation sack carried on the belts of traveling preachers
• rambling: to move aimlessly from place to place
• riding the blinds: hitching a ride on the train between cars
• roadhouse: a drinking establishment outside the city limits
• rounder: a man that gets around / a big money poker player
• signifying: good-natured teasing
• Stagger Lee: a real life murderer that became a folk hero. He was so bad that flies wouldn’t fly around his head in the summer and snow wouldn’t fall on him in winter.
• Voodoo: folk magic derived from African religion and practiced chiefly in Haiti.

If you have anything to add, drop a comment!

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