My
general impression of the Hendrix album is that he uses the guitar to give the
songs structure, and then lyrics are laid on top of that foundation. A good song that demonstrates this is “Purple
Haze”, where the popular riff starts in the beginning of the song and comes
back later, while transitioning to intermediary rhythms where the lyrics are
presented. I would say that Hendrix’s
distorted guitar and the upbeat rhythms he plays fit well into the rock
genre. He also breaks into high-pitched
solo-esque riffs sometimes, which is characteristic of rock music. This album made me feel pretty uplifted while
listening to it, so it’s tough for me to argue that it has roots in the Blues. The last song however, “Red House”,
definitely has a strong, melancholy feel of the Blues to it, mostly because it
has a slow pace and the lyrics are about his lady leaving him. In the song “I Don’t Live Today”, it almost
feels more like Soul music than Blues, just based on the info about Soul that I
gathered from the recent reading. The
song is upbeat and exciting like the others, but it also carries a sorrowful
message. This is similar to Soul in that
it describes a bad situation in a happier manner, which helps to overcome the
problem.
The
Avett Brothers’ album came across to me like a typical country album, which
would be focused on lyrics and uses instruments to provide some detail to their
work. I honestly couldn't discern if I
was hearing the high strings on an acoustic guitar or if it was a banjo, but
either way it definitely was not the dominant trait as the lyrics were. Whatever it was, it gave to the music the
sound that you are used to hearing at country festivals, such as the Graves
Mountain Lodge Apple Festival. The
general tone of the album felt quite melancholy due to the slow, mellow pace in
addition to the glum content of the lyrics.
One lyric I found gloomy starts off a song with “It must be winter in my
heart”. While I’m not all that familiar
with Blues lyrics, this kind of topic seems to be similar in nature to what the
Blues’ name suggests.
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