Honest Talk about Talent

[garytelecastor]

I managed to get a DVD of Joe Walsh and a jam he did on CMT.
His guests were Brad Paisley, Sara Evans, Billy Gibbons, Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan, and Hunter Hayes(?????).

I was kind of taken aback by something watching the DVD. The first song that Joe Walsh did was Rocky Mtn Way and he did it with Brad Paisley. I gotta say, that when it comes to bein' a tele whacker he's among the best. I was, however, not impressed with his playing that he did on this stage. He seemed totally out of his element.
Then they had some young guy named Hunter Hayes and he kind of looked like he would need a note from his mom to stay out late. Think Justin Beiber only younger.
Totally aside, Kenney Chesney, can't stand him, never could, shaves his armpits. So I don't count him either.
Sara Evans did Best of my Love, and what can I say, I want to have her baby.
Luke Bryant, again never had heard of him, but he seemed to believe he was really good.
Billy Gibbons and Joe Walsh, load the trucks, take it on the road.

I couldn't help but be struck by the level of talent and sincerity by Walsh and Gibbons, and Evans.
It just hit me that we haven't seen a real Hendrix, or Clapton, or players of that caliber that really took the instrument to a new level, come on the scene is quite some time. The guitar became an extension of their person. They communicated with the instrument. They weren't concerned with sounding like everyone else. They marked their own path.

The entire market has become flooded with cutesy teenage boys who hire musicians behind them who are of the ilk that came out of the same schools as Hendrix.
It seems that music, country music especially, is becoming more and more a matter of getting teenage girls all worked up so they go out and spend money.
In the last 10 years there has been a dearth of players who have a voice of their own. I am becoming more and more disillusioned with the market.

Now I know that there are differing opinions out there and I am not posting this with the intent to offend. I just am wondering if I am turning into an old poop.

[Warren Pederson]

I think your concerns are shared by a lot of people around here.

[hemingway]

I've been wondering the same for years - I think part of it is that we are turning into old poops. I find it hard now in my 40s to revere someone in their 20s, no matter how talented they are. I'm not interested in some pimply boy singing about his everlasting love.

But I hear you. The younger artists I've got into in the last 20 years are not really guitar virtuosos. And I do find myself drawn to older artists now who've earned a bit of gravitas.

[Mad Kiwi]

I tend to agree BUT the problem is when Eric, Jimi came out and blew everyone away it was new and fresh and exciting...the white boy blues, british invasion etc was cutting edge.

Unfotunately for almost everyone that followed it wasn't new and fresh, just a version of....SRV was / is still amazing, Kenny Wayne Shephard and the rest ...all amazing and had they come first people would be talking of them in an as revered tones as they / we do of Jimi, Eric etc.

All walks of life have this, Millionaires, publishing magnates, reporters, authors, computer developers, motor racing pioneers, aviators, rap musicians, celebrity chefs and so on.

The pioneers (or more accurately the "publicised" pioneers) of any fledgling industry or movement get most of the credit and reverence when in many cases smarter, more talented, bigger contributors to the industry or movement come after the pioneers and don't recieve anywhere near as much of the fame....

Some exceptions no doubt but when an industry or movement gets a "buzz" or flavour of the month, year, decade.... those are the people remembered.

To the OP, there are so many talented guitarists out there but they will never get the publicity or recognition due to this....Timing is everything!

JMHO.

[Chud]

It's nothing new under the sun. There are still amazing musicians and bands out there, and record labels are still looking for the next big thing to push regardless of level of talent. But yeah, noticing it now probably has a lot to do with becoming an old poop.

[greggorypeccary]

Yeah, you're old. Look beyond the market of popular music and you might find something new you like.

That and what Mad Kiwi said about the pioneers, etc. Not sure if a player of any traditional instrument can truly do something new at this point, but there is plenty of talent out there. Turn off CMT and you might find it. As a side note, I haven't heard anything worthwhile out of Billy Gibbons or Joe Walsh in 30 years now.

[mal paso]

Look out Gary!



Here comes the Nostalgia Police!

[Togman]

Originally Posted by garytelecastor

I just am wondering if I am turning into an old poop.

Yes you are, and I'm right with you.

[rokdog49]

There are tons of gifted bands, guitarists, vocalists, song writers etc, etc. out there. In fact way more than when I grew up. Nowadays anyone with reasonable musical talent can make a CD in their basement with today's technology and have it sound better than the music I grew up on in the 60's
The fact is the biggest single markets for "buying" music are only a handful found primarily in the age group of kids age 9-16, whatever the genre'.
Today's Country and Country Pop extends a little further age-wise as well as the dance music..
I haven't "bought" any music for a few years other than some older stuff.

I bought my first 45 RPM single record when I was around 10. It was "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys". My parents thought they were silly and so was their music.

Nowadays, it's totally about making money and you can't make money trying to sell Blues Music to 11 year old girls.

[getbent]

hmmm, lets see. Joe Walsh has been playing Rocky Mountain Way since 1972 or something? Oh, and he wrote it (his version of mannish boy) and the concert is Joe playing Joe's songs with young hopefuls and rising stars playing music from an era from before they were born and being young and nervous around a guy who has been on stage for the last... 50 years?

Comparing the two ages is impossible. Joe Walsh never had to get up with Charlie Christian in order to help get his name out there (and besides, the time difference would have been SHORTER!

I've seen some of the folks who you mention and they are very talented and very committed to their music... and yes, their music is different from the music we grew up with... the idea that they are covering Eagles songs is kind of hilarious (on the show) Joe Walsh had precisely as much to do with Best of My Love as I did (which is exactly nothing.)

Walsh's career was completely floundering and failing when he latched on with the Eagles who initially took him on as a side man...

A producer figured out that he could put out a product that would sell dvd's and commercial time and the young artists accepted that they would be fish out of water but, it would be fun and they would get to play with heroes from the past... the former 'big star' probably needed a pay day and the event wouldn't be a stretch for them (same songs over again) and the load would be lightened by bit parts played by youngsters..

About a year ago, I convinced our band to start listening to current music and find some songs that they liked and we'd work them up. The band nearly broke up over it. They HATED modern country music. But, they did start to listen and now, there are a host of songs we do and do happily that are modern songs that are really really good songs and really really fun to play.

One thing I know for sure, a guy either grows or he shrinks... we never can just stay the same...

[Hiker]

Great thread!

Here's a link to some of the songs w/ video...

Joe gets credit for playing with a 2nd guitar strapped behind his back!

[greggorypeccary]

Originally Posted by getbent

One thing I know for sure, a guy either grows or he shrinks... we never can just stay the same...

"He not busy being born is busy dying"

[getbent]

Originally Posted by greggorypeccary

"He not busy being born is busy dying"

oh sure, hit me with the 'greatest hit'... next, you'll tell me there is nothing new under the sun!

[ce24]

Yep....move forward or get out of the way....

[greggorypeccary]

Originally Posted by getbent

oh sure, hit me with the 'greatest hit'... next, you'll tell me there is nothing new under the sun!

Hey, it's early, had to go for the low hanging fruit!

(while procrastinating before going out to mow the lawn)

[garytelecastor]

Originally Posted by getbent

oh sure, hit me with the 'greatest hit'... next, you'll tell me there is nothing new under the sun!

I really wasn't discussing the validity of different styles of music. And Joe Walsh isn't someone that I would consider as a guitar impresario.
I was addressing the issue of talent.
This is more a matter of:
"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description of Talent; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and there seems to be a distinct lack with some involved in this case and that it is not."

I guess what hit me was the level of proficiency that the "top artists" in country were manifesting. I just wonder if you did take say Luke Bryant, and put him up against Hendrix, what would be the outcome?
Walsh is a passable guitarist, but a great song writer. And as with any endeavor undertaken in creativity, there really does not exist an expiration date.

A whole lot of the cats that were the guitar heroes in the past were very young when they were first recognized as having a gift. It doesn't really have to do with age, it has to do with what a person feels comfortable with letting the public partake.
If Walsh is someone that people find less than gifted and he was laying waste to these players, what does that say?

In the band I am currently playing with, the lead singer is the band leader and he is fixated on 92-98 as a time period to use for a song source. We have some tunes that I have basically forced the band to learn so as to appease the public. Dierks Bently, Ronnie Dunn, etc.

I have yet to hear, even out of Brad P.'s work something on the level of Machine Gun, or Little Wing, Layla, or any other song of that caliber. I really am not trying to "tell the kids to get off my lawn". It just seems that the entire industry is more concerned with the performers looking right than playing right.

[garytelecastor]

Oh, and.......

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush".

[mal paso]

..

[getbent]

jimmy olander does things on a guitar that give me the 'holy hendrix' thing.

talent is a broad thing... Hendrix came here once... if the bar is Hendrix or you lack talent... that stage is gonna be bare and gigantic hoo hahs or not, Sara Evans isn't Linda Ronstadt....

I see it all as a kind of fashion show where our opinions are shaped by so many thing besides music... I listen to a radio station that plays lots of guys (luke bryan included) with just them and their guitar and their ability is without doubt, very very good...

they love the music just as much as we ever did, they work hard at it...

Brad Paisley may not be Hendrix, heck, he may not be Vince Gill (who was no Albert Lee... who did provide a bunch of hendrix type moments for me) but that doesn't mean they lack talent...

There was only one Willie Mays... Josh Hamilton doesn't lack talent, he just isn't willie mays.

[mal paso]

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