Comments on: review of Marybeth Hamilton, In Search of the Blues http://stevecheseborough.com/2008/09/02/review-of-marybeth-hamilton-in-search-of-the-blues/ 1920s-30s-style Blues Tue, 15 May 2012 20:40:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: admin http://stevecheseborough.com/2008/09/02/review-of-marybeth-hamilton-in-search-of-the-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-351 admin Wed, 27 May 2009 01:11:48 +0000 http://stevecheseborough.com/?p=98#comment-351 Thanks for your comments, Paul. McKune might be an interesting character, and he might have a lot to do with the resulting popularity of older blues (even if he would have rather it didn't become popular). But somehow I am pretty sure that the music would have come out into the attention of more people (still a small minority, but many more than the handful of McKune's associates) even without his help. And I still have a problem with Hamilton's description: "And it was there at the Williamsburg YMCA, in a single room sometime in the mid-1940s, that the Delta blues was born." Thanks for your comments, Paul. McKune might be an interesting character, and he might have a lot to do with the resulting popularity of older blues (even if he would have rather it didn’t become popular). But somehow I am pretty sure that the music would have come out into the attention of more people (still a small minority, but many more than the handful of McKune’s associates) even without his help. And I still have a problem with Hamilton’s description: “And it was there at the Williamsburg YMCA, in a single room sometime in the mid-1940s, that the Delta blues was born.”

]]> By: Paul http://stevecheseborough.com/2008/09/02/review-of-marybeth-hamilton-in-search-of-the-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-345 Paul Mon, 25 May 2009 17:18:33 +0000 http://stevecheseborough.com/?p=98#comment-345 Whether or not Hamilton has a clue about blues, she does touch on something important and unacknowledged: As often as not, long lost, unpopular art speaks only to the troubled and dysfunctional among us. The pioneer discoverers and high priests are crazy derelicts because they <i>have</i> to be to pursue the quest, and probably to get hip in the first place. Jim McKune's story is not that he invented the Delta blues (he didn't), but that he saw beauty and value in junk music. In the '40s and '50s especially, you didn't touch that stuff unless you were alienated from society - either as a Northeastern intellectual in an insular community, or as a closeted, incipient alcoholic in darkest Brooklyn in a community of one. The isolation is <i>important</i>, too; it's something you <i>need</i>, not ust for yourself but for the music. McKune began seriously to go downhill only when his 78s began to circulate in reissue. The music he found so transcendent was too sacred for the ears of others, so he abandoned it entirely, leaving himself with nothing. Whether or not Hamilton has a clue about blues, she does touch on something important and unacknowledged: As often as not, long lost, unpopular art speaks only to the troubled and dysfunctional among us. The pioneer discoverers and high priests are crazy derelicts because they have to be to pursue the quest, and probably to get hip in the first place.

Jim McKune’s story is not that he invented the Delta blues (he didn’t), but that he saw beauty and value in junk music. In the ’40s and ’50s especially, you didn’t touch that stuff unless you were alienated from society – either as a Northeastern intellectual in an insular community, or as a closeted, incipient alcoholic in darkest Brooklyn in a community of one.

The isolation is important, too; it’s something you need, not ust for yourself but for the music. McKune began seriously to go downhill only when his 78s began to circulate in reissue. The music he found so transcendent was too sacred for the ears of others, so he abandoned it entirely, leaving himself with nothing.

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