We saw Marcia Ball the other night at Panoply here in Huntsville. As usual, she sounded great and was backed by a tight, talented band that really rocked the house. Her special brand of swamp rock/blues is always fun, and no one today plays better n'orleans barrelhouse piano than Marcia herself. So we had some fun.
But I got to thinking as I looked over the crowd and at Marcia's black and white hair, why her audience was the reverse color of her hair, i.e., mostly white with only a thin streak of black. Why is it that most of today's popular blues bands, white or black, play to predominantly white audiences? And why is it that certain other blues bands, mainly African American, play to predominantly black audiences? And, further confounding, why is it that performers like Marcia Ball, who play a kind of Louisiana psuedo-Zydeco, blues, pop, country gumbo, that has traditionally been popular with all races, continue to play predominantly for white folks?
Well, I don't have the answer, any more than I have the answer to why all the races don't mix more than they do. But I wish they would, and I wish, at least, we all would give some blues music we don't normally listen to a chance once in awhile, because a lot of rock blues (e.g., Buddy Guy, Joe Louis Walker, Microwave Dave), southern soul blues (O.B. Buchana, Johnny Rawls, Latimore), and cajun country blues (e.g., C.J. Chenier, Rosie Ledet, Marcia Ball) is damn good. So give it a shot; try something different. You might be pleasantly surprised. Here's Bo Diddley and Marcia Ball:
But I got to thinking as I looked over the crowd and at Marcia's black and white hair, why her audience was the reverse color of her hair, i.e., mostly white with only a thin streak of black. Why is it that most of today's popular blues bands, white or black, play to predominantly white audiences? And why is it that certain other blues bands, mainly African American, play to predominantly black audiences? And, further confounding, why is it that performers like Marcia Ball, who play a kind of Louisiana psuedo-Zydeco, blues, pop, country gumbo, that has traditionally been popular with all races, continue to play predominantly for white folks?
Well, I don't have the answer, any more than I have the answer to why all the races don't mix more than they do. But I wish they would, and I wish, at least, we all would give some blues music we don't normally listen to a chance once in awhile, because a lot of rock blues (e.g., Buddy Guy, Joe Louis Walker, Microwave Dave), southern soul blues (O.B. Buchana, Johnny Rawls, Latimore), and cajun country blues (e.g., C.J. Chenier, Rosie Ledet, Marcia Ball) is damn good. So give it a shot; try something different. You might be pleasantly surprised. Here's Bo Diddley and Marcia Ball:
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