A Ministry of Music

Fabulous Thunderbirds

Feb 19, 2009 music cassettes
Posted by admin

Fabulous Thunderbirds

In the 1920's and 1930's, blues guitar players like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House, Robert Johnson, and Lonnie Johnson were the influential performers of the day. They used a slide which was often made out of a knife blade or the broken or sawed off neck from a bottle. Most of the music was improvised, and unaccompanied. The form of the songs were loose, and were rarely, if ever, played the same way twice.

As the 1940's came, the jump blues style characterized by big band music sequestered the guitar to the rhythm section primarily. The primary influence of this era on blues guitar is that it heavily influenced the development of what would later be known as rock and roll, or rhythm and blues.

After World War II in the 1950's, blues guitar became electrified and amplified. Starting in Chicago, this new electric blues was characterized by the sounds of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Reed. All of these players grew up in Mississippi, but migrated to Chicago. The bands typically had, in addition to the electric guitar, harmonica and a rhythm section of bass and drums. Sometimes there would also be a saxophone, though it would be relegated to a rhythmic support role.

B.B. King and Freddie King were also making names for themselves at this time. They were somewhat unique at the time because they did not make use of the slide to play the guitar. B.B. King has long been considered one of the greatest blues guitar players of all time. Freddie King has often been called the King of the Boogie Woogie guitar.

While Chicago had it's own sound in the 1950's, some other artists such as T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker were creating what some call the California Blues style. T-Bone Walker was born in Dallas, while Hooker was born in Mississippi. The California Blues Style that they helped to forge was smoother than the Chicago Blues and is somewhat of a melting pot for Chicago Blues, jump blues, and some jazz swing.

Starting in the 1960's, Caucasian audiences gained more interest in blues guitar thanks in part to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and what was later to be called the British Blues Movement. Bands such as Fleetwood Mac, Cream, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, the Rolling Stone, and the Yardbirds were performing classic blues tunes in addition to their original tunes. Many of these artists inspired American blues-rock artists like Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, and Johnny Winter.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Luther Allison where creating what is called the West Side style of Chicago Blues. Their bands were dominated by the amplified electric blues guitar and heavily influenced later artists such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Lang, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

Since the early 1980's, the blues has enjoyed quite a resurgence in America. The Texas Rock-Blues Style of Stevie Ray Vaughan and The Fabulous Thunderbirds brought the blues to American rock radio stations. Eric Clapton, who originally gained his fame with Cream and John Mayall, continues to make great blues guitar albums and even recently recorded a set of old Robert Johnson classics. Many famous, legendary blues guitar players such as Buddy Guy and B.B. King continue to share the stage with the new generation of blues guitar players like Robert Cray, Joe Bonamassa, and Walter Trout.

Griff Hamlin is a professional guitar player. He has just released Playing Through The Blues, a book on learning to play blues guitar

This may freak you out but I am over 50 and love the song "Mama" from the Sopranos commercial?

I don't know much about My Chemical Romance.
I saw them on Saturday Night Live.
How many albums do they have out?
Which one is "mama, we all go to hell" on

At first I thought they would be like "system of a down" but they seem more like GreenDay?
Are there any over-20, over-30, or over-50 music fans that like them?
If you like them who else would you recommend.
I like a lot of different styles of music folk, rock, jazz, classical
Springsteen, Mellancamp, Pink Floyd, and stuff like Roomfull of blues and Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Love Mama!

It's off of their newest album, The Black Parade. If you're thinking about buying it, head over to their website http://www.mychemicalromance.com/ and you can listen to some of their singles off the album.

They have 4 albums out: I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love (1st), Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2nd), Life on the Murder Scene (3rd-CD/DVD) and The Black Parade (4th).

They also have a number of singles and unreleased songs out:
Heaven Help Us
Kill All Your Friends
My Way Home is Through You
Bury Me In Black (Demo)
Desert Song
Sister to Sleep

And they have done covers of:
Under Pressure (with the Used) - David Bowie/Queen
Song 2 - Blur
All I Want for Christmas is You - Mariah Carey
Jack the Ripper - Morrissey
Astro Zombies - The Misfits

I think I got them all....

They had their big break while opening for Green Day, and I believe that Billie Joe Armstrong was one of Gerard's influences in learning to play the guitar (even though he doesn't play guitar in the band).

As to other bands I would recommend, I'm not sure. They're my favorite band, but everyone's taste is a little different. They are often compared to Thursday, Cursive, and The Used, but I think your best bet is to go to Yahoo! Music and do a search on MCR. When their artist page comes up, there is a tab on the left that says "Similar Artists". Click on that and it will give you artists similar to MCR, and you can listen to samples of their songs.

Hope this helps!

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Powerful Stuff

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