On The Beat: NZ Music Wrap
The Blues are alive and well.
The Flaming Mudcats, who recently released their debut album ‘Gave You What You Wanted’, might be fighting an uphill battle for air time but are still adamant the blues is as relevant now as it ever was.
“History is and always has been an important aspect of blues but so has innovation and development and, just as it’s always done, blues is continuing to evolve and reflect the changing times and lifestyles of the people who play it,” says the Auckland-based group’s Sean McCarthy.
“What’s needed is not another argument about ‘the only real blues is…’ but an open and inclusive appreciation of blues in all its forms and modern day mutations.
“Blues continues to influence nearly every genre of modern and traditional music.”
Although the Ike Turner song Gave You What You Wanted is a fan favourite, the only cover on the album is Twenty Dollar Gig.
“We felt it was more important that the album was more about developing and recording our own material,” McCarthy says.
“All the band members had some great ideas to bring to the sessions and we tried to incorporate all of those ideas as well as our influences into the material.
We wanted to keep it as simple and as ‘live’ as possible so what you hear on the record is what you would hear at a Mudcats show.”
The Flaming Mudcats’ main ambition is to play in the US and turn more people onto the blues.
“Everybody is a fan of the blues whether they know it or it or not but, for most ‘non-enthusiasts’, the blues has come to mean, if it means anything at all, a cliche of rural misery and racial stereotypes or a middle-aged desk-jockey with a Strat and a hat singing about ‘goin’ down to Clarkesdale in between interminable guitar solos,” McCarthy says.
“In fact, there is much more going on than that and the blame for this misconception must lie with the blues establishment.
“That many of the newer players who are making their contribution today are reluctant to even use the word ‘blues’ is a damning indictment of the powers that be within blues over the past 20 years or so.
“We’d like to change that.”
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© Fairfax NZ News
