|
submitted by Sonya Ward
The European Blues Association
held its 5th Blues Week at Exeter University
from 8-14 August.
 From
small beginnings (about 25 people in 2000)
this event has become more and more popular
and this year about 75 students, many from
the Continent - and even one from Hong Kong
- met up for a week of undiluted blues!
Tuition
is available during the day in both fingerstyle
and slide guitar, together with harmonica,
keyboards and vocals, for beginners to advanced
students. There are evening concerts given
by the tutors, and later in the week, the
students are given the opportunity to take
to the stage.
For
many people the serious playing starts after
the bar closes in the evening, and the nightly
jam sessions begin. These can easily continue
until 3.00 or 4.00am!
This
year's lineup of tutors reads like the programme
for a top drawer international blues  festival.
Michael Messer and Michael Roach (guitar)
together with Bob Hall (keyboard) and Hilary
Blythe (vocals) are all based in the UK
and are key members of the regular staff
at Blues Week.
From
the USA we had John Cephas, John Miller
and Paul Geremia (guitar) and Phil Wiggins
(harmonica). From Europe: Homesick Mac (Sweden)
and Michel Lelong (France) teaching guitar,
and Keith Dunn (Netherlands) teaching harmonica.
 Wow!
With a chance to study with all these fabulous
musicians and only five days available,
the difficult decision is which classes
to attend? It is very tempting to try and
go to everything. Do that and by Wednesday
you'll be on information overload as well
as suffering (happily!) from serious sleep
deprivation.
Some
of my personal highlights:
John Cephas - teaching us his palette of
chord progressions, fingerings and neat
little runs.
John
Miller - just an amazing living encyclopaedia
of blues through the years. One of the students
played him a rare recording from the 1930s.
John said: "Hey I don't know that song".
He then picked up his guitar and played
the song, note for note, exactly as on the
recording. Gasp!
 Michael
Messer - jaw-dropping slide guitar and
the most wonderful tone I've ever heard,
with apparently no effort (but we all know
it takes years of dedication to play like
that).
Homesick
Mac - teaching a beginners slide guitar
class of very mixed abilities (and attitudes)
and handling it deftly and with great humour.
As
well as learning from the tutors, students
get lots of help, support and encouragement
from the more experienced participants at
Blues Week. If someone has never played
in public before but wants to have a go,
they can be assured of an experienced 'backing
band' at the student concert to give them
confidence.
 If
anyone is worried that the blues is going
to die out because only old fogies are interested
in the music - Blues Week will give you
hope! The John Jackson Youth Scholarship
(in memory of the late great Virginian bluesman
who honoured us by attending the first two
Blues Weeks) funds places on the course
for talented young guitarists, harmonica
or keyboard players with an interest in
playing the blues. To hear some of these
young musicians play is for me one of the
highlights of the week.
With
so many students returning to Blues Week
for successive years it has now become like
a big extended family. Congratulations and
thanks to Michael Roach and his admin team
for a very successful event. Now I've caught
up with some sleep I'm already looking forward
to Blues Week 2005!
Sonya
Ward
Special thanks to Paul Martin for provided
photographs from this years event
|
