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In response to Adam Gussow's very good points:
First, in regards to potential objections about "crunk's"
connection with gospel, I totally agree, and there is
certainly a lot of the juke-joint (and its accompanying
sin, danger and debauchery) in "crunk," but I think that
the communal desire to join together (as a community) and
transcend the burdens and hardships faced by the community
in a musically-energetic display links the two pretty
strongly. Crunk's most articulate praciticioners - Lil Jon,
David Banner, Killer Mike - have talked eloquently in the
past about these connections, and how they see them working
in both tandem and tension with each other.
Legitimate generational objections aside, I think the energy
is firmly on the gospel side of the fence. (Anybody who's
gotten "crunk" in a club can attest to the way that, at peak
moments, the crowd moves in near-unison, with even some of
the movements and gestures reflecting those of the gospel
church.) Of course, as everyone from Ray Charles to R. Kelly
can attest, the distance between Saturday night and Sunday
morning is often a lot closer than it appears...
Second, in regards to your excellent, necessary addition of
the soul-blues/down-home blues phenomenon, I add an emphatic
amen. Even less than Southern hip-hop, this music has been
totally underappreciated, both for its connection to blues/R&B
history, and also as a potential link between the juke-joints
and the hip-hop clubs, between Muddy Waters and 2 Live Crew.
I'd add Bobby Rush to your list, whose popularity among black
Southerners particularly has flown nearly under the radar of
the larger (white, Northern) American musical press and academic
establishment. Much as you suggest, the maintenance of a "chitlin
circuit"-like performance atmosphere in this genre is a very
true reminder of the continuing (if increasingly marginal)
importance of blues within a fluid, active black context.
(On the other side of this, Mississippi-based blues artists like
Super Chikan, Alvin Youngblood Hart and DuWayne Burnside continue
to keep those flames burning.)
One story to amplify this: I find it fascinating, and informative,
that - in the past several years, when I've attended the Sunflower
River Blues and Gospel Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi - the
audience for the older, "rootsier" blues performers earlier in the
day is majority white, and mostly from out-of-town, while the
audience for Latimore, J. Blackfoot, or the "soul-blues" artists
who often perform at night is (seemingly) made of primarily by local,
younger African Americans.
For those of us who hope to understand blues as a continuing,
relevant form, we ought to interrogate the implications of
this continuing segregation of sound, now bound by the far
thornier dictates of choice rather than law.
Peace,
Charles Hughes
Master's Degree Candidate
Department of Afro-American Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison
==========================
"May God turn the hearts of our enemies
towards our position
And if He won't turn their hearts, may He
at least turn their ankles
So we'll know them by their limping"
-Irish blessing
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