Robert Johnson seems to have lived mostly in the Mississippi Delta area - one of the greatest exponents of 'delta blues'. The french settled in Louisiana - the next state over, but didn't seem to have populated this area of mississippi at that time. African folk music, brought over by the slaves, is widely thought to be a major influence in delta blues, but I've never heard that french music influenced them. The french influence is, however, still very much alive in cajun folk traditions of Louisiana.
Robert Johnson's few blues recordings are still revered as some of the absolute best blues recordings ever made, even though he only lived to 27 years old. It is rumored that he sold his soul to the devil in return for his music skill, and that a jealous husband poisoned and killed him. How does Mouton compare to that? trj oh, usa -----Original Message----- From: wikla <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wed, Feb 17, 2010 4:23 pm Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Louisiana and the "Sun King", Louis XIV Dear lutenists, activated by the huge interest of my Mouton-Johnson comparison, it just came to my mind that the relation between American blues and French baroque perhaps is not at all a coincidence. Perhaps the real swing in the form of inegalite, "un-equalness" of notes, of performing music, really came from the French baroque music to the "new world"? As perhaps many know, France happened to have certain influence there in the eastern Norh America in the baroque times: see Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Louisiana#French_exploration_and_colonization_.281528.E2.80.931756.29 And for ex. the name "Louisina" was given to an area of land by the French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, who named a region "Louisiana" to honor France's King Louis XIV in 1682. And that king happened to be be also the king of those musicians who were on the top of "inegalitee"... ;-) And remember what New Orleans is (was?) to the blues and jazz. And it is (was?) an Orleans, anyhow. Best, Arto To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --
