Fender- the father of modern music

Leo Fender(1909-1991)

  The life of Leo Fender can be described as “musical.” Clarence Leonidas Fender was the American Inventor who created Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company who’s now known as Fender Musical Instruments Corporation which later on branched out to create MusicMan and G&L Musical Products. The design he made for guitars, bass and amplifiers in the 1950’s are still amongst the top in terms of design, quality, and sound. Dominating throughout half the century. Most amplifier companies like Marshall use fender instruments for the basis of their products. This makes Fender together with Les Paul the most significant personalities in 20th century electric instruments development.

Blues Movie - Crossroads (1986)

Legend : 
   Before we talk about the movie, we have to tell a legend first. It's said that Robert Jonhson made a deal with devil for fantastic guitar skills, and what Robert paid is his soul, so he was dead at 27. How to find the devil? A old blues musician Tommy Jonhson said that if you want to learn how to play guitar well or how to make songs, you can go to the Crossroad at the midnight with your guitar. Presently, a big and strong black man will come to you and play your guitar awhile. Finally, He returns your guitar, and then you will get all you want......

Introduction :
   In the movie, a boy called Eugene is a student in a conservative institute of music. Although he majored in classical music, he really love blues music and he wanted to find Robert Jonson's 30th composition that was missing and no one has seen before. That was very strange at the time for some people, because most of the classical musicians didn't regard blues as a kind of music. As a result, he determined to leave the school and visited  Robert's friend, who is very brilliant at playing harmonica, Willie Brown. However, Willie didn't want to teach Eugene anything about the missing composition unless Eugene took him to Mississippi Crossroad. Undoubtedly, Eugene promised to take Willie to the crossroad. In the journey, Eugene experienced the most different life ever and got many first time. For instant, he drank alcohol, he fell in love, he had a fight with others, he got his first electric guitar, and he was heartbroken because of a girl. One day, a well-mannered black man in suit came to Willie and told him that he was ready to take Willie's soul away. Many years ago, Robert Johnson told Willie what he got at the crossroad, so Willie went to the crossroad and made a deal with devil for incredible skills. And the black man stand in front of  Eugene and Willie now is the devil who gave skills to Willie many years ago. In order to help Willie, Eugene negotiated with devil. Finally, devil promised that he won't take Willie's soul unless Eugene play better than his new covenanter Jack who also had fantastic guitar skills. Then Jack and Eugene had a competition in a bar. Eventually, Eugene won the competition, and the devil tore the contract, so Willie was free. After this, Eugene and Willie continued their journey. This unique journey made Eugene realize that there is no 30th composition in the world. Because of the varied journey, that special composition is in his mind.

The competition is the most exciting part of the film. Enjoy it!

 

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The 50 Best Blues Songs

50 BB King Night Life

49 Gary Clark Jr. If Trouble Was Money

48 Tony Vega Band Frisco Blues

47 Alan Haynes Diving Duck

46 Stevie Ray Vaughan The Sky Is Crying

45 John Lee Hooker Boom, Boom

44 Luther Johnson If Blues Was Whiskey

43 Matt Leddy Too Many Girlfriends

42 Eric Clapton 5 Long Years

41 John Lee Hooker One Scotch, One Bourbon

40 Gene Kelton My Baby Don't Wear No Panties

39 Matt Leddy Good Woman

38 Shuggie Otis Shuggie's Boogie

37 Billie Holiday Foolin' Myself 

36 Kenny Wayne Shepherd Shame, Shame, Shame

35 Lonnie Brooks Wife For Tonight

34 Tony Vega Band Orq's Swing

33 Albert King You're Going To Need Me

32 Ray Charles I'm Wondering

31 Alan Haynes Houston Blues

30 Albert Collins Trash Talkin'

29 Walter Trout If You Ever Change Your Mind

28 Gary Moore Still Got The Blues

27 Texas Johnny Brown Cheatin' and Stealin'

26 Roy Buchanan When a Guitar Plays The Blues

25 Albert King The Sky Is Crying

24 Robben Ford Help The Poor

23 ZZ Top La Grange

22 Buddy Guy Damn Right I've Got The Blues

21 Stevie Ray Vaughan The House Is Rockin'

20 Johnny Winter Life Is Hard

19 Janis Joplin Summertime

18 Jimi Hendrix Catfish Blues

17 Gatemouth Brown Goin' Down Slow

16 John Lee Hooker Boogie Chillin'

15 Alan Haynes Every Night and Every Day

14 Albert Collins Don't Lose Your Cool

13 BB King Paying the Cost to be the Boss

12 ZZ Top Jesus Just Left Chicago

11 Jimi Hendrix Red House

10 Stevie Ray Vaughan Pride and Joy

9 John Lee Hooker We'll Meet Again

8 Allman Brothers Stormy Monday Blues

7 Eric Clapton Crossroads

6 Freddie King Hideaway

5 Stevie Ray Vaughan Tin Pan Alley

4 Bobby 'Blue' Bland Stormy Monday

3 BB King The Thrill Is Gone

2 Stevie Ray Vaughan Texas Flood

1 Albert Collins If Trouble Was Money

What Is Blues ?

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues chord progression is the most common. The blue notes that, for expressive purposes are sung or played flattened or gradually bent (minor 3rd to major 3rd) in relation to the pitch of the major scale, are also an important part of the sound.

The blues genre is based on the blues form but possesses other characteristics such as specific lyrics, bass lines and instruments. Blues can be subdivided into several subgenres ranging from country to urban blues that were more or less popular during different periods of the 20th century. Best known are the Delta, Piedmont, Jump and Chicago blues styles. World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues-rock evolved.

The term "the blues" refers to the "blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness; an early use of the term in this sense is found inGeorge Colman's one-act farce Blue Devils (1798). Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to since 1912, when Hart Wand's "Dallas Blues" became the first copyrighted blues composition. In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood.

Gary Moore

Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 1952 – 6 February 2011), better known simply as Gary Moore, was an Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer.
In a career dating back to the 1960s, Moore played with artists including Phil Lynott and Brian Downey during his teens, leading him to memberships with the Irish bands Skid Row and Thin Lizzy on three separate occasions. Moore shared the stage with such blues and rock luminaries as B.B. King, Albert King, Colosseum II, George Harrison and Greg Lake, as well as having a successful solo career. He guested on a number of albums recorded by high profile musicians, including a cameo appearance playing the lead guitar solo on "She's My Baby" from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.
Moore died of a heart attack^[ in his hotel room while on holiday in Estepona, Spain, in February 2011.

Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson (born August 17, 1954) is an American guitarist. Though he is best known for his success in the instrumental rock format, Johnson regularly incorporates jazz, fusion, gospel and country and western music into his recordings. Johnson also composes and plays vocal pieces, and is an accomplished pianist.
Guitar Player magazine has called Johnson "one of the most respected guitarists on the planet".Johnson's stylistic diversity and technical proficiency with the guitar have been praised by Bill Hicks,. His critically acclaimed, platinum-selling 1990 recording Ah Via Musicom produced the single "Cliffs of Dover", for which Johnson won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

Jack White

Jack White (John Anthony Gillis; born July 9, 1975), often credited as Jack White III, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and occasional actor. He was best known as the guitarist, pianist and lead vocalist of The White Stripes until they split in February 2011, as well as a member of The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather.
He is ranked #17 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".^[ White's popular and critical success with The White Stripes enabled him to collaborate as a solo artist with other renowned musicians, such as Beck, The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck,^[3] Alicia Keys, Bob Dylan, Electric Six and Loretta Lynn, whose 2004 album Van Lear Rose he produced and performed on. In 2005, White became a founding member of the rock band The Raconteurs. In 2009, he became a founding member and drummer of his third commercially successful group, The Dead Weather.^[ He was awarded the title of "Nashville Music City Ambassador" by the Nashville mayor Karl Dean in 2011.

Robert Johnson

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues singer and musician. His landmark recordings from 1936–37 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson's shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given rise to much legend, including a Faustian myth. As an itinerant performer who played mostly on street corners, in juke joints, and at Saturday night dances, Johnson enjoyed little commercial success or public recognition in his lifetime.
His records sold poorly during his lifetime, and it was only after the first reissue of his recordings on LP in 1961 that his work reached a wider audience. Johnson is now recognized as a master of the blues, particularly of the Mississippi Delta blues style. He is credited by many rock musicians as an important influence; Eric Clapton has called Johnson "the most important blues singer that ever lived."Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an "Early Influence" in their first induction ceremony in 1986. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone 's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Jimmy Page

James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE (born 9 January 1944) is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.

Jimmy Page is viewed by critics, fans and fellow musicians alike as one of the most influential and important guitarists and songwriters in rock music.^[ Rolling Stone magazine has described him as "the pontiff of power riffing & probably the most digitally sampled artist in pop today after James Brown." In 2010, Jimmy Page was ranked No.2 in Gibson's list of "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time" and, in 2007, No.4 on Classic Rock Magazine's "100 Wildest Guitar Heroes". Page was ranked ninth in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2003. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; once as a member ofThe Yardbirds (1992),and once as a member of Led Zeppelin (1995).

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, (born 30 March 1945) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked fourth in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.

Jimi Hendrix

Hendrix was influenced by blues artists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Albert King and Elmore James,rhythm and blues and soul guitarists Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper, and the jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. Hendrix (who was then known as 'Maurice James') began dressing and wearing a moustache like Little Richard when he performed and recorded in his band from March 1, 1964 through to the spring of 1965. In 1966, Hendrix stated, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice".

Hendrix won many of the most prestigious rock music awards in his lifetime, and has been posthumously awarded many more, including being inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. An English Heritage blue plaquewas erected in his name on his former residence at Brook Street, London, in September 1997. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6627 Hollywood Blvd.) was dedicated in 1994. In 2006, his debut US album, Are You Experienced, was inducted into the United StatesNational Recording Registry, and Rolling Stone named Hendrix the top guitarist on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all-time in 2003.

The Legendary Guitarist - Stevie Ray Vaughan(SRV)

With his no holds barred blues-rock attitude and virtuosic guitar capabilities, Stevie Ray Vaughan soared during the 1980s to become one of the greatest guitarists of all time. As the voice of the American blues during his incredible and groundbreaking career, Stevie Ray’s guitar style paid homage to the likes of Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix while showcasing his own characteristically warm and full-bodied tone. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2000, and has been cited as a major influence from such guitarists as John Mayer and Robert Randolph to Eric Johnson and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Tragically, Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a 1990 helicopter crash, but his legacy lives on as an American blues-rock icon and a guitarist of unparalleled talent and vision.

The King of the Blues-B.B.King

For more than 60 years, Riley B. King - better known as B.B. King - has defined the blues for a worldwide audience. Since he started recording in the 1940s, he has released over 50 albums, many of them classics, won 14 Grammy® Awards, been inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of the Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, the Grammy® Lifetime Achievement Award and the NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) Chairman’s Award, among many other awards. In a special ceremony at the Library of Congress, Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington presented B.B. with a “Living Legend” medal in honor of his achievements as a musician and ambassador for the blues. After 10,000 concerts, B.B. King continues to bring his music to audiences around the globe spending the better part of each year on the road with his beloved guitar, “Lucille".

Chis & Justin : B.B. King is one of