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The accent of Blues

  • August 9th, 2008

Kim Hill often asks the questions I’ve never asked but meant to. This morning she missed one in her interview with blues musician Dave Murphy.

I loved his pieces, but must Blues singers always sing in American? It’s fine when they are American, but to me there is an irritating ‘try-hard’ overtone when they’re Kiwis.

Is it just me? When I was a child kids affected American accents to seem tough, like cowboys.  "Skiting" was a cardinal sin in those days, and Americans were skites by definition.

Is the accent a  genre rule for the Blues? What happens to those who break the rules and sing in Kiwi?

Comments

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  • Jason
  • August 9th, 2008
  • 1:28 pm

What drivel!

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  • jcuknz
  • August 11th, 2008
  • 9:30 am

The trouble is when they sing ‘kiwi’ they are un-intelligible as one can hear every day with the ‘kiwi’ educated reporters on radio and TV. Blues is an American creation so it is appropriate.

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