I've made the statement that Jerry Cantrell is a blues guitarist. I'd like to use the blog to back that up a little bit. Alice In Chains is a band from my childhood that I've had the opportunity to revisit as an adult and find many redeeming qualities in. However, they aren't the same qualities I would have attributed to them when I was younger. No, in fact, old Alice In Chains is a white-boy heroin trailer-park blues band. And it's glorious sounding, to this day.
They tricked me, you see. I used to think I hated the blues. The 3 chords, the monotony, I didn't want to make music like that. I remember a conversation with the monk, Brother Tobias, at Subiaco Academy in Arkansas. He told me something when I was telling him about my frustration with the blues. He said, "You can't change the soul of your music, neither can you change the music of your soul." Since I have digested that, I've been a lot more at ease with my own output. I wonder if Jerry has a Brother Tobias in his past somewhere, because he took the blues and put his mark on them.
The first time I heard Robert Cray while listening to Alice In Chains was when I was driving my big rig through swampy Louisiana and I wanted something to go with the atmosphere. Frankly, Louisiana in many ways represents a wound in the fabric of America and I remember thinking about such things while putting on "Alice In Chains : Unplugged" and hearing this song:
I snapped to when it dawned on me; Robert Cray. Someone has taken what Robert Cray did and made it their own in fresh way. "Smoking Gun" is a Cray tune I have been listening to on the radio for decades and here it is, again, totally fresh and beautiful.
Jerry Cantrell from then on has been on my list of favorite songwriters. He's created his own thing from classic elements and sounded fresh. At the end of the day, that's the best any of us can do. Listen to what he did with Muddy Waters and songs like "Sludge Factory."
Can you hear it? It's a half-step difference in the middle of the main riff and slowed and dropped down, but Muddy Waters is right there in Alice In Chains!
When I delve even further in the catalogue, all of the blues legends are represented. These little connections, when I find them, help me realize connections in myself and my music. I love taking ingredients and baking a new cake with them. Jerry showed me up with his blues band. K