Roots Moderne

In the Jack White post I introduced the idea of a Roots Moderne section for Guitar Moderne. The response was quite positive so I am going to give it a go.

I want to be as clear as possible as to what I consider to be Roots Moderne. For the purposes of Guitar Moderne, something is Roots Moderne if it is guitar based and embodies a strong link to a popular musical lineage that goes back beyond the last 50 or 60 years, while adding elements that make it relevant to the present. Such lineage would include blues, country, jazz, African, Asian, etc. It also needs to involve some reinvention of the genre. You could say it started with Little Axe (who, with their blues/dub/hip-hop hybrid rate their own post); Jack White certainly embodies the concept, as does Dan Auerbach’s use of the momentary pitch shifting in this Black Keys tune.

To help flesh out the concept I offer some other examples that work for me.

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New Jack White Video

JACK WHITE????!!! That retro, near Luddite musician who is always lauding the superiority of all things analog? In Guitar Moderne? Yeah that Jack White. I am hoping to launch a new  section in Guitar Moderne soon. It will be called Roots Moderne and will feature musicians who enjoy a strong affinity to roots music (blues, country, soul) while employing a distinctively modern approach. This instrumental from White’s forthcoming Lazeretto record epitomizes the concept, with its backwards guitar, fuzz on the verge of noise, and odd piano interludes melding with gagrage-blues stomp. And let’s face it—the video is awesome.

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