The singer, not the song? Or - is it the Blues or just a Blues?

One idea I had to promote blues songwriting in 2015 is to run a contest for a “new” blues song.

As I've stated plenty of times in this blog, I believe that blues music could become more popular with younger people if the songs were about things they can relate to and used up-to-date language and vocabulary. So - what would be the scoring criteria for such a contest? ¹

The International Blues Foundation sponsors several contests for musicians performing live. They use the criteria of blues content, vocal skill, instrumental skill, originality and stage presence. Blues content is given the most weight, and at first I thought this would be the only criterion that applies to a songwriting contest.

However, I am becoming to believe that you can’t just write a blues song without thinking about how it will be performed. The song, from a copyright point of view, can exist on paper alone. You can write out the melody and words, even indicate the blues inflections you hear in your mind, but it won’t be the blues until someone sings it as a blues. You can’t divorce the song from the performance when you are talking about the blues.

Let’s take Call it Stormy Monday as an example. Every blues singer knows this tune, it’s jazzier than most but I don’t think anyone would argue that this is a blues song. A great blues song. But it just isn't blues music when Pat Boone sings it.² 

The major song contests all state that performance and production quality will be ignored – the judges will listen to the song itself. Well, that’s baloney in practice, but I don’t think you could even make that stipulation in a blues song contest.

So if Pat Boone were to perform a song and submit it to my competition, would it score lower than a Big Joe Turner version of the same song? Should it?  

 Notes.

1.       1. I am working on developing such criteria and finding it painfully hard. Your suggestion are most welcome!

2.       2. Pat Boone Call It Stormy Monday from I’ll See You In My Dreams / This and That (Dot 1960)