{"id":28602,"date":"2024-12-29T05:30:32","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T10:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28602"},"modified":"2024-11-22T20:31:42","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T01:31:42","slug":"ping-rose-all-roads-lead-to-and-from-the-blues-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/29\/ping-rose-all-roads-lead-to-and-from-the-blues-part-2-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ping Rose: All Roads Lead To and From the Blues (Part 2 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Continued from Part One<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Quickly enough, though, Rose says that he was \u201ccourse-corrected by some hardcore, old-school blues guys down in Memphis.\u201d Thus equipped with a better sense of history and perspective, he redoubled his efforts in the blues. Going forward, he developed a keen ability to divine the blues sensibility in music outside the form. \u201cI could listen to Smashing Pumpkins, Talking Heads, whatever,\u201d he explains, \u201cand I found that there was a blues element to a lot of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Rose continued to write in a blues style, he found that he could seamlessly weave in elements from outside the idiom while maintaining the blues quality at the music\u2019s core. On Conjure Man<\/i>, the result is a collection of songs informed by the blues but also drawing from styles that came after it. While \u201cShould I\u201d has a soulful feel that recalls Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway, \u201cSalty\u201d is classic twelve-bar blues with stinging, sinewy guitar licks.<\/p>\n

Rose is adept on many instruments; on Conjure Man<\/i>, he plays nearly everything himself. And his status as a multi-instrumentalist colors his approach to songwriting. He notes than in his current home in Nashville, there\u2019s a very distinct singer-songwriter culture. \u201cMany people write a song from a very guitar-strumming-centric place, and then it goes through rinse-wash-repeat cycles to become what you might hear on the radio or a playlist,\u201d he says. \u201cBut that\u2019s not the only way to write a song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, Rose might begin writing a song using a keyboard lick or a bass riff, and build from there. The result is a set of songs that display more tone color and variety than might otherwise be the case. Yet when he draws inspiration from outside the blues, he still channels those ideas through a blues mindset.<\/p>\n

Rose mentions Conjure Man<\/i>\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Drink Me Dry\u201d as a useful example. \u201cIt\u2019s a \u201890s hip hop beat mixed with a bit of B.B. King\u2019s \u2018Rock Me,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cPlus some \u2018Born Under a Bad Sign.\u2019\u201d But the song itself was composed on piano, \u201cso the guitar is the icing on the cake as opposed to the whole thing,\u201d Rose explains.<\/p>\n

For Rose, blues is the prism through which he views music. Yet he makes a studied effort to avoid being hemmed in by the form; he aims to apply modernity to the classic style. \u201cThese days,\u201d he observes, \u201cblues can be a sort of cosplaying thing, a bunch of tribute acts competing for the same attention. And I don\u2019t want to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Rose is thoroughly capable of playing complex and challenging jazz guitar lines, for his original music he counts simplicity as a core value. \u201cWith Conjure Man<\/i>, I really wanted to make songs that people could get into easily,\u201d he says. With a self-effacing laugh, he adds, \u201cI want to keep people grounded while I\u2019m going weedily-dee on guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a child and young teen, Rose lived in Chattanooga. Asked about some of his proudest moments as a musician, he recalls a return visit last year to the city he calls his second hometown. \u201cSomebody didn\u2019t want to play their gig, so my booking agency got me onto this festival for the closing spot. I got to play for thousands of people, and up front were my friends from high school; we hadn\u2019t seen each other for almost two decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

His classmates would have remembered him not as a blues guitarist, but as a teenage bassist in a hardcore punk band. Reintroduced to the grown-up Ping Rose, they were treated to the artistry of a musician who has traveled many paths and found the one that suits him best. \u201cI got to throw down the songs from my new album,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd all of my friends got to see me do my thing with my band.\u201d
\nKeeping with his eclectic musical mindset, Rose says that when it comes to music, the best advice he ever received came from a hip hop musician. \u201cFor many years, Khari Wynn was the guitarist for Public Enemy,\u201d he explains. \u201cI consider him one of the best guitarists in the world. And he told me, \u2018All music sounds the same.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What Wynn meant was that if you like it, it\u2019s good<\/i>. And for Ping Rose, that\u2019s license to draw from any corner of the musical landscape that resonates with him. When it comes to music, his core value is simple: \u201cOpen your mind. Listen to music,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people think that knowing<\/i> is the art of music,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a grave mistake. The art of music is listening<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One\u2026 Quickly enough, though, Rose says that he was \u201ccourse-corrected by some hardcore, old-school blues guys down in Memphis.\u201d Thus equipped with a better sense of history […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,41,49],"tags":[5571],"class_list":["post-28602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-interview","category-new-release","tag-ping-rose","cat-9-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28602"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28607,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28602\/revisions\/28607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}