Hugh Laurie playing blues

sunnysummer · 27-04-2011 1:32pm #1

came across this total. was a bit surprised to see "House" playing but he's actually pretty good

http://www.youtube.com/user/HughLaurieBlues?feature=chclk

GTE · 02-05-2011 1:20pm

He was always good at music and you could see that in the Fry and Laurie shows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyHSjv9gxlE

=D

I guess House gave him an opportunity to do something extra with the skill.

EDIT:
I never knew he was going as far as releasing an album!
Great stuff.

fuse · 11-05-2011 9:47pm

Seen a piece about this on TV a few weeks ago, was impressed by it, reckon it'll be great

DublinWriter · 11-05-2011 9:49pm

It was much better than I anticipated. He sounds uncannily like Neil Diamond in some songs, but not in a bad way!

sunnysummer · 16-05-2011 1:33pm

watched his show about the album last night on UTV. So impressed with both him and his music after it. album is no 2 in England at the mo. its taking us Irish a big longer to catch onto it

ImpossibleDuck · 19-05-2011 8:55pm

Did anyone watch his show on making the album and his journey to the heart of the music he loves in N'orleans? Was very interesting. I love how he said "If I could get just one teenager somewhere interesting in blues, all this would be worth it" or something along them lines. Sounds like my life, attempting to convince fellow teens that the Blues is a fantastic genre of music.

422nd · 23-05-2011 4:11pm

Well he just swung my vote. I had an inkling about Blues being good but Hugh Laurie can sleep tight at night coz Blues is my new found love in life and I'm 19 so...

Pat Dalton · 16-06-2011 12:10am

Saw him on Jools Holland's show a while back, he's a good piano player but the music isn't up to much, to be honest.
Although if it gets people into blues it's a good thing.

MagicMarker · 18-06-2011 9:57pm

It was a lot better than I was expecting, but I can't really get past the fact that I'm listening to a rich white guy from England sing the blues.

PaulieBoy · 23-06-2011 9:21am

€7.99 in HMV if anybody is interested!
Very rare indeed to make the 'crossover' from acting to music and be a success. Their usually better off sticking with the acting !

Rigsby · 23-06-2011 10:23am

MagicMarker wrote: »

but I can't really get past the fact that I'm listening to a rich white guy from England sing the blues.

Nothing wrong with that. John Mayall was young once, and while he was/is not exactly rich, he was/is not a pauper either.

You dont have to be poor and black to do justice to the blues.

dball · 09-08-2011 3:48pm

havent being buying cd's alot in the last 2 or 3 years - happened across it in Tesco and bought it for a long journey in the car on my own.
Listened to it twice in ar ow and introduced it to my 4 yr old daugher at the weekend,
All im hearing when i come home is " the battle of jericho & the walls come tumblin' down"
Great album
and the walls come tumblin' down......................

422nd · 12-12-2011 4:49pm

I was watching the DVD that comes with the special edition of this over the weekend. My brother stuck his head into the room and was watching it for a bit. He thought it was alright but couldn't get over the fact that it was a rich, white, English guy playing the Blues, which is fair enough as what does Hugh Laurie really have to be "Blue" about? But it just got me thinking about Blues in general. Will this genre die out entirely now seeing as by that right, in this day and age, who really has the right to carry on this music? It almost has that Punk vibe off it, that it has to be off the radar and not internationally successful to be considered true to the genre.

Or perhaps now that we're in a world wide rec... Nah I won't say it.

But will this day and age see a Blues 'renaissance'? I sure hope so.

Rigsby · 12-12-2011 5:21pm

422nd wrote: »

I was watching the DVD that comes with the special edition of this over the weekend. My brother stuck his head into the room and was watching it for a bit. He thought it was alright but couldn't get over the fact that it was a rich, white, English guy playing the Blues, which is fair enough as what does Hugh Laurie really have to be "Blue" about? But it just got me thinking about Blues in general. Will this genre die out entirely now seeing as by that right, in this day and age, who really has the right to carry on this music? It almost has that Punk vibe off it, that it has to be off the radar and not internationally successful to be considered true to the genre.

Or perhaps now that we're in a world wide rec... Nah I won't say it. But will this day and age see a Blues 'renaissance'? I sure hope so.

Blues is about playing with feeling and from the heart. All human beings have both, and while African Americans seem to generally perform blues best, there is no reason why white people (regardless of social status) can not do the same, if they do it with feeling.

The iconic trumpeter Miles Davis one said something to the effect of (he was born into a rich middle class family): "What's all this about having to be poor to play the blues well ? I'm rich, my mama's good looking, and I can play the blues."

When you talk about blues and white people, remember it was the latter, back in the 60's in England (London especially) who brought blues to a whole new generation on both sides of the pond. People like John Mayall, the Stones and Alexis Korner played blues in tiny clubs in London. Mayall toured the USA promoting blues by playing songs by the greats and naming their writers. Coming from this, it was a young white audience that began to take notice and seek out the big names, and the genuinely poor black blues men got their first decent pay packet in decades.

Also "blue" basically means down or depressed. This can happen to multi millionaires.

Hugh Laurie playing blues

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