Mixerboy wrote
Lethe wrote
Hectic. That guy was amazing ☹
Seems to be a lot of great musicians and recording engineers dying off these days, obviously it's bound to happen but the scariest thought is who's stepping up to replace these guys, it doesn't really feel like there's a continuous cycle, it feels more like once these guys are gone they're gone, and there'll be nothing/nobody to fill in the big holes left behind.
It usually takes a while for greatness to become evident (not just in music). There are exceptions: Hendrix did enough in a short career (and Garry Sobers staked his claim very early on). In most cases it takes time for the ripples to reach the shore or (more often) die out.
I do think the markets are more saturated now, but I have no doubt that there are great players coming through all the time. It'll just take a while for the greatness to become apparent. It usually does. Often it's a case of not knowing what you had until it's gone. Then you think "gee... that guy did that... and that... and that..."
In Bluegrass there was a legendary group of greats of which Doc Watson most certainly was one. Now he's from a certain generation and those players are revered and mostly gone now. But there was a next wave with guys like Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas and Tony Rice who are now being seen as the giants that they are, and who have also bought new life and new aspects to the genre. Then you have another wave with the likes of Sarah Jaroz. Not really waves, they keep on coming, but the human mind likes to aggregate things.
And some greats are not stars. I've seen the two legendary elder statesperson figures of English folk in action - Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy. I have no doubt at all that I have witnessed greatness, but you don't get to be much of a blip on the commercial radar doing what they do.
