The Hoodoo Hounds

From ClemsonWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Hoodoo Hounds are a Chicago style blues band made up of 4 Clemson University professors plus one other:

  • Walt Ligon
  • David Jacobs
  • Andrew Duchovski
  • Matt Huddleston
  • Radar Martin

The Hounds have a web page http://www.hoodoohounds.com/ and a MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/thehoodoohounds/ where you can see photo, find a list of upcoming shows and download their original tunes.

Hoodoo is a west African system of magic that emphasizes roots, powders, herbs, and talismens. It was very common among both black and white people living in rural areas of deep south from Louisiana to South Carolina. Being a common part of superstition it was a regular theme in the Blues music developed in this area, and moved with these same people in the 20th century as they migrated to Chicago, California, and other cities in the US. References to hoodoo, mojo, black cat bone, the crossroads, the rider, grave dirt, and similar such things typically have their roots in Hoodoo. It is not to be confused with Voodoo, which is a central African religion that often overlaps with Hoodoo in south Louisiana and Mississippi.

The Hounds play blues standards many of which date to the 1940s and earlier. Many of these songs have been recorded many, many times by blues artists and later by rock artists such as the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers, and others. The Blues is combines a deceptively simple rhythm, typically based on one of a few chord progressions with a melody that is improvised on guitar, harmonica, and/or piano with lyrics that emphasize the folky themes of lost love, hard times, and high spirits. The Blues isn't so much about what is being played, most of which is the same, as it is how the music is being played. How the instruments are arranged, the emphasis and feeling added and an element that is unique to each artist.

Luckily, the music is quite listenable and easily danceable.

This is the Clemson Wiki project's 1,183rd article.