re: 60's music: Better musicianship?

quote:

---

Any thread about musicianship that does not mention The Band is bullshite.

---

The Band perfectly represents my thoughts on this topic.

They were old enough to remember American music that was regional. They ( some of them anyway) had been classically trained on a variety of instruments. They were around some of the greatest mainstream songwriters this country has produced. And they were at the right time to take all those influences together with cutting edge electrics and recording studeos.

There may not ever be another era that gets to tap into little-known regional music scenes and introduce "new'' sounds to the extent that the 60's acs could.

What's great about is the ability to have it all at our fingertips without depending on radio. But I think that also leads a little to more specialized niche music.

One other note on musicianship: the use of professional session musicians in the 60's and early 70's definitely produced some incredible work, but that changed some when we began demanding that bands play their own stuff instead of letting the frontmen fake-strum guitars on stage.