I was layin’ down, one night I heard mama n’ papa talkin’
I heard papa tell mama, let that boy boogie-woogie
It’s in him and it got to come out
And I felt so good, went on boogie just the same
– John Lee Hooker
The blues bring musicians and songwriters to the creative frontier
– Daddy Stingray
You daydream. The setting sun and a gentle breeze offer moments of respite from the drenching summer heat, reminding you of the small touches that make a difference. Gratitude and humility. Longing and desire. Mosquitoes. Alligators, probably. Rich experiences of the imagination. The night settles. In the distance, a drum beats to a wistful song in time with your heart.
A broken-off bottleneck on your finger slides across the strings of your open tuned guitar until it finds just the right note. Shaking with a vibrato that matches your resolve.
Pick a few chords and share your tale. Tell your story and sing your song. Experience this with all your senses. A clinking of glass. The sound of pouring whiskey. A weather beaten fedora you got at a vintage store, with its own stories of the dust bowls and depression. Uncertain memories of persecution, concealed shame, and cryptic dreams. Catharsis that releases long suppressed emotion. All that you value in three lines.
We read history books, listen to folk tales, and visit mythical sites but the blues flows through America’s blood. When a Delta Blues singer hits you just right, it becomes a part of you. More than anything else you want to hear more.
A time of prohibition. An illusory peace. World wars. Electricity was new and rare. Before mass media united the country. A very real, and very dangerous past that forces our soul to fight in order to imagine a hopeful future.
This era in America speaks to teens growing up in the bombed out suburbs of post war London relate to this music. Rock and roll pioneers like Keith Richards and Mick Jagger bond over their blues record collection, culled from digging and making the right friends, no online distribution in those days. Records for collectors. Music fans. History buffs. Investors in rare prints. Inspired to be the best blues band in London, instead giving birth to modern rock and roll.
Mysterious songs with a tradition of interpretation. Answers to questions buried deep in your soul. The essence of classic rock.
Endless, divine guitar solos from British Invaders speak to a teenage angst that we never fully process, expressed on a few crying notes played on bent strings.
Three chords open creative floodgates for millions. Chasing five notes through the changes. Dreams of love at their fingertips.
Original blues masters could play anything the world was listening to at the time, but they were revered for their unique style. Moving from one chord to the next with inversions, one feeling to the next, with their voice. Pioneering the only musical form in the world that includes a note not implied by the chords.
The blue note. The Devil’s triad. What more adventurous types call the tritone.
Acoustically exploring the depth of their souls. High stake stories. Tough relationships. Economic hardship. Rejection. Hope. Tight lyrics. If brevity is the soul of wit, blues masters demonstrate a Shakespearean ideal. When the blues hits your soul, it will stay forever.
The mesmerizing croons of Robert Johnson and Skip James inspired the authoritative growl, pounding harmonica, and slithering slide that drive Daddy Stingray’s exhortation, Don’t Be a Fool, 100 years later.
AboutBluesMusic is an archaeological adventure. Mysterious. Mythical. A journey through worlds of legend. Channelling rays of light onto the well of your soul. So grab your fedora and let’s dig.