Blues

PBS is showing the first of seven episodes of a series about the blues. Martin Scorsese gives his introductory spiel then it fades to black. It fades up to some old black & white footage of a fife and drum trio. I suspect that it was Othar Turner on the fife. I wasn't familiar with the tune but it was fucking marvelous! It continued with a series of excerpts of various historical bits of footage. Work songs, blues...they showed footage of John and Alan Lomax recording for the Library of Congress in the 1930s and 40s. Listening to the music and seeing the images of the rural South between the wars sent shivers down my spine. It just did something to me. How anyone can not like the blues is beyond me. Sure, your standard 12-bar blues is simple. It's not full of counterpoint or anything but who cares? It just doesn't fucking matter because it's about how it hits you in the gut.

As the show progressed, I got a bit scared. A bit of music would preface a section about a particular musician and I recognized whom it would be about after like three notes of each song before the narrator told us. Leadbelly, Son House, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson -I really wish I were fucking at home right now so I had access to my CDs because, as soon as this show is over, I am gonna regret not having any blues music here. Ive got this CD rack at home with Lightnin' Hopkins, The Hook, Guy Davis, R.L. Burnside, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Elmore James - FUCK!

Shit! They're interviewing Othar Turner! Fucking awesome! Now our host is in West Africa. This is so awesome!