I know this isn’t what most people think of when they think of “the Blues” but these two pretty much *are* blues music these days. I was lucky enough to witness three blues greats: Eric Clapton, BB King, and Bonnie Raitt perform together in London.
It’s kind of interesting to me that blues music has become almost academic. People study it now. Like it’s a lesson in school, relegated to a dusty textbook, not a lifestyle or a state of mind. The average blues music fan is a white female who holds an advanced college degree. (Odd, when you consider that this breed of music was made famous by black men, barely educated, decades ago.) It’s more than universal appeal, it crosses all kind of demographic lines and bleeds into other forms of art in so many different ways.
Blues is the feeling that somebody done you wrong. It’s that sinking feeling you get when you know your alone, when she up and left you, when you know there’s no looking back. It’s what remains when passion melts. It’s music for the lonely, hungry, bored, lost souls in the universe. (The happy chaps, I suppose, prefer jazz, although that too is not without it’s quirks.) Blues is what happens when you take the darkest of the dark, turn it inside out, and shed it some light.
Much like photography itself, I reckon.
Until next time…
