The Blues is a globally-rooted, American-born genre of music that, while it has developed a very particular set of musical parameters and technical requirements, ultimately is about how that song you’re singing makes you feel. The original blues didn’t rise from just one source, but most music historians acknowledge that blues artists owe a great debt to musicians from Africa. Not only did early blues instruments originate in West Africa, but the terrible heartache of African slavery clearly provided blues musicians with a reason to feel sorrow. That said, the blues music is not always serious or sad. Blues lyrics are often bawdy but also might be silly or sarcastic.
Over the next week we’ll keep sorrow in check, stay away from the bawdy and sarcastic, though I really hope we find a way to be silly.
