Blues for America

Early next month - August 3 and 4 - Sisters will celebrate the most American of art forms: the blues.

For decades, the blues was the most muscular exponent of American culture in the wider world, along with its progeny, rhythm-and-blues and rock-n-roll. The blues grew out of the fields and plantations of the Deep South, coalescing in the humid heat of Mississippi Delta juke joints. African chants, church music, field hollers and minstrel songs were seeded in a deep, black soil of lives hard lived and burst out in passion and fervor that would roll up the Mississippi to Chicago, plug in and blast out across the globe.

It's not hard to see why the blues connected. As Ed Kopp writes in his "Brief History of the Blues":

"When you think of the blues, you think about misfortune, betrayal and regret. You lose your job, you get the blues. Your mate falls out of love with you, you get the blues. Your dog dies, you get the blues.

"While blues lyrics often deal with personal adversity, the music itself goes far beyond self-pity. The blues is also about overcoming hard luck, saying what you feel, ridding yourself of frustration, letting your hair down, and simply having fun. The best blues is visceral, cathartic, and starkly emotional. From unbridled joy to deep sadness, no form of music communicates more genuine emotion."

In one of the most extraordinary moments of cultural cross-pollination in history, the record "Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers" sailed across the Atlantic and lit a fire under Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Eric Burdon and who knows how many other kids with guitars, and it caused an explosion. The American blues came roaring back across the sea in the British Invasion, up-ending, well, just about everything.

I went to the crossroad

Fell down on my knees

I went to the crossroad

Fell down on my knees

Asked the Lord above "Have mercy, now

Save poor Bob, if you please"

A soul sold to the devil, a fast life ended by poisoned whiskey at the hands of a jealous husband (or a jealous lover) leaving poor Bob on his hands and knees barking like a dog - you don't get more wild and weird than that. That hellhound-driven guitar and that haunted, keening wail... that's rock-n-roll.

America needs the blues today more than ever - not least because the blues stand as a rebuke to the political identitarians of both right and left. The blues is Exhibit A, that truly, uniquely American culture belongs to all of us, and, in fact, often comes from the most marginalized people in our society. And those who bleat about "cultural appropriation" can't possibly argue that Stevie Ray Vaughan was anything but a blessing upon the world. Put Stevie Ray and Albert King together on "The Sky Is Crying" and you're touching something transcendent...

The blues is human - we all get 'em; we all feel 'em, and we all love shaking 'em off. Hats-off to the folks who are giving us the chance to do that right here in the old hometown. See you down at the Sisters Rhythm & Brews Festival.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

• Email: editor@nuggetnews.com
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