BluesWire::GRIPE

Opinionated commentary, on the state of the blues, and how it impacts all music.

Michaelann Land: I got the right to sign the blues

| admin

Okay, so it’s an old, old bunch of jokes in the form of a list, but some of them are funny, even if they are cliche. I have to say that the stereotypes are funny, but the problem is that most people think that they are true. Some other time I’ll write a GRIPE about my feelings on “gotta live the blues to sing the blues”, for now have a chuckle or two with this brief primer in bluesology.
Michaelann Land: I got the right to sign the blues

Singing the Polish Blues in Chelsea – City Room – Metro – New York Times Blog

| admin

I loved to see this little article in the Paper of Record about a Polish busker who plays blues in NYC. I never fail to be impressed by the broad range of people who are positively inspired by blues, and in that respect I don’t mean the musician but the many many people who genuinely enjoy his playing. The blues is such a simple format that it draws people in no matter what walk of life they come from. Even the comments on this story make this clear — the one guy who complains about the actual musicianship of this Polish street musician is smacked down authoritatively, basically because he misses the point.
The absurdity of a Polish immigrant making up floating lyrics on a street corner in Chelsea makes me smile to even think of it. There’s also a video of him playing and explaining a little about what he does. You can never kill the blues because it’s always going to sprout up in unlikely places, like some sort of flowering weed in the concrete.
Singing the Polish Blues in Chelsea – City Room – Metro – New York Times Blog