Blues with vocals, piano, bass and drums.

14 MP3 Songs
BLUES: Piano Blues, BLUES: Blues Vocals



Details:
âBrother Blues and me, weâre two good lifelong friends. He can depend on me, and I can depend on him.â
from âBrother Blues, Nos. 1 and 2â Copyright 2003 Greg Burgess

âWhen youâre in trouble, the blues is your best friend,â sings Otis Spann in the archeological blues number, âWhere Do the Blues Come From?â And so, sometime between 1955 and 2003, decades after and several states away from Mr. Charlieâs farm down in the Delta (answer to the above), I too discovered the same thing, despite our different backgrounds, as my first piano and vocal mentor had long before me.
How do you write a blues song? In a sense you donât. One blues is every blues, communal in its essence. The great African-American art form has been documented for nearly a hundred years now, with songs enough to content anyone for a lifetime. I never considered penning a whole album of my own until I was hired, with Steve and Andy, to play at the 2003 Billtown Blues Festival in Hughesville, Pennsylvania, and thought to myself âbetter do some original material.â Yepper, I wouldâve found as much camaraderie in singing âunlock the door and let me inâ (by Jimmy Nelson) as âif youâve ever pounded on the doorâ (from âWeaselâs in the Coopâ), except that I felt a responsibility to the hiring committee to be, you know, top-notch.
But one blues isnât all of the blues either. Jelly Roll Morton long ago could say âMichigan water tastes like sherry wine, the Mississippi water tastes like turpentineâ but in the 60âs Buddy Guy felt the need to reply âI think Iâll go back down south, where the water tastes like wine; this Lake Michigan water tastes like turpentine.â
Long ago the inventors of the music all woke up in the morning, caught a freight train to ride, and put on their walking shoes. But in âThe End of the Blues,â the man wakes up and doesnât do either: âI looked around and my baby was still at my side.â Nor does he feel like Robert Johnson. âItâs soon in the morning, and I will not dust my broom; the sunâs as big as China in our 12 by 14 foot room.â
In the 50âs Percy Mayfield prayed âHeaven, please, send to all mankind, understanding and peace in mind, but if itâs not asking too much, please send me someone to love.â In 2003, a man listens to his wife recite the latest claims of tabloid journalism: âWhatâs this, baby, can I believe my ears? Someone built a car that runs on air? Someone learned to make gold from lead? And tonight you want me up in bed? That would be nice.â
The homage in my tunes is not always so obvious. Take Otis Spann singing âI ainât educated, I can hardly read and write,â Jimmy Witherspoon singing âGee, baby, ainât I good to you,â and Charles Brown singing simply âGee,â and you come up with âGee, Gee, Gee,â about a man who acknowledges tongue-in-cheek to his domineering wife that heâd be lost without her, that she taught him everything he knows, even how to spell his own name: âGee, gee, gee. There are three Geeâs in my name. But if you tell me thereâs four, Iâll believe that just the same.â
âIâm a man. Iâm the hootchie cootchie man. Iâm the one they call the seventh son. I am the blues,â sing Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon. Itâs not far from these declarations to âIâm a big, brown panther,â a song about the supposedly extinct brown panther, or mountain lion, of Appalachian Pennsylvania. âI like rabbits and squirrels for lunch, or anything from a garbage truck. I even eat dogs, coyotes, and fishes. I got long, sharp teeth and a tail that swishes.â
So you see itâs all one thing, but itâs not one thing too.

âIf you canât sleep, Brother Blues will be there in a blink. Heâll meet you down at the bar, buy you all you need to drink.â -- âBrother Bluesâ

âItâs the end of the blues. Baby, I do declare our blues are gone. My baby up and left me, but sheâs still got my bathrobe on.â