I’ve never posted a video so I hope this works, these are two of my favorite blues musicians…Sonny Terry and Brownie Mcgee. One of the greatest duos of all time…I’ve never read a review on anyone, even my favorite musicians, I dont know their birthdays, their favorite color or where they grew up. I cant say I could identify with the “pitch fork effect ” article, Id much rather listen to music than read about listening to it.  The local blues scene in calgary isnt actually all that bad, theres a number of great artists in the city; Bill Dowie and the Blues Devils are always worth seeing, Tim Williams, and Russel Jackson are also canadian favorites.

There isnt much attention being paid to the classic blues ballads and jazz riffs of the early 1900’s these days but music as we know it seemed to spawn out of the Nat King Coles and Louis Armstrongs. It seems to me that the new music of the day has lost its substance and character because its readily available and therefore expendible, and because more substaniative qualities are easily replaced with sexy visual images and a host of other dilute selling features that capture and hold our medioccur attention. The first time I heard B.B kings live at cook county jail album I almost wet my pants. He is the master of holding a note and saying something, this is a trick young cats just dont get.

The tones, melodies and rythyms of a piece should inherently create their own story and their own feeling. They should make your insides curl and jump with delight, as though your senses became integrated and you could feel and taste the note.

While I love jazz, rock and even some country the blues has always held a special place in my little heart. Theres a quality to the music and the people that is so captivating and raw, as though anyone who knew the blues and felt it in the pits of their hearts knew something the rest of world didn’t. I used to frequent the King Eddy and although it had a bad rap for being in a crappy part of town, the music streamed through the doors into the city streets every night of the week. As you entered two racked pay phones greeted you with the smell of sweat, beer, and smoke. Some people dont enjoy such a climate but I found it refreshing in a strange way, nobody was judging anybody in that place, everyone was there to listen.  There were hookers, crack heads and other assorted junkies, busnismen and women, students, the blue and white collar finally intermixed under the red lights. There were very few problems per se, the staff was as hard as the old wooden floors and saw to it that everyone enjoyed their experience. It was almost like wandering into another world, a place that would supply the senses with what they craved, soothing and churning the soul all at the same time….

That concludes my rant on music and its palce in my life, I encourage all of you to check out some of those “old records on the shelf” you never know what you might find in there and the sound qualtity still surpasses the new technology by a long shot….

  I forgot to mention that for those of you who are interested in eclectic music check out CKUA they literally play everything….