Singing the blues these days? Check out a few videos here....
The first is from a guy named Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945), whom my friend Barrett F turned me onto. Blind Willie was a blind preacher & musician who lived in Hearne, TX, just outside of Aggieland (he was, I'm sure, an Aggie!). Here is a video (recreated obviously but the music is original), called "Trouble Soon Be Over":
The second is a cover by Canadian Bruce Cockburn of another song by Blind Willie called "What is the Soul of a Man?".
Blind Willie is a great blues musician. Cockburn makes me want to be able to play the blues! Just for the record, I'm almost pretty much convinced that the blues are the modern day equivalent of lament psalms in the OT. Maybe we could put a few of them to the blues?
Here's a few more songs on the WWW of Blind Willie.
5 comments:
That's an interesting take about the blues being the modern day equivalent of lament psalms in the OT. Never thought of it that way but you may be on to something.
I love Blind Willie--I have a double CD of his complete recordings.
I've heard the Psalms/blues connection before in a variety of places-from Modern Reformation to Glenn Kaiser.
I agree it's a good comparison.
@ John: I first thought of this after reading an issue of Credenda Agenda. Check it out here:
http://www.credenda.org/images/stories/pdf/17-3.pdf
@ Joshua, I certainly hope not!!!
@ Pilgrim: Haven't seen the Modern Reformation connection, and I don't know who Glenn Kaiser is. If interested, check out the link above in my comments.
http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var1=ArtRead&var2=150&var3=main
http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var1=ArtRead&var2=155&var3=main
That whole issue is quite good actually.
As for Glenn Kaiser-
http://www.glennkaiser.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSAzyixAqEk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41BmeSkRUFo
http://www.grrrrecords.com/videos.cfm?ID=12
That's just for songs--I heard him in person making the Psalms/blues remarks.
@ Pilgrim,
Thanks for posting these links. I'll look into them.
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