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April 06, 2003
Blue.
Last night I went to see Susan Tedeschi with my friend Catherine at Irving Plaza. A still-cold and bleak night and a full day after my big discovery, it was a perfect night for singing and hearing the blues. Catherine proved to be the perfect companion. I met her through my cousin Debbie. This night was the first night we actually got to know each other one on one. That's always different than when meeting people in front of "The Fam". When we started talking about men and sex and the like I have to admit there was a part of me that was thinking, "Oh my God, she'll tell my cousin and then my cousin will know that I date. Or worse." Irrational I know but I have a very large and caring family and no matter how old I get, I'll always be younger than my cousin and she will always feel maternal about me. I get it. I feel the same way about my younger cousins. But back to the blues...
I have forgotten how much I love the blues. I have friends who really don't understand the blues. One such friend has said, "The way my life is going, if I listened to the blues, I'd kill myself." He doesn't get it. The Blues are all about feeling your pain, savoring it, really, and then releasing it. "Right on Sister." "That's exactly how it feels, yes. Yes." "That is it. That's what happened." They say misery loves company and what they say is true. With the Blues a singer, the band and every member of the audience can feel your pain. You feel their pain too. It's so much easier to shoulder the burden of someone else's sorrow. And then this Collective Sadness is soaked up by the music. Little droplets of water sorrow rising through the air and the dust in the colored lights to be soaked up by soundwaves for all the while you are standing there listening to the blues. And eventually you realize you survived it. Or you will. And when you do survive it, still you know you gotta right, you own the right to sing the blues.
For the record, I can not extol the virtues of Susan Tedeschi enough. She was amazing. It was so cool to see such a talented woman get it all so right. If you like the blues at all, I promise you won't regret getting her new CD. She does a cover of Bob Dylan's Don't Think Twice, It's Allright" to which I alluded in the previous entry. While no song fits any situation, there are elements and nuances that helped me find a little solace in a new cross I chose to bear.
As for that friend who doesn't understand the draw of The Blues, well I guess there's no music that means the same for everybody. I'm not a huge fan of ThugRap but it must rock somebody's world. Still, I can't help wonder if the ills that plague him wouldn't seem a little less hard to bear if he let in a little of The Blues.
Posted by mermu at April 6, 2003 11:22 PM
Comments
She's playing in Austin on the 25th. I've put it on my calendar to see if Elizabeth wants to go with me. However, we're both doing Team Danskin this year. Since it meets early on Saturday mornings, we may not be up to staying out late at a concert.
Posted by: Jfer at April 14, 2003 02:27 PM
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