blues
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Song of the Day: “Mannish Boy”
“I’m a man,” Muddy Waters growls on this hard-driving blues song. But in the next breath he sings, “I’m a man-child.” The subtleties of this message are often lost on audiences (and maybe even the artist himself). This is no…
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This Week in Posivibes: The Zion Travelers
Aquarium Drunkard has unearthed another incredible rerelease in 1996’s The Dootone Masters from Ace Records. Based in the LA area for over two decades, The Zion Travelers put out their first record on Atlas in 1947 and eventually came to the Dootone…
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Song of the Day: “Jackie Wilson Said”
Van Morrison—aka George Ivan Morrison of Belfast, Northern Ireland—has had a long and varied career that began in the mid 60s. After recording a string of massive hit singles like “Brown Eyed Girl,” “Moondance,” and “Caravan,” he released “Jackie Wilson…
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Take a Minute to Marvel at B.B. King
The world lost one of its blues masters May 14th with B.B. King’s passing. The man who kept blues alive brought his virtuosic playing to bear on generations of American experience, influencing musicians across all categories. Take a minute to…
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Song of the Day: “These Days”
The aptly dubbed neo-blues duo The Black Keys have made a name for themselves by giving an old and hallowed genre a fresh sheen. Since forming in 2001, the hard-touring band have won a handful of Grammys and a large…
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The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Guy Forsyth
Singer-songwriter Guy Forsyth talks about his time with the much-storied Asylum Street Spankers, his David and Goliath-esque legal battle against his former record label, and his latest album, The Freedom to Fail.
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Song of the Day: “I Start To Run”
The arrival of chillier weather means that the joggers among us may need some encouragement to meet our goals. But even the exercise-averse will appreciate the driving mania of White Denim’s single, “I Start To Run.” The Austin, Texas-based four-piece…
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Almost Like Leonard Cohen’s Blues
Besides being the amazing singer/songwriter we all know, Leonard Cohen is also an acclaimed poet and novelist. “Almost Like the Blues,” a new poem of his, is now out on The New Yorker.
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Song of the Day: “Baby What You Want Me To Do”
The distinctive tone of influential blues man Jimmy Reid can be heard throughout modern rock music, from Z.Z. Top to The Rolling Stones. In his hit song “Baby What You Want Me To Do,” from 1959, he sings, “You got…
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Word of the Day: Didapper
(n.) commonly, a little grebe or dabchick, a small water bird that dives underwater; also, a name for someone who disappears for a time before bobbing up again His papers looked organized, from the outside, they weren’t messy, but there…
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Song of the Day: “Smokestack Lightning”
Howlin’ Wolf is the moniker of Chester Arthur Burnett, the legendary blues artist whose voice gave him his name. But the 6 foot 3, 270 lb. Burnett may have just as easily earned his reputation from the feral spirit animating…
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The Best Music is Made of Subtraction
Like the Jazz, Blues, and R&B music Brown references, these poems are born of heartbreak, explorations of love and violence, connections and disconnections, the vast complications of body and heart.