Country Blues and City Blues

This week was fun. I was dancing in my living room to the Blues!

I had spent two day listening to country blues and city blues videos from YouTube and the songs that were posted. I wondered whether I should do an individual piece for each type or one piece the represented both. Particularly as this was the last week of school I wanted to do the post justice.  In order to figure that out I spent some time immersing myself in the Blues! It felt more familiar to me than the previous music we did. Perhaps it was because I identified with the culture or perhaps it is still so prominently sung that it did not feel as foreign and distant, similar to how country music is still prominent today.

The most interesting character I came across was Robert Johnson. I had heard of him before. I had heard the myth of how he sold his soul to the devil at a crossroad to achieve success. Its makes for an interesting tale but there is no doubt that he was an influential person in country and delta blues He is considered by some to be the master of blues and "the most important blues singer that ever lived."

Something else that I noted as I listened to the country blue, Delta blues from Mississippi and the city blues, was about the instruments, Many of the delta blues songs only used guitars and harmonica whereas city blues tended to use a larger array of instruments. Because of this I found country music to be much more authentic, and I use the word authentic loosely. The were both amazing but the country blues seemed to be as we would describe front porch music. The singers and the simple instrument gave deeper meaning to the songs for me. I found them to be slower and set a more meaningful tone.

With the city blues it was different. I enjoyed it but unlike the deep listening and contemplating mood of country blues, I found myself dancing more to the city blues. The tune, the lyrics and the instruments were generally much more up beat and the instruments played a major role in the performances. Also the lyrics were quite repetitive in some songs. It seemed to be less about the words and more about the rhythm. like a good night out to a party. In this way it appeared that the city blues though quite enjoyable was embellished and commercialized for night life. Though I did find some song, such as Johnny Shines, Two Wet to Plow, to be more mellow at times and more meaningful. Over all the Blues seems to tell the stories of African Americans. it encompasses the feeling and ideas of work songs, spiritual and gospel but with a new an enticing presentation.

With all that said for my piece the week I decided, instead of doing two separate drawing, to compose one abstract piece that I thought expressed the relationship of Country blues and City blues.