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"Born Under A Bad Sign" - Gospel and the Blues

We were talking about left handed guitars (great thread by Rick Cogbill) and it reminded me of Albert King who played left handed and left his strings inverted. But it also reminds me of blues musicians in general.

 

Many of these guys were surly characters - drunken, infected with diseases that one can avoid or just plain bad attitudes. However, this angst produced a perfect musical genre to express lament. I call the blues the "genre of human lament".

 

Unfortunately, this often included a clueless outlook on life:

 

born under a bad sign, been down since I could crawl

If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all

wine and women is all I crave..

 

Clearly the guy didn't get it. But if one can overlook this unfortunate outlook on life, one will find a delightful catalogue of musical phrasing and vocal technique. And it occurs to me that this musical style has great application for Christian themes. Most of our songs are about glory and praise, and that's good. But many Psalms were laments. In fact, we are also called to be mournful and sad for what goes on around us.

 

So, does anyone else have thoughts around this? Can we Christian musicians bring some blues into the mix?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Stevo on June 7, 2011 at 4:51pm
Exactly.
Permalink Reply by Michael Letus on June 3, 2011 at 1:32am
Depends on the 'congregation'.  We're doing a benefit for the local food bank next month and will be able to do anything we want as it's an actual show.  I have Farner's remade Christian version of 'Some Kind of Wonderful' on casette--with no working player.  I'm going to have to find a cd or mp3 version somewhere and work it out.  It'll be a good time to bring out a straight blues number as well.  I know players in a Christian band that's played homeless shelters and blues/Southern rock with a message goes over extremely well.
Permalink Reply by Daniel Read on June 3, 2011 at 6:53am
Depends on the 'congregation' - absolutely, yes. Everything depends on that.
Permalink Reply by Jim Wood on June 6, 2011 at 8:31pm

Sure we can.  In fact my former band did.  It all comes down to what your idea of "the blues" are!

I uploaded a track for everyone to hear.  Think Black Crowes meet Jesus.  You'll get the idea.

But like everything else the blues can be redemptive.

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Permalink Reply by Stevo on June 6, 2011 at 9:35pm

Aside from the obvious tendency to emulate Chris Roberts, that's pretty good stuff. Really. And the Chris Roberts thing isn't all bad either.

 

Hey, I think Chris Roberts emulated Otis Redding.

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