B.B. King

The first band I was ever in was a Blues band, I played guitar, I didn’t sing. ‘Lazy Dog Blues Band’ was our name; the singer and I both worked at the same record shop. We both came from different musical roots, but we both LOVED blues music, so we decided to form a band. We would agonise over which songs to include in our set, but of course B.B. King had hold over the both of us, so we had to include one of his standards. I still occasionally throw ‘Rock Me Baby’ into my set because of B.B. King’s influence on me.

Anyway, I’m sure you’ve already heard that B.B. King died; and I’m displeased with entropy, as usual. I’m glad I saw him live a couple of times, it was like higher education.

At least we have him recorded and his soul can still be heard forever, here’s a tremendous version of ‘Stormy Monday’, B.B. King showing us how it’s done:

R.I.P. Etta James

I saw Etta James play at a blues festival when I was in high school. The otherwise loud and rambunctious crowd hushed to a silence when she walked out on stage, and all eyes and ears turned to her. She then performed ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’. It was the most emotional performance I’d ever seen, and the only time a music performance has caused me to shed a tear.

RIP Etta, thank you so much for sharing your talent with us.