A story doesn’t do any good unless it is told, and singing is how the blues story is told. When sung, the blues offer a ritualistic way to affirm the essential worth of human existence. After facing the indignities of life, one can release the pain and frustration by stomping the blues, knowing full well that the expression is temporary and most likely ineffectual in terms of changing anything in a fundamental way. The stomp lasts Saturday night, and then you get up Sunday, go to church and repent, and start the cycle all over again. The blues, therefore, acknowledges that there is more to trouble and suffering than simply being in a bad mood or having a lousy string of luck, rather, these conditions are simply the structure of existence, for which the blues provides a kind of cathartic metaphysic, identifying what is real but in terms that are concrete, not abstract, and encompassing a full range of human expression.
Linked to improvisation, the ability to worry the line is a powerful resource for living in an unpredictable world. The sampling, mixing, and mashups of contemporary hip hop are the most recent extensions of the blues impulse to worry the line. Neither race, gender, class, ethnicity, nor age limit this power. The blues... is an Omni American response that influences the dominant culture in significant ways. The blues is not proprietary but imitative and contagious, shaped by procedure and custom but primarily by improvisations. The blues provides a context for transforming a miserable existence into a heroic life. Just as worrying the line is really a matter of innovation and improvisation, the blues isn’t about staying blue but about moving beyond the tragic and pathological dimensions of life through a brave confrontation and affirmation of what remains possible. The blues is art as celebration, an act of stylizing a particular existential condition into significance.
Source: Worrying the Line: Blues as Story, Song, and Prayer by Kimberly R. Connor
The Allman Brothers Band - Woman Across the River
Linked to improvisation, the ability to worry the line is a powerful resource for living in an unpredictable world. The sampling, mixing, and mashups of contemporary hip hop are the most recent extensions of the blues impulse to worry the line. Neither race, gender, class, ethnicity, nor age limit this power. The blues... is an Omni American response that influences the dominant culture in significant ways. The blues is not proprietary but imitative and contagious, shaped by procedure and custom but primarily by improvisations. The blues provides a context for transforming a miserable existence into a heroic life. Just as worrying the line is really a matter of innovation and improvisation, the blues isn’t about staying blue but about moving beyond the tragic and pathological dimensions of life through a brave confrontation and affirmation of what remains possible. The blues is art as celebration, an act of stylizing a particular existential condition into significance.
Source: Worrying the Line: Blues as Story, Song, and Prayer by Kimberly R. Connor
The Allman Brothers Band - Woman Across the River
- Released on: One Way Out - Live at the Beacon Theatre album
- Written by: Bettye Crutcher, Allen A. Jones
- First release in: 1968
"The Allman Brothers Band are highly respected and well received by legions of fans. Lead guitarist and band leader Duane Allman has been recognized as one of the greatest blues and rock guitarists in history."
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