Mmm..sweet tea and it's refined sugar-coated goodness,
double chocolate milkshakes,
my tongue buzzing from the Junebugs in the porchlight,
coleslaw and yams and the sweet,
thick waft of cigar in a club downtown.
Heat.
The salt off the back of my wrist as I swipe sweat off my upper brow.
Buttery grits and collard greens and smoky rain near the train station.
Spring onions and barbecue and the
faintest vibration of a slide guitar on a Saturday night.
It all tastes like the blues to me.
Cool John Ferguson
Because the nature of my trip thus far has been really organic and fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, I have stumbled into some pretty great scenes. I had many reasons for coming to North Carolina, including the blues, but somehow I had forgotten just what an impact the Piedmont blues and musicians from this area have had on my life. And here I am, right in the middle of it all.
North Carolina is made up of three zones: the mountains, the Piedmont, and the coast. The Piedmont is the flatter area before you hit the coast and, like Appalachia, it has it's own culture and music. It is home to the Piedmont blues, and thanks to Music Maker in Durham, a relief organization for little-known blues musicians escaping poverty, a white girl from Maine was introduced to the sounds and strains of great guitarists such as Etta Baker.
I can't predict the future, but I can say that 29 years of age was hopefully the worst it's ever gonna get. I was in such a dark cycle of events that my sadness preceded me. I would walk into a room, and people would arrange their words. On the outside, I looked like a wreck. But really, I was just emerging and one way I measured this was through the music I learned to play. The blues could handle my intensity. Because playing the blues is about recognizing the power, the joy in sadness. Sadness and joy. Birth and death. Part of the same circle. What slapped me down into despair also gave me muscles to get up. Whose knows this better than a blues musician.
So I was a little starstruck when I got to hang out with greats such as Cool John Ferguson, Captain Luke, and others. I sang with a buddy of mine, Dr. Charlie Thompson, to a song he wrote for an event at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke. And because I got to sing, it earned me a better rep to be able to sit next to Captain Luke and hear his stories.
Slowhand Charlie and Captain Luke
The majority of the blues musicians that Music Maker features are older than seventy. And this is something I also love about the blues...I could be in my nineties sitting on my porch all day long and playing my electric guitar.
Men of the blues
Captain Luke is 87, a chain smoker, and has a voice that drops into the crowd like blackstrap molasses. You feel just like you're in his living room and all of a sudden he starts singing. Like being with your grandfather who just happens to be a big rock star.
Two fans
In Durham, North Carolina, I can just pop down the road to a place called the All People's Grill, a mom and pop dive serving up soul food until late on rickety tables. And almost as if it were just a legend, some nights they may be closed and completely abandoned while others, you may be just in time to hear Cool John bust one out for all of us.
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