You won’t find many folks who love blues more than I do, but after 25 years of exploring it, I’m kind of glad it only gets a few hours a week on scattered public radio stations. The good stuff is too special to risk general saturation. I was introduced to blues via the late professor Russell Linnemann’s (The Blues Doctor) WUTC 88.1 radio show “Blues & More” on Saturday nights. This eventually led to me having the privilege of taking his blues history course in college. His only assignment was to attend 10 live blues shows and write up reports for each. Here is his obit:
Linnemann, Russell John
When I had satellite radio and drove 50k miles a year, I seldom listened to the 24/7 blues station and preferred my own evolving playlist. But if I stumble across something like Dr. Linnemann’s show, I immediately park it. It’s almost always public radio, and for a couple of hours, it’s almost always excellent.
The process of discovery has been exciting. There is so much more good stuff out there to uncover. Now that I play an instrument and have a prospective band in the works with like-minded musicians, we have the opportunity to create. When I read TB comments that no one will attend blues shows or that it’s all the same boring stuff, I am not discouraged but challenged as a musician to defy this sentiment.
The best live music experiences in my life have been blues. Blues, at its best, is a live, rump-shaking, hypnotic social experiment. I’m not motivated by money, but rather to hit virgin ears with stuff in the vein of Johnny Shines, Son Seals, Freddie King, Taj Mahal, Hound Dog Taylor, RL Burnside…or with original material so inspired. It’s a naive but worthy aspiration. How will I get my newbies if they think blues is a variety-pack of guitar solos on a station they skip over? A few excellent things deserve seekers, not consumers.