FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH with Blake Melnick

Damn Right I Got The Blues

Blake Melnick Season 2 Episode 16

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Music is a reflection of both our history as well as our social consciousness. It helps us make sense of the world and allows us to make personal connections with it. Perhaps more than any other art form, music is evocative; it triggers vivid memories of childhood, falling in love, loss and sadness - it forces us to look at ourselves to remember who we were and who we are. 

 Music always makes me feel connected in a Jungian sense. It makes me realize that the struggles I have are not mine alone, they are shared. Simply recognizing this makes me feel less alone and ultimately better. 

 I’m a big fan of the Blues. In the late 70-’s early 80’s I lost my connection with popular music - it just didn’t resonate., so as great bluesmen, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee said in one of their songs, I became a “white boy lost in the blues” I began to seek out roots music wherever I could find it. Fortunately Toronto in the early 80’s was a place where the great blues artists were readily accessible to me in a number of small venues. I had the chance to see and meet some of the greatest blues artists of our time - Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Albert Collins, Fenton Robinson, Son Seals and a great many others - before what I will call the blues renaissance which occurred the nineties, when popular artists, realizing the contribution these aging blues players had made to the world of music began to appearing as guests on their records, thereby raising awareness of the blues form and these great artists in the minds of a white listening audience.

 So here’s the rub, while blues themes tend to focus on “Feeling Blue” about things which happen in one’s life - “The Thrill is Gone”, Baby Please Don’t Go, The sky is crying” etc. the blues are about acknowledging our pain our feelings of loss and sadness, and by doing so, we feel better.

 This episode of the space celebrates the spirit of the blues ...#ForWhatitsWorth

The Music for Today's Show, "You Think I'm Bad" is written and performed by Oliver McQuaid. Click HERE to listen to Oliver's interview called  "Campfire Jesus" with Co-host Ben Hunter and visit the show BLOG to see the pics

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