HEAR HERE:
PLAYLIST:
“Getting There” – Quinn Sullivan
“Blues Go Walking” – Maria Muldaur
“Walkin’ Blues” – Bonnie Raitt
“Walked Down So Many Turn Rows” – Mercy Dee Walton
“Mailbox Blues” – Slim Harpo
“Sad Letter Blues” – Muddy Waters
“Mail Order Woman” – Champion Jack Dupree
“Going Up North To See My Pony Run” – Mance Lipscomb
“North West Blues” – Dave Hole
“Northwest Regional Medical Centre Blues” – Watermelon Slim & Super Chikan
“The World Is Going Wrong” – Geoff Muldaur And The Texas Sheiks
“Sitting On Top Of The World” – The Mississippi Sheiks
“The World Is Round (But It’s Crooked Just The Same)” – Rufus Thomas & The Bluesiana Hurricane Band.
The history of the Blues has long-embraced the traditional image of the lone, itinerant musician walking for miles along the endless and dusty roads of the Mississippi Delta. Travelling from town to plantation. Plantation to levee camp. Levee camp to jook joint. Jook joint to house party. And so on.
No surprise then, that Blues history is so heavily littered with songs about ‘Walking‘. And in this edition of Nothin’ But The Blues we’re hitting the road to no particular destination. Furthermore, our peripatetic perambulations in search of the Blues, will require us to be wearing out some serious shoe-leather.
So, where are we headed, you ask? Well, if we’re looking to find the Blues, it doesn’t much matter in which direction we go. But if it helps in deciding what you might like to wear, we’ll be following the trusty compass heading North. (Northwest, even.)
To be sure, though, you’d best pack everything because the whole wide world is up for grabs in this edition. After all, as residents of the internet, we can go anywhere.
Before we leave, however, there are the usual formalities to be attended to. Like, checking the mail. If we’re looking for the Blues, that letterbox is most likely full of bad news by now. Or maybe, Champion Jack Dupree’s mail order parcel has finally arrived. Who knows?
Yeah, I get it… How can we possibly fit all those hefty mailbags, all those pairs of walkin’ shoes – a stockpile of suitcases – and one trusty compass – into a single hour of strangely entertaining Blues radio?
Consult with your chiropodist and travel agent, then press the play button above and you’ll have all those questions answered.
As always, thanks for listening,
Gideon Rhyme – Cultural Detective
The show’s ninth episode premiered on the gist.net.au at midday (CST) on Saturday the 22nd April 2017, receiving an ‘encore’ airing at 7pm (CST) on Wednesday 26th April 2017.
Trés Le Parque 