From: ajw@cbnews.cb.att.com (andrew.j.whitman)
Subject: Christianity and The Blues (was Re: Hey, Screamin' Diane)
Organization: AT&T
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 16:58:49 GMT

In article <1993Jan6.094428.13405@bsu-ucs> 00sanaylor@leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu writes:

(first few paragraphs deleted)

>Fodder for thought-  I once saw an ad on a billboard at a music store about
>some guy that had wanted to start a christian Blues band. 
>
>A friend of mine, a blues guitarist named Governor Davis (group: Governor 
>Davis and the Blues Ambassadors, who have been trying to get me to play but 
>I hate the smoky club blues scene...), wondered how can people doing Gospel 
>music sing the Blues??
>
>I think this would be cool, the best example being Mark Farner's
>Judgment Day Blues.  But, how many BLUES songs can you really sing?
>
>I mean, Buddy Guy didn't exactly write stuff like, 'Got my soul saved, yeah,
>but my baby just left town...'.
>
>Any takers?

Yeah, I'll take it and run with it.

First, though, we need to differentiate between blues as a music form
and blues as a "bad, lowdown, mean feeling."  Blues as a music form is
twelve-bars long, features flatted thirds and sevenths, and has a
lyric form of a-a-b - that is, a first line, a second line that simply  
repeats the first line, and a third line that is different from but 
generally ends on a rhyme with the last word of lines 1 and 2.  In that
sense, *any* lyrics can be made to fit the blues form.  Put the
musical form together with "For God so loved the world that he gave
us His Son/I said, for God so loved the world that he gave us His
Son/That whoever believes in Him, eternal life will have just begun."  
Hey, looka that - instant Christian blues!

Let me elaborate on the musical form a bit.  The first written records
of the blues and the first recordings of the blues come from north-west
Mississippi in the early 1920's.  It's black music, and it's probably
the most unique music that America has ever produced.  Add some horns, 
lift the melody away from the beat, and add some improvisation 
techniques and you've got much of the jazz that's been made over the 
past seventy years.  Sing it with sixteen bars instead of twelve, and 
drop the repeating first and second lines, and you've got gospel music.  
The ties are unmistakeable.  And that's at least part of the reason
why the objection to "Christian" blues is laughable and ludicrous.  
Gospel and blues are kissin' cousins.  If the musical form is 
inappropriate for one, then it has to be inappropriate for both.

The music generally developed in such a way that the sixteen-bar
gospel songs focused on "spiritual" issues and the twelve-bar
blues songs focused on "secular" issues.  But there's nothing
inherent in the music that makes this so, and, in fact, a number
of blues musicians (most notably the Rev. Gary Davis and Blind
Willie Johnson) recorded blues that have quite blatant Christian
lyrics.  There's just nothing that is "unchristian" about this
music.

The other common objection seems to be that the blues focuses on
sadness, sorrow, tragedies, etc., and that such an attitude is
inappropriate for Christians who should be focusing on the joy and
peace of the Lord.  Such a view ignores two significant points.

First, much of blues music is celebratory, and is concerned with
*overcoming* sadness and sorrow rather than wallowing in it.  
Even a cursory listen to musicians such as Muddy Waters, Howlin'
Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, B.B. King - even latter-day heroes
like Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn - should indicate that
these folks aren't wallowing; they're having a good time.  Sure,
there's a fair amount of "woe is me" sentiments expressed in the
music.  But that's hardly the whole story.

Second, sadness, sorrow, and tragedy are hardly unknown expressions
in Scripture, and since God chose fit to include the various
moanings and sighings of Job, Jeremiah, David, and (gasp!) even
Jesus in the Bible, perhaps it might still be appropriate for Christians 
to express those emotions today.  Sometimes people express those
emotions using the blues form and sometimes they don't.  The
musical expression doesn't matter.  What matters is that it's okay
for Christians to express their sorrow and grief when they deal
with all the crap that comes from living in a fallen world.  

The bottom line is that I think that all the raised eyebrows and
tsk-tsk reactions to blues music on the part of some Christians is
completely unfounded.  There's a *ton* of great blues music out
there, and I'm glad that it's a part of my life.  

>Scott Naylor (slogan - Will Play Guitar for Food)
>University Computing Services
>Ball State University
>Muncie, Indiana

"I read the Bible often/
 I try to read it right/
 As far as I'm concerned/
 It ain't nothin' but a burnin' light/
 Won't somebody tell me/
 Answer if you can/
 Won't somebody tell me/
 Tell me what is the soul of a man?"
  -- Blind Willie Johnson

Blind Andy Whitman
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio
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ajw@cblpn.att.com