Others say it's a feeling, a way of life. At Blues by the Bay Vol. Performers include several fiery guitar slingers, a young singer from Colorado who mixes gospel, jazz and reggae with her blues, a couple of bluesmen from Louisiana, a keyboard player who's working on his blues doctorate, and one of the founding fathers of raw Southern soul. I wanted to show that blues is a profound music with spiritual ramifications and philosophical foundations.
Blues is an existential music.
The foundation is freedom. Ironically it came from a people who were not free. Blues takes in the totality of a people who came through the Diaspora across the middle passage. Blues came as a gift from God to deny the lie of our nothingness. It wasn't merely a response to the brutality of slavery.