Blues...So, what's the attraction, huh?

Quinn Sullivan is 14 years old http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/arts/music/teenage-blues-phenom-quinn-sullivan-releases-getting-there.html?src=twrhp. He plays guitar. Blues guitar. And Buddy Guy just took him on tour. Asked why he’s smitten with the blues, Quinn said, (speaking of Mr. Guy), “The first time you listen to the blues, you feel something toward it. You can already feel a story behind it. You can feel history. For me it was listening to Buddy and feeling where he’s been in his life.”

I thought about that statement, about what it is that's attractive about this uniquely American music. I was 8 years old the first time I heard it. Sitting in the den of a grade school classmate's house in Southeast Minneapolis, listening to an old Stinson Records collection entitled “Negro Sinful Songs as sung by Huddie ‘Leadbelly’ Ledbetter”, something changed in me. A middle class white boy, listening to music of the ”other”, strange and wonderful. In thinking about that experience, I too, felt a connection to the story behind what I was hearing, like, Fannin Street in Shreveport, LA. Dark and dangerous. The chippies in the bar asking Leadbelly, “…what you thinkin about? I said, I’m thinkin ‘bout a song ‘bout Fannin Street. They say, let’s hear it!” http://www.lyricsmania.com/fannin_street_lyrics_leadbelly.html . Leadbelly's description of riding the Interurban train between Dallas and Ft. Worth with Blind Lemon Jeffeson, turning the seats to face eachother, and wailing on their 12 strings. I could see it with my 8 year old eyes.

 Like young Mr. Sullivan said, you can feel the history.