How Junior Kimbrough Showed Me the Blues

I never liked the blues- or so I thought. When anyone mentioned the blues, I tuned out. When I had heard "the blues" before, I couldn’t make out what all the fuss was about. Okay, so I was thinking more along the lines of Chicago-style, actually more along the lines of acid washed jeans wearin’ croakin’ and howling white boys, usually with horn section, so maybe I wasn’t thinkin blues at all. I had to admit that Robert cray was pretty good and I had heard a bit of nnnnnnnn, but it all had a samey samey sound to it that I couldn’t get through.

So the transformation happened this way: One morning I was having a particularly hard time getting outa bed. It was 5:30 a.m. and I’m no good to get outa the bed at noon so my new schedule at work was painful and each morning became a trial, a tug of war between me and my husband who was an early riser. This one morning after several attempts to get me up, he finally said,"This’ll get you outta bed." and put on some music I’d never heard. Before I knew what was happening, there was an aching in my guts. It was a roiling, smoky ache that moved from my belly up through my lungs, snaking and weaving its way around my ribs and continuing up until it blew through the top of my head. I felt new ears had erupted up atop my head, ears that could finally hear. I was awake now! Awake to the blues and running toward the bathroom where Rick was brushing his teeth. "What is this?!" "Cwalleeg Keesnay" was his lathery reply. Now I was brushing my teeth. We were side by side, brushing our teeth in time while Junior wailed Crawlin’ Kingsnake and suddenly my life was comparatively easy. All I had to do was throw on clothes, pile into the car in the lightless morning, grab a latte and put in eight to ten infront of a computer screen so I could go back home and return to that smoky bundle of hurt and joy that was the blues of Junior Kimbrough’s gift. His knowing voice and wise fingers have led me through many a day in the years since. I couldn’t return the favor if I tried.