Singin' the Blues

August 02, 2008

Singin' the Blues

Probably my first (and certainly my best) art teacher is a big blues fan.

I suspect that one of his many harmonicas is always lurking never more than a few feet away at any given time, ready to spring into action.

And so, with him firmly in mind, and accompanied by a bevvy of Zimbabwean beauties, the Mrs and two over-excited little girls (lucky me!) we headed off to the Trasimeno Blues festival in a local town on the edge of the lake. It's hard to imagine a more beautiful location for an evening concert; inside a medieval fort, surrounded by crumbling walls and ancient olive trees, with a small bar, a cool breeze off the lake and an atmosphere that's just so laid back.

Shemekia Copeland (never heard of her), daughter of the legendary Johnny 'Clyde' Copeland (never heard of him either), was heading the bill, direct from Brooklyn, New York.

They said her voice, even without a microphone, would be enough to crumble the walls and, when she eventually got on stage, you knew that she was the real deal; big, black and beautiful.

The truth is that none of us really knew much about the blues but, equally, none of us really had to. It was all about being there, sitting on the grass and waiting for Shemekia to crumble something.

I soon discovered that the Blues is all about 'love gone wrong' and Shemekia's 500 previous boyfriends all seemed to have a song written about them; vain, mean, lazy, no good hustlers and tramps. For some reason my 'posse' of girls found the whole thing very amusing...

The stupidest thing I did today;
Perhaps should have gone to see John Lee Hooker Jnr. the day before - I bet he's got a few choice numbers about previous girlfriends!

Posted at 11:11 AM in The stupidest thing I did, The towns and cities | Permalink