Pool cues, bbq and the blues..

I love the Mississippi Delta, I have lived here the majority of my life and I find the culture quite humbling. The picture I choose exemplifies the blues to me because I was in a blues bar shooting pool listening to an unknown band play the blues. I had just eaten a plate of BBQ rib tips,baked beans,coleslaw and texas toast prepared at the bar. It was by no means a five star place it was a hole in the wall. The bathroom had graffiti everywhere but the band was awesome. It wasn’t your typical band. It was truly unorthodox. A black drummer two white guitarist and a white lead singer bellowing the blues as easily as any stereotypical black juke joint singer. This trio was excellent. The atmosphere was loud,there was smoke in the air, there was liquor,there was food, there was laughing,there was music, there was dancing everybody had a great time. That’s what the blues is about to me enjoying yourself in the moment no matter were you are or who your around. It’s about living life. The words in the songs are so meaningful and heartfelt they are not meaningless like alot of music that people play and listen to today. The blues is about searching within yourself and discovering things about yourself that you didn’t even know. The blues is what you make it. It’s not just catchy tunes and repetitive melodies it’s a way to tell a story. I hope to learn to tell stories through the use of visual images with the aid of audio to enhance this process while taking this class this semester. Documenting the blues in the Delta will be an interesting journey for me as an art enthusiast and aspiring art teacher. I am looking forward to taking this journey with my classmates, as well as learning from my instructor.