Everyday I love the Blues!
Those that know me know I’m a huge fan of blues music. Every Sunday night between 6 and 10 p.m. I do a program called the Blue Cadillac on 92.7FM which is dedicated to hip American Music better known as The Blues. Well this past weekend, right in our own back yard, we had the second Annual Vermont Blues Festival, or as I like to call it — Mecca. I don’t often write about my love for this type of music, but I felt like I needed to this time.
Being a child of the (’60s) ‘70’s I grew up with some great Rock and Roll. As a kid, Led Zeppelin was my all-time favorite band. I couldn’t get enough; it’s all I played for about a year. The likes of Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton forced me to buy my first guitar just so I could attempt to make the sounds they made (for the record, I never really got there — but I tried). As I would try to dig deep down and pull inspiration from anywhere I could to keep going, I began to read the stories in the liner notes. I wanted to know that they struggled to find the cords as I was struggling trying to play them. But there was never any mention of a struggle, so I decided that my hopes of writing great songs and being a rock star were fleeting. I wouldn’t stop playing the guitar but I would recognize that those that make great music have a gift that I didn’t possess. I made my peace with it and just kept listening to all the greats — Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Robin Trower … Did you ever notice all of these great Classic Rock Gods came out of the same era?
One day while reading the liner notes (again) and thinking to myself that Led Zeppelin were brilliant song writers, I was disheartened to find out that two of my favorite songs were written by a non-band member. It was a crushing blow for me; I’ll never forget it. I was really upset that these guys that I revered as geniuses actually sought out help to write a couple of songs. The songs were “You Shook Me” and “I Can’t Quit you Babe.” I knew nothing about the blues at that point but I knew those songs spoke to me more than the others. I could feel those songs in my bones every time I played the album. Yet some guy that went by the name of W. Dixon wrote those tunes.
One day while working in a restaurant kitchen cleaning the dishes the radio was playing a “three for Thursday set” of Rolling Stones — the last song was “Little Red Rooster.” I loved it and turned it up a little. The guy who scrubbed the pots and pans said to me, “You like Willie Dixon?”
“Who?”
“The guy that wrote this tune the Stones stole,” he said. Then it washed over me … W. Dixon equals Willie Dixon. He continued to tell me that a guy named Howlin’ Wolf originally did this tune. Enough was enough, I was going to find a record store the very next day and check into this guy. I did just that, I ventured into a small record store in Brattleboro asked the guy behind the counter if he ever heard of Willie Dixon? He came out from behind the counter, never saying a word, went to the blues section of the store and pulled out the Willie Dixon album “I am the Blues.” He handed it to me and said, “Take this home and listen to it. I open tomorrow at 10. I’ll sell you more you like then”.
He was right, I never looked back. I was hooked on the blues! And this past weekend I took 20 of my 48 hours off and listened to it at the second annual Vermont Blues Festival at Mount Snow. The music just washes over you; you can feel it in your soul. How serious am I about the blues? I didn’t even play one hole of golf the entire weekend! What the hell is up with that?
Artist: Dane Tilghman
