Why I Sing The Blues

Why I Sing The Blues – Willy Minnix

3-26-04

Blues isn’t about avoiding or running away from your problems. It’s about owning up to them; confessing them. It’s not about hiding from trouble. It’s about saying, “life is hard; I have a cross to bear.” It’s about being man or woman enough to deal with our issues as human beings. Which is why for a bluesman to become an alcoholic or a drug addict is a great shame. The alcoholic or drug addicted bluesman has no concept of the purpose and meaning of the blues. Blues is not about whining.

People who say blues is depressing are missing out on the spiritual meaning of blues. They are the type who turns to partying and chemicals to “forget their worries.” Blues embraces hardship, and therefore, the yoke becomes easy and the burden light.

This is why blues has come full circle from being gospel’s bastard cousin to being used to proclaim the gospel. The gospel is about life and life more abundantly. Blues is about life. How can you have life more abundantly if you run from problems in life instead of attacking and overcoming them?

In Aikido, to defeat your opponent you must embrace his attack and use his momentum against him. So it is with blues. You welcome your trouble, addiction, worry or fear, like an old friend, where you deal with and conquer it. And just like no soldier fights a war alone, blues must unite with gospel to give it depth and strength to overcome in the battle of the soul. By realizing a moral authority with power over and beyond anything we face our individual battles can be won. The soldier can carry on knowing that the cause of freedom is just and climb against insurmountable odds. The bluesman can cry out from the depths of spiritual and personal crisis to a cause over and beyond him to defeat despair and fight on to another day. Without a moral and spiritual authority blues becomes meaningless whining and moaning. The old bluesmen knew this. They grew up on gospel, and they knew there was truth in the message. Today, so many have no understanding of that side.

Blues is not about “my woman done left me.” It’s about “the world is a twisted and confusing, warped and bent place. How do I deal with it?” Gospel is about what the world should and ultimately one day will be. The unification of the two is about how to make this world a better place today, or at least how to cope with the trials and temptations that we encounter on our journey.