Singin’ The Blues

By all accounts, Ludwig van Beethoven lived through experiences of depression. Yeah, “Roll Over Beethoven, dig these Rhythm and Blues,” ’cause l’m talking with you today about Blues and its rhythms, and about American people preceding me by a generation or two. As a child I listened late into the nights to my tiny black Arvin radio tucked against my pillow. I fell a dream to live broadcasting jazz and the Blues from New Orleans, New York, Nashville, St. Louis and Chicago. Hear today my telling you – sounding – the old nights, and the old guys and gals, their blues, their depressions, and oppression and legacies: this is a way l’ve come to understand and express my personal and social move away from fear and despair. My topic is Depression and some of its contexts and some of its possibilities.