For 25 years my best friend was a black woman named Louise - a fellow school teacher who died on Christmas Day 2000.

Louise and I often listened to blues music in jazz clubs here in the Village. She called me her White Sister.

We had so much fun together, singing and laughing and just being silly. Once we went to see Louis Armstrong. Never got to the Apollo Theater though we talked about going.

Louise used to wear many silver bracelets that created musical tones when she moved. She never took them off until she got sick. Before she crossed over she said, "Listen for the tones and you will know I am with you."

I heard the tones last summer while at my daughter, Zsia's house. She heard them too and said, "Weezie is back."

I have felt her presence lately and heard the tones. Some allow me to know that Louise has returned for now, perhaps to be with her children on the holidays, or just for another reason.

Of course there were my old High School teaching days when I used to rap with the brothers and the other teachers!

When I taught elementary school, back in the 60's, I created a band with my second graders and they sang Beatles songs with records as backup.

It's always about music.

My children grew up surrounded in music, as did I.

It's great to play music next to an unborn fetus. They hear it. They will respond and remember after they are born.

Music is in our souls. When our souls spark of light emerges from the source of creational consciousness, it resonates to a soul note, our harmonic signature, frequency.

It's all about the Soul Train.

The Blues, Blue, Blueprint, Prophecies

The Birth of the Blues, Rebirth of a Reality in the Blue Frequency

Is the Blues part of your background?

What kind of music soothes your soul?

The origination of the Blues can be attributed to the use of several simple instruments used by the slaves of the Southern states; such as the washboard, a metal string that was nailed into the porch, spoons, and eventually cheap guitars such as the Stella and Kay varieties.

A little known but very important influence on the development of the Blues, during the latter part of the 1800's, was the spread of Hawaiian music. Hawaiians began touring the U.S. during the early 1890s with acts such as the Royal Hawaiian Band, steel guitarists, and vocal groups. The 1912 Broadway show, BIRD OF PARADISE and the Panama Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco in 1915, introduced Hawaiian musicians and their unique methods of playing instruments to the mainland. In the following years, Hawaiian recordings were the biggest-selling records in the U.S., especially acoustic steel guitar and vocal recordings.

With a wave of enthusiasm for regional and unique music, It was no coincidence that the first Blues artist recorded in 1917. Blues artists recognized the potential that slide guitar offered as well as the Hawaiian tunings.

Hawaiian and Blues guitarists both protected their songs by developing unique ways of tuning their guitar strings; This security method made it almost impossible for someone in the audience to mimic their playing simply by watching the pattern of their hands moving along the strings.

The main difference in the two styles of music was that Hawaiian guitars were played while resting on the lap while Blues guitar is played resting upright against the torso.

The Blues was being played throughout the South in fields at night, train stations, sawmill camps, in front of post offices, and anywhere else people passed with spare change in their pockets. W.C. Handy, a bandleader who had moved to Clarksdale in 1903, heard a wailing Charley Patton, barefoot and singing, at a train station in Tukwila, Mississippi.

Rich with spirit and emotion, the Blues spread up the Mississippi River and along the Blues Highway 61; from New Orleans through Vicksburg and on to Chicago. Traveling blues musicians then began to spread out across America, from New York to California. Musicians across the country developed their own styles of Blues such as Texas Blues and Piedmont Blues. Eventually Blues artists performed internationally; the influence of these early pioneers is evident in the strong support of current annual Blues festivals in nations such as Sweden, Canada, Holland, and England.

Oh . . . they say some people long ago,
Were searchin' for a diff'rent tune,
One that they could croon,
As only they can . . .

They only had the rhythm . . . so,
They started swayin' to and fro . . .
They didn't know just what to use,
That is how the blues,
Really began . . .

They heard the breeze in the trees,
Singin' weird melodies,
And they made that,
The start of the blues!

And from a jail came the wail,
Of a down-hearted frail,
And they played that,
As part of the blues!

From a whippoorwill out on the hill,
They took a new note
Pushed it through a horn 'till it was worn,
Into a blue note . . .

An' then they nursed it, and rehearsed it,
And gave out the news,
That the "Southland" . . .
Gave birth to the blues!

MUSIC FILES

ELLIE'S ARCHIVES 2003 THE BLUE HIGHWAY HOME

ELLIE'S ARCHIVES AND ADVENTURES

ELLIE'S WORLD

ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES

CRYSTALINKS MAIN PAGE

CRYSTALINKS MAILING LIST, NEWSLETTER, UPDATES

PSYCHIC READING WITH ELLIE

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