Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I have realized that Easter season is not the time for me to study the blues. Luckily, Holy Week provided the richest setting for singing the blues that our tradition holds. Here is the play list from my new album Holy Week Blues.

• Cut #1 Singing Stones
• Cut #2 Cleansing the Temple
• Cut #3 Alabaster
• Cut #4 Your Money’s No Good Here
• Cut #5 Time to Eat
• Cut #6 Spilling the Salt
• Cut #7 Long Night Blues
• Cut #8 Trials
• Cut #9 Long Road to Nowhere
• Cut #10 My Mother’s New Son
• Cut #11 Unused Grave
• Cut #12 Dead and Gone

In studying the blues in Chicago in April, I’ve learned and experienced music on an entirely new level. It is humbling to see the sheer talent of so many in one place, and knowing that some of these Blues players are bringing it four nights a week is awesome.

I have struggled through learning the Chicago Lump, that bluesy beginning to Sweet Home Chicago. Meanwhile a true player like Nick Moss plays through the night, three sets, free ranging on a single riff that only he can hear. I have heard incredible bands in the time I have been in Chicago and each one, each individual performer, has brought it to the table and blown the room away.

The blue note is what makes it all work. In renaissance music the blue note was the devil’s note. The blue note was the half tone at the middle of a minor or major scale. It’s what twists the music one simple turn so it can draw the suffering out of your soul. Whatever the source, the sensation of the blue note is what the blues feel like. Conflicted, hurt, unresolved, wronged, blue, beat. There is nothing like the blues. Holy Week has a whole lot of it. Easter, less so.

So as we move deeper into Easter I move further from the blues and make the turn towards home. My sabbatical ends this week and I head back to work on May 1.The blues is the last chapter in a great journey that has taken me to Africa, Europe and to the home of the blues, Sweet Home Chicago. I’ve learned new songs at every turn. And I am now ready to head home and start singing them.