Hard Times Come Again No More

Walter Trout, in his recent hard hitting song Brother’s Keeper, highlights the compassion of Jesus for the poor and downtrodden: “Jesus said to feed the hungry, Jesus said to help the poor.” The problem, says Trout, “Some of those so-called Christians, they don’t believe in that no more.” Fair enough, Walter, we get the point – some sort of heavenly-minded, individualistic, Jesus-makes-me-feel-better sort of faith cuts no ice in today’s world, where the difference between the haves and the have-nots is getting greater all the time.

But, to be fair, there are an awful lot of Christians who are rolling up their sleeves and getting involved with their communities and the wider world – sometime to their great cost.

Take Joan Cheever, for example. Joan is a former legal journalist, an attorney and founder of the Chow Train, a non-profit mobile food service which provides restaurant-quality meals for food insecure and homeless people in San Antonio. Since 2005, Cheever has been serving three-course hot meals for up to 125 needy people in various locations in the city several times a week.

The problem for Joan, however, is that she’s just been cited by San Antonio police officers for feeding the homeless in Maverick Park and faces a potential fine of £2,000. She argues with the officers that she should be allowed to continue sharing her food because it is a valid expression of her faith under the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. One of the police officers replied, “Ma’am, if you want to pray, go to church.”  Joan’s retort was jam-packed with good theology: “This is how I pray,” she said, “when I cook this food and deliver it to the people who are less fortunate.”

As the author of 1 John says, “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?” Joan Cheever knows the answer to that.

How come the police have suddenly become aggression to Cheever after all these years? It seems this is merely the latest incident in a series of homeless crackdowns by police. It seems the city wants its homeless population out of sight, out of mind, and acts of compassion are being viewed as encouraging the “problem.” The authorities would prefer their Christians to have a quietest faith, which doesn’t interfere with business and politics, which sticks to church buildings and prayer meetings and doesn’t cause any fuss.

The problem is, if Christian faith is domesticated and becomes confined to church buildings and starts to revolve around the faithful themselves, it loses touch with Jesus and the New Testament. Jesus expected his followers to be feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and spending time with the sick, those in prison and poor immigrants (check it out – Matthew 25). Joan Cheever’s got it exactly right – this is the essence of prayer.

Let’s hope common sense and compassion prevail when Joan gets her day in court.

Best Blues Albums 2014

2014 was another excellent year for the blues, as you can see from the list below. Blues music is so diverse that it’s very difficult to make a list that contains both acoustic and electric blues and everything else in between. But…notwithstanding that, here is Down at the Crossroads Best 25 Blues Albums of 2014. Feel free to disagree…

First of all, our top 10 – 

Kenny Wayne Shepherd: Goin’ Home

Still only in his mid 30s, Shepherd has a 20 year career behind him. This is a wonderful, mature album, where he gives us 12 of the songs which first got him excited about the blues. We get guest appearances from Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Warren Haynes, Keb’ Mo’, Robert Randolph, Kim Wilson and the Rebirth Brass Band in a hugely enjoyable journey through the some of the absolute classics of the genre.

Keb Mo: Bluesamericana

Slick return to his blues roots, this is a very fine album from Keb Mo. A highly enjoyable set of songs, all but one are originals and there is some excellent guitar work. And nice to see a couple of songs dealing with topical issues in The Worst is Yet to Come and More For Your Money.

 

Luke Winslow-King: Everlasting Arms

Luke Winslow-King, ably assisted by his talented wife, Esther Rose, have given us a stunning album of rootsy, bluesy Americana in Everlasting Arms. It’s old-time, yet always manages to be fresh, and it’ll bring a smile to your face every time you listen to it. With 13 songs that weave seamlessly through the blues, country and folk with hints of jazz, the whole album is a delight from start to finish.

Walter Trout:  The Blues Came Callin’

Willie Dixon once famously said, “The blues is the truth.” Walter Trout has given us a blues album that tells the truth, is all its starkness and rawness. Recorded prior to his liver transplant when he was quite ill, the music on the album attests to his remarkable strength of spirit. Here and there, Walter’s voice isn’t as strong as we’ve heard it and despite the subject matter of some of the songs, the album is life-affirming.

John Mayall:  A Special Life

The Godfather of British blues, after more than 50 album releases, presents us with a very well crafted and excellently produced classic blues album. Four of the songs are originals and all eleven are beautifully performed by a talented band. Most enjoyable.

 

Kaz Hawkins: Get Ready

Kaz Hawkins’ new album, Get Ready, is inspirational, honest, warm, full of energy and infectious passion. Blues and gospel with a dollop of soul and R&B served up by an excellent band and a truly remarkable singer. Kaz’s voice is powerful, emotional, rasping, passionate, bluesy. And her music comes from a deep well of personal experience, trial and hope for the future. One not to be missed.

JP Soars: Full Moon Night in Memphis

JP Soars’ third studio release, Full Moon Night in Memphis, is one of the most enjoyable albums I’ve listened to this year. Every track of the 14 is simply a joy, with divergent blues styles which show off Soars’ fabulous guitar chops and excellent, gritty vocals.  Entertaining, engaging and enjoyable.

 

Eric Bibb: Blues People

Top notch acoustic blues from blues troubadour Eric Bibb, with his characteristic upbeat songs and delicious guitar picking. In part a tribute to the memory of the Dr. Martin Luther King, the album is a fine mixture of country blues, folk, gospel and soul. Taj Mahal, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Ruthie Foster and Popa Chubby all guest in what is one of Bibb’s consistent offerings.

 

Luther Dickinson: Rock n Roll Blues

Luther Dickinson’s take on the blues is, I guess, not for everyone, but his quirky vocals, handy guitar chops and a terrific set of songs makes this a stand-out album of acoustic folk, blues, and country. This is raw and honest music, a welcome relief from much of the slick, over-produced stuff that is all too common.

 

Janiva Magness: Original

This is LA-based artist Magness’s best work to date, to be sure, 11 original songs, 7 of which she co-wrote. Wonderful vocal variation and control throughout these excellent bluesy, soul-laden songs. A treat.

 

 

And – here are our next 10 Best Blues Albums of 2014…

Gary Clark Jr.: Live

Often hailed as the future of the blues, Gary Clark’s Live is a very fine album of the best live versions of his song. Intense and passionate, it showcases his considerable guitar playing and grabs your attention from the get-go. Classic and traditional blues are fused here into a compelling fresh sound, which holds great promise of things to come from Clark.

 

Joanne Shaw Taylor: The Dirty Truth

Classy fourth studio release from Taylor who gives us ten strong songs of hugely enjoyable blues rock. The guitar work is outstanding as we would expect, but Taylor’s vocals are delivered with considerable aplomb. Much to enjoy here.

 

Ian Siegal: Man and Guitar

Ian Siegal – prolific songwriter, gifted guitarist, commanding performer – it’s all on display on this album recorded at the Royal Albert Hall by the BBC.  With outstanding sound quality, this is a wonderful concoction of blues, folk, rock and roots music that is punctuated here and there with Siegal’s witty banter with the audience.

 

Rory Block: Hard Luck Child

Following her excellent tributes to Robert Johnson, John Hurt, Fred McDowell and Gary Davis, Block has given us a fine album of acoustic songs by Skip James. As usual, Block’s guitar work is terrific and she doe full justice to one of the most important early country blues artists, whose music was often haunting and unusual. The album has one original song, Nehemiah James, which serves as an introduction to James’s life story.

John Hiatt: Terms of My Surrender

Prolific Americana artist Hiatt offers us a compelling set of blues-infused  songs with echoes of J.J. Cale, recent Bob Dylan and Guy Davis. Hiatt’s voice is as world-weary as ever, the songs heavy with a life-time of experience. Hugely enjoyable stuff.

 

Royal Southern Brotherhood: Heartsoulblood

HeartSoulBlood is remarkably upbeat and inspirational. Outstanding guitar work and lovely harmonies characterize the whole album which is funky and full of good tunes. There’s a lot of hope here, exemplified by the song “Love and Peace Will Heal the World.”

 

Nick Moss: Time Ain’t Free

This is a band in exceptional form here, with a heady blend of blues. soul, funk and rock-and-roll. No nonsense blues rock of the highest calibre.

 

Jo Harman: Live at the Royal Albert Hall

Recorded and produced by the BBC, this is a 2013 performance at Blues Fest at the Royal Albert Hall. There are 8 songs, all showcasing Jo’s excellent band and most of all her wonderful, emotional vocal performance. There is much to enjoy here – some very tasteful guitar work, versitile keyboards, terrific interaction between the two, and overall the band is a tight unit which seems to be enjoying itself.

Bad Brad & the Fat Cats: Take A Walk With Me

Bad Brad and the Fat Cats reach out and grab you by the lapels from the opening guitar riff of Take a Walk With Me and pull you right inside their rockin’ bad ass blues whether you like it or not, until finally they spit you out at the end of the Les Paul-laced Uma, thirteen tracks later.  13 original tracks of classic blues rock that always manage to stay fresh.

 

Joe Bonamassa:  Different Shades of Blue

Guitar virtuoso’s first album of all-new material in two years. Blues rock, but at the same time should appeal to a wide audience. With help from a couple of Nashville songwriters, Bonamassa has given us a fine, varied album, well produced and featuring, of course, his trademark guitar chops.

 

And, Down at the Crossroads’ final 5 Best Blues Albums of 2014

Mark Harrison:  The World Outside

Joe Louis Walker: Hornet’s Nest

Thorbjorn Risager: Too Many Roads

Ruthie Foster: Promise of a Brand New Day

Devon Allman: Ragged and Dirty

 

The Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction: how you can get some

Satisfaction, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in 1965, was, according to Richards, “the song that launched us into global fame.” It was the Rolling Stones’ first number one in the US and became their 4^th number one in the UK, despite initially being played only on pirate radio stations because its lyrics were considered too sexually suggestive. The song is considered by many as one of the best rock songs ever recorded. It placed 2^nd in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, and in 2006 was added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.

Richards suggests he conceived the song in his sleep and his three-note guitar riff begins and drives the song along. As well as the obvious to sexual connotations of the lyrics, there also seems to be a frustration with the increasing commercialism of the modern world expressed. The radio blasts out “useless information” and the ads on TV tell us “how white my shirts can be” and that you can’t be a man unless you smoke a certain brand of cigarettes. Jagger’s lyrics go on to bemoan the pressures of touring, of “ridin’ round the world.”

Fast forward seven years to the Stone’s sojourn in France to a period of excessive drug abuse and the album Exile on Main Street. The Stones have been a hugely successful rock’n roll band all over the world for some years, so wealthy they are tax-exiles, living outside the UK. The song Rocks Off goes:

And I only get my rocks off while I’m dreaming, (only get them off)
I only get my rocks off while I’m sleeping.
Feel so hypnotized, can’t describe the scene.
Its all mesmerized, all that inside me.
The sunshine bores the daylights out of me.
Chasing shadows moonlight mystery.
Headed for the overload,
Splattered on the dirty road,

The song sounds jaunty and upbeat, but the lyrics are thoroughly dispiriting. Even the sunshine “bores the daylights out of me.” The singer is thoroughly jaded – neither making love nor getting kicked causes any interest any more. The only escape is into the world of dreams, of unreality. Mick, Keef and the boys still can’t get no satisfaction.

Success, fame, adoring fans, an excess of whatever it is you can have, smoke, or inject just doesn’t seem to do it. An interesting article in the New York Times by Arthur C. Brooks (Love People, Not Pleasure) recently made this very point. He quotes a research project from the University of Rochester which found that some people had “intrinsic” goals, such as deep, enduring relationships, whereas others had “extrinsic” goals, such as achieving reputation or fame. Guess which group turned out to be happier – yep, the “intrinsic” group.

Our society is addicted to fame, to celebrity, but it’s precisely those who want desperately to be noticed, loved, wanted who end up the unhappiest. And let’s not forget about social media, where we all crave the “likes” and the admiration of others for our clever or funny posts or photos of us doing great things. Brooks quotes the results of many psychological studies: “People who rate materialistic goals like wealth as top personal priorities are significantly likelier to be more anxious, more depressed and more frequent drug users, and even to have more physical ailments than those who set their sights on more intrinsic values.”

Brooks comes to the conclusion that, “If it feels good, do it” is nothing but a popular piece of life-ruining advice. Money, fame, sexual hedonism, accumulation of things all have their lure – but the evidence leads to the conclusion that a cycle of grasping and craving can’t give us no satisfaction.

The true wisdom of happiness lies in relationships with others. Walter Trout realises this in his song Blues for the Modern Daze, from the eponymous album. “You get yours, I’ll get mine…Ain’t nothing left to give, It’s dog eat dog, In the Modern Daze.” And in Take A Little Time, from The Blues Came Callin’, he bemoans the “telephone…buzzin’,” the “people at the door,” and the fact that “the days are flyin’ by, goin’ too damn fast.”

The answer? “You gotta take a little time, baby, Take a little time for love.”

The simple truth is we can’t get no satisfaction in things or in fame. We get satisfaction in loving others. And as Arthur Brooks says,

“It requires the courage to repudiate pride and the strength to love others — family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, God and even strangers and enemies. Only deny love to things that actually are objects. The practice that achieves this is charity. Few things are as liberating as giving away to others that which we hold dear.”

Walter Trout – Take a little time for love

Walter Trout has had a pretty torrid last year with serious illness that ended up with his being at death’s door awaiting a new liver. I saw him play in Belfast last autumn, where he looked a shadow of his former self, but nonetheless played his heart out and seemed to draw life from the response of the appreciative crowd. He’s now got his new liver and reports are that he’s recovering well. Let’s hope that continues and that we get to see him playing his unmistakable blues licks and taking command of the stage as only he can. I saw him play Glasgow about three years ago – the support band was a group of young guys, up and coming, with a guitarist who could play blistering solos, at great speed and with great intonation. They were very, very good. But when Walter and his guys took the stage, the whole gig was transformed – here was a guy who had all the technique and musicality, but who owned the stage, who connected with his audience, and who reached out and grabbed you with his music and his lyrics, and who sent you away with a smile on your face.

Remarkably, Walter’s new album is released this month – The Blues Came Callin’. Willie Dixon once famously said, “The blues is the truth.” The blues has always told the truth – not only about individuals’ struggles and feelings, but about the way the world is, the injustice it contains. Well, Walter has given us a blues album that tells the truth, is all its starkness and rawness.

The song Willie alludes to Walter’s experience of being ripped off in the music business, about someone who has come back to “pick my bones and “peck away my eyes.” We get blues about lost love in Hard Time and blues about facing your own fears in The Blues Came Callin’. And, perhaps most poignantly, Walter gives us an insight into what he’s being going through of late in Wastin’ Away and The Bottom of The River. As his health failed, he found himself looking through the mirror, realizing he’s “living day to day” and feeling like he’s “wastin’ away.” Regret for the past surfaces when he sings “lookin’ back at where I’ve been, good times and mistakes I’ve made, The people I have loved.”

He goes on to compare his experience to falling into a river and getting caught in a current so that he almost drowned. “It was cloudy – it was cold, At the bottom of the river, Is where I met my soul.” Again the past haunts him – “all the people I had loved…all I had done wrong,” yet somehow he hears a loud voice telling him “This ain’t your time to die.” “That’s when I decided to make it to the light,” he says – a remarkable testimony to Walter’s inner strength and determination in the most adverse of circumstances.

The music on the album attests to this remarkable strength of spirit. These are all blues songs, but none are downbeat. Yes, you can hear, here and there, that Walter’s voice isn’t as strong as we’ve heard it. But there’s life, there’s hope, there’s determination here. Despite the subject matter of some of the songs, the album is life-affirming.

In Take a Little Time, Walter reflects, as perhaps – sadly –  only people facing the most adverse of circumstances take the time to do, on the need to step away from the pressure, the busyness, the “telephone…buzzin’,” the “people at the door,” and just take a deep breath, and focus on the most important thing in life – the people you love. As somebody famously said, nobody on their death bed regrets not having spent more time in the office. The truth is, for most of us, “the days are flyin’ by, goin’ too damn fast.”

So has it always been – Job, in the Bible said, “My days are swifter than a runner, they speed by,” and the writer of the Psalms thought we should “number our days, so that we might live wisely.” Or as Walter puts it:

“You gotta take a little time, baby, Take a little time for love.”

Walter’s looked into the face of death and gained some perspective on life. That gives the rest of us the opportunity to get that same perspective now, before we reach the point where regrets loom large.

Thanks, Walter, for giving us this gift of an album – honest, lyrical, beautifully arranged and produced. Let’s hope we can all take your advice. (And here’s wishing you a speedy and full recovery).

Postscript: Walter’s wife Marie wrote on 1^st June: “Walter continues to do well…[he] now has a very good chance of living for a couple decades or more. His body will regenerate… The experience has shown us the beauty of the human spirit. We have experienced a powerful and encompassing sense of community and goodwill.”

The Blues and the Myth of Redemptive Violence

In the places where the blues were regularly performed in the early days, the juke joints, there was a considerable amount of violence. “Wherever the blues is played,” said Charles Love, ragtime jazzman, “there’s a fight right after.” A great deal of “cutting and shooting” went on in the juke. These could be very dangerous places; violence was widespread in country “frolics,” where blues were played. Memphis Minnie said that at juke joints she and her husband would “have to run at night when they start cutting and shooting.” Minnie herself was not averse to resorting to violence – Johnny Shines recalled, “they tell me she shot one old man’s arm off, or cut it with a hatchet…Minnie was a hellraiser, I know that!”

The mixture of letting your hair down on a Saturday night after a long week of hard labour, freedom from white supervision, alcohol and the music was an explosive one. The violence of the juke is evident from many of the blues songs – Mississippi John Hurt’s Make Me a Pallet, which talks about his “good gal” who might turn up and catch his new lover to “cut and shoot” her; Little Walter’s Boom Boom, Out Goes the Light, where the singer says “I’ve been looking for my baby all night, If I get her in my sight…Boom Boom! Out goes the light”; a popular early blues number, See See Rider 44, which says, “I’m gonna buy me a pistol, just as long as I am tall, Gonna kill my man and catch the Cannonball” – are just some examples.

Even as late as the sixties, there was violence associated with the blues. Paul Oscher was a white harmonica player for Muddy Waters for a while and recalls that everybody carried guns. He claimed that Muddy Waters always carried a .25 automatic and a .22 in his shirt pocket, not to mention the .38 in his car. Even with the band, it was said that the only reason everybody didn’t get killed was that everybody knew everybody else had a gun. Paul Butterfield, a white blues guitarist in the 60s said that many times in the Chicago blues clubs he was scared – “I saw knifings and shootings…It was a very violent scene, man.”

Violence, of course, is pretty much part of the fabric of life, and has been since Cain killed Abel. The bad guys use violence to get what they want and the good guys then need to defend themselves using violence. And so the spiral continues. There seems to be an inexorable logic about it – it’s a pity, but there it is, violence is needed to quench violence. It’s an idea that is played out night after night on our TV screens and in cinemas around the country. One of my favourite TV dramas at the moment is Justified – cool customer and lawman Raylan Givans can be relied on to sort out whatever ruthless, psychopathic criminals he comes across and it’s entirely right and proper that he pulls the trigger in order to do so, without a moment’s thought. I watched Man of Fire (2004) recently, starring Densel Washington as a retired CIA operative who, at great personal cost goes after the kidnappers of child. He gets the job done – of course – but leaves a bloody trail of mayhem, explosions and shot-up bad guys behind him. Well, that’s what’s needed, right?

The continual diet of violence that we are exposed to, moulds our thinking, even if we don’t realize it. Quoting recent studies in the Lancet and other journals, and organizations like the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, an article in the New York Times recently concluded that, “The weight of studies supports the position that exposure to media violence leads to aggression, desensitization toward violence and lack of sympathy for victims of violence.” At the very least we are convinced that violence is a legitimate means of bringing resolution and peace.

The myth of redemptive violence. That’s how theologian Walter Wink describes the paradigm which is reinforced in popular entertainment but which also underpins the very fabric of the modern nation-state. Wink says this is “the real myth of the modern world…the dominant religion in our society today.” Wink explores the primordial myth of ancient Babylon where creation is essentially an act of violence played out amongst the gods, where order is brought out of chaos by violent disorder. He suggests that this same myth prevails across a wide range of cultures, resulting in a view that violence in itself is not wrong, it is simply a fact – the social order depends critically on violence to suppress the powers of disorder.

He then goes on to discuss the way the Bible tells its creation story. Here we have a good God who creates a good creation, where good is prior to evil. Neither evil nor violence is part of the creation, but enter later, as a result of the first couple’s sin and the connivance of the serpent. He says “A basically good reality is thus corrupted by free decisions reached by creatures. In this far more complex and subtle explanation of the origins of things, violence emerges for the first time as a problem requiring solution.”

While we must reckon with the troublesome way violence is portrayed in the Old Testament as God-sanctioned – and easy, spiritualizing ways won’t cut it – the way of Jesus seems quite clear: love your enemies, pray for them, go the extra mile, turn the other check. All of which is followed up by the earliest Jesus-followers – St Paul, for example, with “bless people who harass you…don’t pay back evil for evil…live at peace with everyone…don’t try to get revenge for yourselves.”

Why have Jesus followers so easily made peace with war, when the New Testament and the early history of the church shows a strong commitment to peace and non-violence? Well I guess it’s not easy to disengage with the prevalent, assumed value of the need and the right of violence that is all around. Wink says that “the Myth of Redemptive Violence is the simplest, laziest, most exciting, uncomplicated, irrational, and primitive depiction of evil the world has even known.” He goes on to suggest that violence has become “pleasurable, fascinating, and entertaining,” in such a way that we are deluded into” compliance with a system that is cheating [us of our] very lives.”

The old blues songs merely reflect the violence that was and is part of society, whether as part of the oppression by whites on blacks during the Jim Crow era or within the juke. More recent songs kick back at the need for violence. Check out blues woman Caroline Wonderland’s powerful song about peace, Only God Knows When. The first verse has the great line “violence is no solution when life ain’t like you planned”, which Carolyn tells us applies to individuals and nations alike. Despite the appetite for war we’ve seen over the past ten years in the US and Britain, “There’s a hollow victory in winning, when everybody pays the cost, With retaliations by the hour, lives and generations lost”.

Or Walter Trout’s Brothers Keeper, which asks, “Are we supposed to be our brother’s keeper, Are we supposed to catch him, Catch him when he falls?” It recalls the murder of Abel by Cain, where Cain cynically asks God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Trout answers the question by taking us to the words of Jesus – “Jesus said to feed the hungry, Jesus said to help the poor.” Violence is not the answer to the anyone’s problems – there is another way; there is a better way. Time to see the myth of redemptive violence for what it is – destructive, life-sapping, false.

You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you. Jesus (Mat 5:43)

B B King in Paris: Making the World A Better Place

Last week I went, along with my daughter, to see B B King play in Paris, in the stately surroundings of Le Grand Rex theatre. I’d never seen B B live before so I was very excited that we were able to go. He’s nearly 87, but still a great performer – one of those artists who really connects with his audience, whether he’s singing, playing or chatting. He said recently, “The way I feel today, as long as my health is good and I can handle myself well and people still come to my concerts, still buy my CDs, I’ll keep playing until I feel like I can’t”. Good on you, B B. My daughter & I and a couple of thousand French adoring fans certainly felt you handled yourself pretty well.

There’s a certain amount of pomp about a B B King concert – well, he is the King, after all. His band (hardly one without six decades under his belt) played for at least five minutes, keeping the tension going, until the great man was escorted to his chair on the front of the stage, where he acknowledged the whooping and hollering, and then royally dispensed guitar picks to the front couple of rows, before sitting down to play. The gift showering ceremony took place at the end of the gig as well, before B B’s minders eventually persuaded him to wave good-bye one final time.

Well, of course, at 86, you’re not going to get the guitar playing of his younger days – but, man, that voice – still thunderous when he gets going and sweet when he wants it to be. And the guitar licks we did get – still that characteristic B B sound. As slide guitarist Derek Trucks recently said, “Still to this day when you see BB,  that’s all it takes – hear…one note and you immediately know who you’re dealing with”.

“That one-note thing that BB gets, he’s communicating with you. So he touches that note in the right way to grab your attention. He hits it and it talks to you. It kinda pulls you in…” said Robert Cray, and he’s dead right. Think of all the brilliant guitarists who have played with B B, especially over the past few years – he’s never in their shadow. Because he knows how to communicate, to put heart into every note.

Once he got started, he gave us, amongst others, I Need You So, Key to the Highway, Rock Me Baby and, perhaps surprisingly at his stage of life, Blind Lemon Jefferson’s See That My Grave is Kept Clean. And, of course, the song we’d all come to hear – The Thrill is Gone. All the time, he’s playing the blues, and yet – he’s making you feel good the whole time. Kenny Wayne Shepherd commented on this,“He’s one of the single most influential guitar players to ever pick up the instrument. Part of it is indescribable and part of it is identifiable – from a player’s perspective his vibrato…his phrasing – there’s something very passionate about his choice of notes that’s also very friendly. His music…just makes you feel good when you listen to it”.

That’s it – just makes you feel good – it’s life affirming.

A various stages, over the years, the Christian church has been pretty suspicious of the blues, given its association with juke joints, dancing and sex. Michael Bane, in his book, White Boy Singin’ the Blues, says “The blues especially, were the opposite side of sacred …. You could sing gospel or the blues, but never both. The blues belonged to the Devil, with his high-rollin’ ways… and if you sang his music, the door to the Lord’s house was shut to you”.

Walter Trout, talking about B B King, however, thinks this is too simplistic, “A lot of people in the church, they go through this thing that it’s the devil’s music, but the way he [B B King] plays and the way he sings, that is a gift from God and if you are at all religious you will believe that he has that gift and he was touched when he was, you know, in the womb. If you have a gift like that…you can make the world a better place by sharing it.”

When we heard B B King play last week, I think we all felt this gift of B B’s and we went away feeling enriched from the experience. A B B King concert makes you feel that the world can be a better place. We’ll leave the last word to B B King’s There Must Be  Better World Somewhere:

It just ain’t fair, but I know

I said I know, Oh yes, I know
There must be a better world somewhere
There’s just gotta be
Gotta be a better world somewhere

Walter Trout asks “Am I my Brother’s Keeper?”

Rampant individualism and obsession with national and personal interests have robbed us of the gift of community, of looking out for each other. Walter Trout in his new album Blues for the Modern Daze asks “Am I my brother’s keeper”?

Walter Trout’s new album, Blues for the Modern Daze, is just terrific, combining as it does contemporary blues-rock with plenty of traditional blues elements. Just in case you’re not familiar with Walter Trout – BBC Radio One named him as number six on their list of the top 20 guitarists of all time and Bob Harris, legendary radio DJ, called Trout “the world’s greatest rock guitarist” in his book The Whispering Years.

Blues for the Modern Daze has got all the virtuoso fast licks you’d expect from Trout, but it’s not just the dazzling technique that seizes you – it’s the intensity and emotion that he never fails to get across in the album. The subject matter is gripping throughout, with songs dealing with addiction, loneliness, powerlessness in the face of big business, the contrast between rich and poor, and the insidious and life-denying effects of television and the advertising industry. Then in the album’s title track, Trout bemoans the loss of neighbourliness – “These times in which we live, it’s dog eat dog in the modern daze…You’ll get yours and I’ll get mine”.

This disappointment with the rampant individualism of the modern era continues in the brilliant “Brother’s Keepers”. The song starts off by asking,

“Are we supposed to be our brother’s keeper,
Are we supposed to hear him when he calls?

Are we supposed to catch him,
Catch him when he calls?”

The song recalls, of course, the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. In a fit of jealousy, Cain rises up against his brother and commits the first murder. When God comes looking for Abel and asks Cain where he is, Cain gets short with the Almighty and says, “Well I don’t know – am I my brother’s keeper?” Here the problems of the first family go from bad to worse. The parents got thrown out of the God’s garden for that business over the apple, but at least Adam, Eve and the boys had each other. Now that relationship, that precious brotherliness, is fractured by Cain’s terrible act of violence.

Cain’s question echoes over the ages – am I my brother’s keeper? Am I supposed to catch him when he falls? Perhaps it’s particularly important to hear that question right now. In an age when technology pushes us more and more into our own individual worlds. Technology enables us to do so much, and to do so much on our own. We can survive without others in a way that previous generations couldn’t or peoples living in less sophisticated environments in the world can’t. On top of that, we’re bombarded by the advertising industry telling us all we need is this or that product to make our lives complete. Result? A fracturing of society, a loss of neighbourliness – with the resultant loneliness and isolation that many people feel – the “modern daze”, as Walter puts it. Individualism and selfishness have become the defining characteristics of our age. Rich nations like the US and those in Europe put their national interest above all else, pursing trade agreements that break developing nations and oppress the poor, and implementing military strategies that have little or no concern for the victims of military action – most often women and childen.

Walter Bruggemann says that our societies suffer from “predatory violence that precludes neighborliness”. He suggests we live in a “global market economy supported by an undisciplined militarism in the service of limitless consumer entitlement”. So stressed and overburdened are we by our technological tools and toys that we end up with “no time left for critical reflection or the nurture of an intentional life of freedom and imagination”. The market greed of our time distracts us and catches us up in its wake leaving us feeling that we no longer have a choice about where are lives are going.

But of course we do. Walter Trout’s song goes on to say:

Jesus said the feed the hungry,
Jesus said to help the poor

We can choose to imagine a different sort of world and can begin to live in ways that actualize that. We can refuse the rat race of anxiety and self-absorption. We can begin to live as true neighbours and, as Bruggemann says, “witness against the predatory values of our society”.

Whatever else we might want to say about Jesus – Walter’s right – he did talk an awful lot about the poor, those in prison, those with no clothes on their backs, the hungry and the sick. Am I my brother’s keeper? Dead right, says Jesus. What was lost by that first family, represented by Cain’s cynical, rhetorical question, was precisely what Jesus came to restore. To give us back our humanity and with it a sense of responsibility for each other. And in the end, that’s what he said we’d be judged on – Jesus’s story about the great heavenly assize in Matthew 25 leaves us in no doubt that God’s favourable judgement is only for those who served the hungry, the sick and the poor.

Brother’s Keeper finishes with a searing criticism of modern “so-called Christians” who “don’t believe in that no more” – i.e. Jesus’s teaching about serving the poor and feeding the hungry. People that are so heavenly minded that they’re no earthly use, to coin an old phrase. People who purport to follow Jesus but allow themselves to be swept along by the tide of selfish acquisitiveness of our present age. How’d we ever get to think that the gospel is just about thoughts and beliefs and what goes on inside us instead of following Jesus into the company of the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized?

The good news is, of course, there are lots of Christians living out their faith doing just that – check out Christian Aid, Tearfund, the Salvation Army, and World Vision for examples. In fact much of the alleviation of suffering in the world is actually done by or funded by Christians. We just need a whole lot more of it. We need to listen to the call of “Brother’s Keeper”:

We’re supposed to be our brother’s keeper,
Supposed to hear him when he calls?

I believe we’re supposed to be help him,
I believe we’re supposed to catch him when he calls?

Walter Trout in Cologne, Germany plays “Brother’s Keeper” in a sold out show in a beautiful, medieval Church .