Things have been way to serious around here lately.

“Indeed I plainly judge, and do not hesitate to affirm, that except for theology there is no art that could be put on the same level with music, since except for theology, music alone produces what otherwise only theology can do, namely, a calm and joyful soul.”

~ Martin Luther (LW 49, 428.)

The time in Chicago was great. I partook of many things. Including this:

And, naturally some of this:

Moreover, if you’re in Chicago any Wednesday in August you have to make your way to the Tonic Room some evening and catch le Percolateur. They are fantastic. And the bar’s not half bad either.

If there was ever a song that captured the spirit of Good Friday for me, it is “Resurrection Blues” by Otis Taylor. In contrast to the pervasive tendency to see, in the secret recesses of the Christ of the crucifixion, a self-assured confidence in his divinity and mission, we have a vision that truly embraces the sweated blood, and the desperate pleas of the garden of Gethsemane, and the cry of dereliction.

We all got to die
But some people
Some people
Some people got to suffer before they die

This about a man
He’s gonna be crucified

Some people die of cancer
Some people die of aids
But this man’s gonna be crucified

Woke up this morning
In a deep deep
a deep sleep
I found out
I found out
I found out
I was Jesus

I don’t want to be crucified
Don’t want
Thorns on my head
Don’t want
Walk among the dead
I don’t want to be
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus

Woke up this morning
from a deep deep
a deep sleep
I found out
I found out
Found out
I was Jesus

I can’t break bread
Feed a thousand people
Turn sweet water
Into wine
Been on this earth
Too long of a time
Don’t want to be
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus

Listen to the song for free, here. And, if you really want to hear this song in context, and think Good Friday in concert with the crucified people of this age, you should listen to it in concert with his “Saint Martha Blues.” This devastating song is Taylor’s own description of the lynching of his grandfather, which conjures up images of the women who, after the death of Christ must go to his body. Fantastic, terrifying stuff.

Otis Taylor is one of the best blues musicians I’ve ever encountered. Which isn’t saying very much on the one hand because I’m a pretty simply rock and roller in my music tastes. Generally. Taylor is the real article, and has rekindled a long-dormant love I’ve had for blues. This song, “Ten Million Slaves” has recently been popularized by its appearance in the trailer for the forthcoming film about the life of John Dillinger, Public Enemies (which also looks excellent).

The album the song comes from is entitled Recapturing the Banjo, which refers to a lot of interesting musical and racial history in America. The banjo was actually adapted from west African instruments by slaves brought to the United States. However, the banjo was quickly embraced and appropriated by whites and, by the 1950s came to be thoroughly associated with Appalachian folk music and backwoods minstrel culture. As such it came to be somewhat ignored by the black blues community. Recently, however it has been making a comeback, and this album is explicitly focused on this retrieval. Pretty fantastic stuff, some of it with an incredibly incisive critical edge. This song in particular is incredible in its ability to reflect on the actual experience of slavery, drawing the listener into feeling the humanity and confusion of the enslaved. Great stuff.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhiO8rT_LnA]

The undisputed king of all bloggers, Andrew Sullivan links to a pretty fascinating series of YouTube videos by Israeli musician, Kudiman. This new album of his is actual made by mixing YouTube videos of all sorts of music. A pretty fascinating creation, I must say.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO-Mx0FHm4w&feature=related]