David Redd – Jitney Bus Blues
Technology is awesome. But you still gonna have to find someone to push all of them buttons. And don’t let them tell you otherwise. AI chatbots may be able to spit out endless prose, but they do it by ripping off and processing somebody else’s work.
AI chatbots can also produce sounds that, from afar, may sound like music. But there’s nothing resembling human ideas, wishes and fears when you pull up really close to the speaker. It’s just an empty imitation.
So what are we gonna do, and who is gonna be pushing those buttons? Do we really want the stories in our songs retold to us by chatbots for the benefit of tech billionaires? Nah. Why don’t we give up fresh air, water, and food while we’re at it?
David Redd is rather amused by the predicament of the super-rich but rather useless tech billionaires escaping their polluted cities for the benefit of country living. Inspired by Dylanesque lyricism and by a groove that seems to be taking a page right out of Don Henley, Redd comes up with the clever, hooky “Jitney Bus Blues.” It’s actually sung, actually played, just as it is mean and funny. The vocal delivery is great! And, by the way, nah, neither the music nor the fresh air are going away. You just might not encounter any while stuck in a meeting in the big cities of the world.
Robert Connely Farr – Mississippi Mud
Everyone who has ever bought or been given an electric guitar has attempted to play the blues. Some may have even started bands and went about playing the standards in the clubs where old men drink whiskey and tell stories of the good ol’ days to the young people who will listen. Some of the guitar players on stage may have even learned enough to be considered good.
But most blues players stop. Or, at the very least, they diversify. Blues-rock guitarists are playing in some of the biggest and loudest rock bands around. And some of them make a killing each time that they start playing a solo.
Yeah, occasionally, some of them come back. But they treat the blues as a quirky little habit that they bring to small crowds, like puppeteering.
Getting acquainted with the blues is one thing. But staying dedicated to it is a whole other matter and something that only very few are brave enough to do. Robert Connely Farr is one of the most important modern blues players. That’s not because of a few gimmicks like playing his guitar behind his head or setting himself on fire. It’s because of the music. You’ll hear it on “Mississippi Mud” as music lovingly takes the blues and plants it in the present. Besides all of that, the music sounds great.
