"When My Train Pulls In," Gary Clark Jr.

Chicago? Austin.

Testify, St. Santorum

They're singin' the devil's music in the White House!

"A Change Is Gonna Come"

In London in 1987, a smoldering slow jam by Tina Turner and Robert Cray. I realized I hadn't heard her sing the blues too often. Young Bob starts his solo at 3:25. In 1963, after hearing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," Sam Cooke wrote and recorded the song as a prayer for racial justice. Hat tip to Pamela Leavey.

I've Heard Blues Future

A Joyous Racket from Barefoot Workshops on Vimeo.

The story of a great music teacher named Justin Zamm and an 11-year-old* guitar and drums prodigy named Kedrious Thomas whom you will hear from again. It all goes down in a classroom and church in Clarksdale, Mississippi, a town most famous as a musical landmark (at least before Kedrious arrived) thanks to the legendary Robert Johnson. Watch until the closing titles, and you'll hear the young people performing Johnson's "Cross Road Blues." And here, from my office wall, is a photo of the crossroad in question.
Hat tip to Colleen and Andy Guilford

*The original post had Kedrious's age wrong.

Allman's Blues

My colleague Patti Peebles lent me this CD. Produced by T-Bone Burnett, it's the real deal.