{"id":20678,"date":"2021-03-18T05:30:29","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T09:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20678"},"modified":"2021-03-15T10:23:13","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T14:23:13","slug":"john-blues-boyd-even-after-a-50-year-detour-the-blues-was-still-calling-part-3-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/john-blues-boyd-even-after-a-50-year-detour-the-blues-was-still-calling-part-3-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"John \u201cBlues\u201d Boyd: Even After a 50 Year Detour, the Blues Was Still Calling (Part 3 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

And the remaining songs were written expressly to fit right alongside those Boyd-penned tunes. One of the players assembled for The Real Deal<\/i>\u2019s sessions, blues harpist Rick Estrin wrote \u201cI Am the Real Deal,\u201d the album\u2019s opening track. \u201cRick Astrin also wrote \u2018Dona Mae\u2019 for me,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

For What My Eyes Have Seen<\/i>, Boyd digs even deeper into the autobiographical style. The album\u2019s narrative is linked together by a series of interludes: four short \u201cMy Memory Takes Me There\u201d tracks and a longer piece that ends the album. Against a spare, gospel-inflected backing featuring only Andersen\u2019s organ and guitar licks, Boyd sing-speaks bits of narrative.<\/p>\n

The rest of What My Eyes Have Seen<\/i> is characterized by a more conventional uptown blues style, with an array of players \u2013 some, like Little Village Foundation\u2019s Pugh and drummer June Core returning from Boyd\u2019s first album sessions \u2013 and led by Andersen. The players all shine and play together seamlessly, but Andersen\u2019s arrangement style is careful to keep the brightest spotlight on Boyd and his effortlessly powerful vocals. When he growls, whoops and shouts between phrases on tracks like \u201cIn My Blood,\u201d it\u2019s clear that Boyd is having a good time in the studio.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The sessions were fun and easygoing. \u201cI just write these songs, and Kid calls some of the best musicians that he and I knew, and we bring them in and put them together,\u201d Boyd says. \u201cI sing the songs and we would get that music together, some kind of rhythm to match it. I [might] start to say something like, \u2018Doo-dah doo doo, doo-dah doo doo bah bum\u2019 or whatever, to say that\u2019s the way the rhythm to go with it.\u201d In those cases, Andersen would often respond positively or make a suggestion as to how they might change it. \u201cSo then we just go like that, and finally we get it going,\u201d Boyd says. \u201cAnd next thing you know, I sung the song, and it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes Boyd cut songs in the studio with a full band. In other instances he worked in a smaller setup. \u201cThere was a few times that just me, Kid on guitar and a harmonica player would just do it,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAnd then Kid would bring in the other guys later; [they would] listen to the way I\u2019m singing and make up the instrumental piece. They added on the horns and other stuff sometimes after I had already wrote the song and recorded it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boyd says that Andersen and songwriter Guy Hale suggested the album\u2019s central concept. \u201cThey said it\u2019s kinda like a biography of my life, [so] I just told them stories,\u201d he explains. \u201cThere were just so many things I had to tell about what I was doing up back there in Greenwood, Mississippi. So I told it straight. I was around during a lot of those lynchings [of people] like Emmett Till.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of his tunes on What My Eyes Have Seen<\/i> are indeed about his youth in Greenwood, like \u201cI Heard the Blues\u201d and \u201cRun Me Out of Town.\u201d Others tell the stories of his move out west (\u201cCalifornia\u201d), the day job he held for decades (\u201cThe Singing Roofer,\u201d the album\u2019s jump blues highlight) and his relationship with Dona Mae (\u201c49 Years.\u201d) <\/p>\n

And Boyd doesn\u2019t seem in danger of running out of material. \u201cShit, I got so many titles,\u201d he says with a hearty laugh. \u201cI got so many that\u2019s already written you haven\u2019t even heard yet!\u201d Sometimes he reaches back again to his days in Greenwood, a deep source of inspiration. \u201cSilas Green, my step-grandfather, he would say things like, \u2018Boy, you barking up the wrong tree\u2019 or something like that,\u201d Boyd says. \u201cSo I wrote a song [about that]. I write about stuff he\u2019d say to me when I was young. You wait until you hear them; I got more, like one called \u2018Body, Mind and Soul\u2019 and another called \u2018The Love Jones.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we talk about his career in music, Boyd emphasizes that he\u2019s better known in Europe than in the United States. Asked about the idea that historically, African American musicians have often found more acceptance in Europe than at home, he has plenty to say. \u201cIt\u2019s always been like that,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen they did start recording blacks \u2013 what few they recorded to start with \u2013 they tried to bring it to the white people.\u201d Boyd characterizes the reaction: \u201cThey were told they needed to get back across the tracks with that shit! They weren\u2019t even ready for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not sure that things are very different today. \u201cNow [people] claim that they had been loving the blues all the time, but they wouldn\u2019t even accept us when we tried to bring it,\u201d Boyd says. \u201cThey didn\u2019t understand too good. Just like when they didn\u2019t understand when Jesus Christ tried to talk to them: they killed him instead. Now, if they kill someone as important as that man was, what the hell do you think they care about me or you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Guy Hale\u2019s liner note essay for What My Eyes Have Seen<\/i> seeks in part to place Boyd\u2019s life story in a contemporary context as a lesson. \u201cThis record is not just John Blues Boyd\u2019s story,\u201d he writes, \u201cbut \u2026 also gives warning of what happens when racism and inequality is allowed to have a voice in society. [\u2026] In John\u2019s songs and memories is a warning that we should all heed about what can happen when we allow evil to prosper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hale\u2019s essay observes that modern politics \u201care indeed divided and dark.\u201d And while Boyd doesn\u2019t weigh in with specifics, he agrees that there\u2019s an undeniable connection between his life experiences and the United States of today. \u201cI have been through so much, and I am looking at it going on again,\u201d he says. I am 75 years old now, and I am looking at all that stuff that I used to watch when I was a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boyd comes from a big extended family, and it\u2019s likely that he\u2019ll draw upon some of those familial connections for inspiration when writing even more songs. \u201cMy dad come from eight,\u201d he says. \u201cFive boys and three girls.\u201d And Boyd estimates that he has about 300 relatives in and around Meridian, Mississippi, 150 miles Southeast of Greenwood.<\/p>\n

An entire album of songs about baseball seems a future possibility as well. Boyd\u2019s family used to own a Negro League baseball field, he says. \u201cWillie Mays used to play in our ballpark. Satchel Paige taught my uncle Willie how to play baseball. And I am Oil Can Boyd\u2019s first cousin,\u201d he announces with pride. \u201cHe used to pitch for the Boston Red Sox.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the pandemic putting a temporary stop to live performances, John \u201cBlues\u201d Boyd finds himself with even more time to write new songs. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing nothing but just being at the house,\u201d he says, noting that he has written as many as eight songs in a single day. \u201cI\u2019ve written one about \u2013 well, I\u2019ve got so many of them I forgot the title to many of them \u2013 but it was done by me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two… And the remaining songs were written expressly to fit right alongside those Boyd-penned tunes. One of the players assembled for The Real Deal\u2019s sessions, blues harpist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,41,49],"tags":[4478],"class_list":["post-20678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-interview","category-new-release","tag-john-blues-boyd","cat-9-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20678"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20689,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20678\/revisions\/20689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}