Playing the Blues

Playing the Blues … Ken “Sticks” Scully and “Plucking” Pastor John lobbied a visit the House of Blues this last August when we were in Chicago for the Leadership Summit, but the schedule didn’t allow it. Too bad.

There is something about this music that reaches to the depths of the soul that is inaccessible in other styles. Listen to sounds from the crossroads of US 49 and 62 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the tones of Chris Thomas King, or Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy or B.B. King and you can feel your chest tighten as if something deep inside is suddenly trying to bust out.

Trained in a classic style, the Blues are challenging. They violate disciplined European forms of strict metering, controlled technique, regulated expression and mastery of style. In true Teutonic elitism it is easy to discount the visceral foundations of the Blues as somewhat semi-barbaric. Yet, as Buddy Guy pointed out,”It comes from inside; you play with your soul.”

I have wondered if God, through Jesus, is trying to reach to the deep “blues of our soul;” to delve behind the intellect, the reason, the discipline, the order (as beneficial as these are for ordering society) to crack open the painful yearnings of our lonely selves and let us soar in beauty. Just maybe God loves us that much that nothing would be left out of salvation, but the whole being would find its expression in life; a life playing the blues.