November 22, 2009
UTNE READER

Moan That Particular Blues

(Page 3 of 3)

July-August 2008
by Richard Wagamese, from Canadian Dimension 
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Not that the blues is all-encompassing. One blue howl won’t assuage everything. The language of the blues is the lexicon of experience, and the thing with Native blues is that we’ve barely touched on it.

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The difference between blues and gospel, the jubilant cousin, is salvation, justice, mercy, and grace. Gospel is still built on the same universal chord, but the expression is different. Right now, as a country, Canada is working hard toward that, but we’re still largely doing the holler-and-response routine in the fields of aggravation.

Someone said that W.C. Handy took the notes of the blues and committed them to paper for the first time. When I heard that I wondered how that was possible, how you could transfer what was born in the guts and granted to the air, charged with emotion and grit and drama, and expect the ink to bear it.

Well, it translates fine if there’s a commitment to learning the soul of it. Marks on paper can become music only when you immerse yourself in the intent of the message within the notes themselves. For Native people, communication is the great key signature. It’s what will ultimately define the tempo of our times, the harmony we’ve sought to build into every bridge and chorus of our time here.

Like Robert Johnson, you take experience, inhabit it, sing the truth of it, and, when you moan that particular blues, someone always feels that truth.

 

Richard Wagamese received a 2007 Canadian Authors Association Award for his third novel, Dream Wheels; www.richardwagamese.com. Reprinted from Canadian Dimension(Jan.-Feb. 2008). Subscriptions: Outside Canada, $39.99 Canadian/yr. (6 issues), in Canada $29.99 from 2E-91 Albert St., Winnipeg, MB R3B 1G5, Canada; www.canadiandimension.com.

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