You’ve heard performers talk about working a tough room

They don’t come much tougher than Sing Sing prison in 1972. The King of The Blues was told the inmates weren’t familiar with the genre but he and Lucille crescendo the assembly into a frenzy of belief in a few minutes. Interesting fact about King: his favourite singer was Sinatra.

The arc of passion in the blues was a kind of inversion of the need to lift and carry away that were hallmarks of Gospel and the old Negro spirituals. You can feel it in Martin Luther King’s speeches. I wonder if the death of holy rhythm was the death of black America’s ascendancy.
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5 Responses to You’ve heard performers talk about working a tough room

  1. FlyingPigs says:

    Great get C.L.

    The best Blues Gospel singer was Elvis Presley.

    Here is Muddy Waters in Copenhagen Jazz Festival 1968.

  2. C.L. says:

    Thanks, Pigs.
    I love Muddy.

  3. Old School Conservative says:

    The best Blues Gospel singer was Elvis Presley.

    Well there goes my day.
    Just started his ‘The Complete Gospel Series” on YouTube.

  4. a reader says:

    Nobody will beat Albertina Walker or Mahalia Jackson in the gospel stakes

  5. FlyingPigs says:

    a reader says:
    3 December, 2021 at 9:20 am

    Nobody will beat Albertina Walker or Mahalia Jackson in the gospel stakes

    ok…. I give in.

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