I Don’t Like the Blues (Part II)

B. Brian Foster, professor of southern studies and sociology at the University of Mississippi found out after years of research in Clarksdale that not everyone is pleased with living in the “home of the blues.” He has just published a book titled “I Don’t Like the Blues,” based on almost 250 interviews with local residents over four years of living in Clarksdale. It’s a real eye-opener.

The title of his book has two meanings. One is “the blues” as music. Most of the people he talked to felt that the blues was an indispensable part of Black American culture, one of the roots of all American music. But for enjoyment they preferred R&B, contemporary gospel, or hip-hop.
The second “blues” is different. It’s how a person feels. It hurts. It’s the culmination of years of harsh experience, being mistreated, and being ignored. That blues is, one person explained, “my life.”

Included in this is feeling uncomfortable in places that cater to whites. Many Black respondents avoid the blues places because “that’s for the white folks.” Like most other small southern towns, Clarksdale is divided literally and figuratively by the tracks of the Illinois Central Railroad. Blacks on one side; whites on the other. There is an unspoken understanding about where Blacks are not welcome.

Isn’t blues tourism good for the town? “Where’s the money going?” one interviewee responded, saying there’s no benefit for Black residents of the town. The money goes to the white people. Black musicians don’t get paid much for one or two shows.

Living the blues? “You just get tired of it.”

(265 words)

Excellent book: B. Brian Foster, “I Don’t Like the Blues: Race, Place, & the Backbeat of Black Life,” University of North Carolina Press, 2020. ISBN 978-1-4696-6042-4