I’ve had a deep interest in the blues for many years. Over time, I’ve become a student of this form of indigenous American music, poring through the history, the musical “family tree”, the psychosocial and geographical aspects. Back in 1992, I even went so far as to take a road trip through the Mississippi Delta, just to see what the region was like. It’s hard to visualize what the old bluesmen experienced in the jukes throughout the south, and even more difficult to fathom the economic status of the region in the thirties and forties.

Be that as it may, I can’t say that I have ever been to a true, Mississippi delta juke joint. Legend has it that the bluesmen of the era would play them for money, for drinks, and for women. You had to work hard to work the crowd, and being a great performer was probably just as important as being a good musician. If you could get the joint jumpin’, then you would probably be a success. It was a measure of your status (and legacy) as a blues man.

I have been fortunate to see a few performers over the years that would fit this description of “bluesman”. Robert Randolph is just such a performer, and his performance at Antone’s on Friday night (2/4/11), with his Family Band, spoke strongly to the roots of the blues, and to the roots of his musicianship. But perhaps most importantly, it spoke to the sheer emotion and bravado of being a true performer in the purest sense of the word.

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