10 blues playlists 4 u

literally ten blues playlists

Everyone is asking me, even strangers, what are you doing after graduation? My answers vary. My official answer read aloud as part of my introduction at the beginning of my thesis presentation was “writing on Substack about things that matter.”

I’ve also said I plan to become a DJ. However, after reading less than 10 percent of Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, I remembered I am a DJ? Or have been. (Is have been different from has been? yikes). I was DJ-ing in a traditional sense meaning I was on the radio. I guess I can say I’ve already accomplished by post-grad dreams. Today, I want to talk to you about the blues.

When I was younger, definitely before high school, my dad upgraded his car from a Land Rover without air-conditioning that my elementary school frenemies and I called “rust bucket” to my mom’s old car, a Hyundai Sante Fe. This car came with a subscription to Sirius XM Radio which hosts “B. B. King’s Bluesville” and “Watercolors.” Now that I’m writing this, I realize Watercolors is a jazz station.

I’m not sure how I would compare jazz and the blues, I would probably say, jazz is a younger half-sister to the blues who was raised separately. I played both the blues and jazz on my aforementioned radio show. I tended to use jazz as a filler when I was pressed for time on a playlist, but also because a lot of artists, especially female artists like Nina Simone and Billie Holiday sang jazz and the blues.

Despite the first record recorded by a Black person being done by a woman, I still associate the blues with men. Often sometimes wondering what did this bluesman know about being a nonbinary lesbian? How could this man describe my exact situation? Maybe it’s just the human condition. Anyways, here’s ten of the playlists from that radio show and they include some of my favorite blues songs ever.

playlist one

playlist two

playlist three

playlist four

playlist five

playlist six

playlist seven

playlist eight

playlist nine

playlist ten