As a healthy white male in a prosperous western democracy, I have zero right to sing the blues. Or even enjoy them, really. After all, what can I complain about? I mean, sure, I’ve had one of those annoying sinus/ear infection things dogging me for a few days. The snowplow came by last night and left a giant-ass windrow in front of my house that I’m heading out to shovel. And then I have to drive over to the bank and waste time dealing with something I could probably do over the phone. I could put them together to a I-IV-V chord progression and a shuffling backbeat, but I’m sure you agree that my Sinus Infection SnowBanking Blues is something nobody needs to hear. Good thing there are some folks out there who actually know what they’re doing with this stuff — like South Carolina singer-guitarist Marcus King, who took to the stage of Jimmy Kimmel Live Tuesday night to crank out his searing rocker The Well and the slower-burning Beautiful Stranger with his power trio. Not bad for a healthy white so on and so forth. The bluesy vibe continued over on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where Yola — whose name makes her sound like some sort of millennial anagram, though she is in fact a British singer-songwriter with a long resume — presented her southern-fuelled country-soul number I Don’t Wanna Lie. She has the unfortunate honour of going up against Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Lil Nas X and more in the Best New Artist category at the Grammys this weekend, so this is likely more screen time than she’ll have on Sunday. But hey, it could be worse. She could have to help me shovel.
https://youtu.be/iv0GAabPxZU
https://youtu.be/ZYzBWi5bmNg
