Author: Debra Devi

This is the latest installment of our weekly series The Language of the Blues, in which author and rock musician Debra Devi explores the meaning of a word or phrase found in the blues. Grab a signed copy of Devi’s award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. Used as a rhyming substitute for “ass,” yas yas and “yas yas yas” appear in hokum blues from the 1920s such as Tampa Red’s big hit, “The Duck Yas-Yas-Yas.” In “Get Yer Yas Yas Out,” Blind Boy Fuller…

This is the latest installment of our weekly series The Language of the Blues, in which author and rock musician Debra Devi explores the meaning of a word or phrase found in the blues. Grab a signed copy of Devi’s award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. Woofing is verbally nimble teasing and name-calling. Woofing is also a method for “calling someone out,” as in Bessie Smith’s sassy tune “Aggravatin’ Papa.” The lyrics tell the story of a lady named Mandy Brown who gets so…

This is the latest installment of our weekly series The Language of the Blues, in which author and rock musician Debra Devi explores the meaning of a word or phrase found in the blues. Grab a signed copy of Devi’s award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. Like “having a ball,” the phrase “making whoopee was originally a euphemism for having sex, before it crossed over into polite society as a term for general merriment and carousing. “Making whoopee” came from the word “whooping,” which…

This is the latest installment of our weekly series The Language of the Blues, in which author and rock musician Debra Devi explores the meaning of a word or phrase found in the blues. Grab a signed copy of Devi’s award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. Voodoo is a religion that evolved in the Americas from West African Vodun, one of the world’s most ancient religions.The defining Voodoo experience–possession–is the source for the idea in the blues (and later in rock ’n’ roll) that…

This is the latest installment of our weekly series The Language of the Blues, in which author and rock musician Debra Devi explores the meaning of a word or phrase found in the blues. Grab a signed copy of Devi’s award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. Texas blues guitarist Johnny Winter once said, “I can tell if I like a man’s style after listening to his vibrato for ten seconds.” Putting aside Winter’s inadvertent declaration that only men play electric guitar, he makes an…

This is the latest installment of our weekly series The Language of the Blues, in which author and rock musician Debra Devi explores the meaning of a word or phrase found in the blues. Grab a signed copy of Devi’s award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. Vestapol is an open D Major tuning for the guitar. This means that if a guitar tuned in Vestapol is strummed without fretting any notes, it will produce a D Major chord (D A D F# A D). Vestapol…

This is the latest installment of our weekly series The Language of the Blues, in which author and rock musician Debra Devi explores the meaning of a word or phrase found in the blues. Grab a signed copy of Devi’s award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. Trim is slang for female genitalia. In the blues, it’s usually used by a man to express a need or an intention, as in “I’m gonna get me some trim tonight.” This usage has been around since the…

This is the latest installment of our weekly series The Language of the Blues, in which author and rock musician Debra Devi explores the meaning of a word or phrase found in the blues. Grab a signed copy of Devi’s award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. In the blues, to trick someone is to put a spell on him or her. Casting spells is called laying tricks, while performing a trick is a euphemism for prostitution. A prostitute’s client is also called a trick,…

This is the latest installment of our weekly series The Language of the Blues, in which author and rock musician Debra Devi explores the meaning of a word or phrase found in the blues. Grab a signed copy of Devi’s award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. A toby is a good-luck charm or amulet. In Flash of the Spirit, art historian Robert Farris Thompson speculated that the word toby was probably derived from “the tobe charms of Kongo: earth from a grave plus palm…

This is the latest installment of our weekly series The Language of the Blues, in which author and rock musician Debra Devi explores the meaning of a word or phrase found in the blues. Grab a signed copy of Devi’s award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. Robert Johnson was only twenty-seven when he died in 1938, but he left behind twenty-nine amazing songs. During his lifetime, though, Johnson had only one minor hit, “Terraplane Blues.” Johnson recorded that song along with the more enduring…