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 explains the meaning of a word or phrase found in the blues. To find out what the words in your favorite blues songs really mean, 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. The roots of rock are in a West African etymon for dance: rak. An etymon is an original root word from which other words have…

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 entertaining & 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 roadhouse is a drinking establishment that is outside town or city limits and is therefore beyond any municipality’s jurisdiction. Roadhouses can get away with providing unregulated entertainment, such as gambling and prostitution. Most roadhouses also…

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 entertaining & award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. Riding the blinds refers to the dangerous hobo practice of riding between cars on a moving freight train, so as to be out of sight of the train crew or police. On a passenger train, this spot…

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 entertaining & 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 rider is a sexual partner, or a steady lover. Riding is probably the most common metaphor for sexual intercourse in blues. Riding is also used metaphorically in the Voodoo, or Vodou, religion to describe divine…

Welcome to 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 entertaining award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. Since the 1700s, to rap has meant to con, fool, or win a game of wordplay in the Krio (Creole) dialect of Sierra Leone, which is on the west coast of Africa. By the 1870s, “to rap” was in use in…

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 entertaining & award-winning glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available as an eBook. To ramble is to move from place to place, never settling down. In the blues, rambling is also used to describe sexual voraciousness. This usage may stem from the fact that late-night live-sex shows at private…

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 blues glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to ZuZu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Policy game was an illegal daily lottery introduced in Chicago in 1885, supposedly by a bookie nicknamed Policy Sam. Players bet that certain numbers would be picked from a wheel that was spun each evening, which is why policy was also called “playing the…

New Jersey is rarely thought of as a bastion of the blues–even though Johnny “Clyde” Copeland, John Hammond and Hubert Sumlin lived there, and the state is currently home to blues stars Joe Bonamassa, Shemekia Copeland and Robert Randolph. Promoter, bassist and positive force of nature Mike Griot is doing all he can to change this perception, as founder of North Jersey’s biggest free day-long blues festival: South Mountain International Blues Festival, which takes place September 13 at South Mountain Reservation in West Orange, NJ, twenty minutes west of Newark. Griot also curates the Blues In The Loft series at…

Find out what passagreen really means in this installment of our popular 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 blues glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to ZuZu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Although legendary blues artist Robert Johnson is presumed to have been poisoned by whiskey laced with strychnine by a jealous husband, blues singer David “Honeyboy” Edwards has said Johnson is more likely to have been poisoned with…

Find out what nation sack really means in this new installment of our popular 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 blues glossary The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to ZuZu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. In the 1800s and early 1900s, African Americans referred to Native American tribes as “nations” and called their territory or reservations “the nation.” African American women adopted the nation sack mojo, or charm, from the…