Author: Debra Devi

You’ve heard Lonnie Johnson’s “Broken Levee Blues”, but the history of Levee’s remain important to the blues. Debra Devi enlightens us in this weeks Language of the Blues!

LeniStern_BluesSoulAfricanHeart_DebraDevi The blues is a universal language, and electric guitarist Leni Stern’s fluency has lured her into African adventures beyond her wildest dreams — from jamming in Timbuktu to playing Carnegie Hall with Senegalese stars. She has learned another language―Wolof―and has become a griot, a member of the West African class of traveling musical storytellers considered to be the forerunners to American country-blues singers. As Alan Lomax explained in The Land Where the Blues Began, “through the work of performers like Blind Lemon Jefferson [and] Charlie Patton, the griot tradition survived full-blown in America with hardly an interruption.” Stern, who was…

I’m a CRAWILN KINGSNAKE…. John Lee Hooker used to say. But this word’s meaning digs DEEP — back to Africa. Uncover the mysterious and fascinating origins of “Kingsnake”

You think you know what Killin’ Floor means?? Hubert Sumlin says you’re wrong… this is one of the most revealing and interesting LOTB articles we’ve ever put out!

This is the latest installment of our weekly series, The Language of the Blues, in which author/rocker 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. Also available as an eBook from Amazon Kindle.   A junkie is a heroin addict. A junko partner is someone who shares the ritual of shooting heroin with another addict. The traditional song “Junco Partner” has been covered by many artists, from Aaron King &…

A juke or juke joint is a funky little bar that provides dance music from a piano player, but it’s real meaning goes MUCH deeper than that. Discover the fascinating hidden history behind the word “Juke”

Ana Popovic proved the blues knows no bounds as the first female Artist-In-Residence at the internationally acclaimed festival…

A jelly roll is a dessert made of sponge cake that has been spread with jam (or jam mixed with cream) and rolled up into a log, but this is the blues and that’s not all it means!

The Wolof word yees means to become extremely lively or energetic. It evolved during American slavery into the Southern slang term “jass”…

To jam is to improvise with other musicians. Linguist David Dalby traced jam to a Wolof word… check out where your favorite musician get-together came from!