Author: Debra Devi

In the blues, Jake isn’t just a name! Find out the boozy, interesting, and moonshine-steeped history of the Jake Leg that Tommy Johnson himself even sang about!

Find out where Hoochie Coochie, made famous by Muddy Waters himself, means, exactly… and discover the term’s deep origins!

A lighthearted subcategory of urban blues called hokum was popular in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Find out all about this old, raucous, raunchy genre of blues music!

Migratory workers who jumped on trains and hitchhiked without direction were a staple in blues songs. Now discover the interesting origin of both the word and the lonely travelers…

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 book The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to ZuZu (Foreword by Dr. John) at Bluescentric.com. Also available on Amazon Kindle.  “One of the wittiest, bawdiest, most fascinating dictionaries ever.” (Reuters) Robert Johnson sang about a hellhound on his trail. A hellhound is the devil’s bloodhound — a supernatural dog that guards the gates of hell. Robert Farris Thompson traced the hellhound legend…

The blues harp goes all the way back to a Chinese Emperor! See how the harp successfully emulated the field hollers that became the blues, and why it’s been such an important instrument in the genre!

The prestigious Crown of the Continent Festival/Workshop is here again, with guitar greats of all walks, with a focus on the most influential music; Jazz and Blues

In the blues, a Hambone is usually, unsurprisingly, a euphemism. Find out how it got into blues song, and who popularized it in this week’s fascinating LOTB column!

The murky origins of the fascinating “Griots”, African magic men and their parallells to blues singers.

Grinding on each other! Find out the fascinating origins of this popular blues word and phrase!