Search Results: Language of the Blues (341)

Although early slide guitar players used knives and bones as slides, blues guitarists soon broke the necks off of bottles for slides. Read all about the guitar slide and it’s incredible place in history!!

From the early 1900s to the 1930s, certain speakeasies/brothels in African American urban communities were known as “buffet flats.” Discover the bawdy, wild hidden meanings behind this word!

The blues is loaded with culinary references to sex- this is a form of signifying, which is the use of innuendo and doubletalk that is fully understood only by members of one’s community.

In a VERY special LOTB, Dr John explains the origins of blues language. If you know his lyrics or have heard him speak, you know he’s perhaps the best equipped person in music and blues to talk about it’s language!