The Thrill Is Still There

I'm going back and updating this post a bit in honor of the passing of BB King this past week. BB was a legend, the King of Blues influenced so many Guitarist and brought the sound of the Delta Blues into so many homes over the years. Not only could he play, he wasn't above of appearing in movies or spreading the news about Diabetes in TV ads. And no matter where he went, his trusty friend Lucille was there in tow. I had the chance to see BB play a couple years back at my job. Sometimes it pays to work in an entertainment venue. Leading up to the show I had read the reviews and heard the stories about BB only playing three songs and rambling on for an hour. I shrugged it off and said, dammit the man can still play, I'm like a five year old on Christmas. Day of show I got to talk to a lot of people before hand who had fond memories of seeing him in years past and who were like me excited to see him play. The sad reality of it was, the reviews were right. I saw a broken old man, who was barley able to hold a guitar and who's best years were well behind him. It was almost an hour before I heard the unmistakable guitar tone that was the legend. I watched the inevitable train wreck that was happening. Seeing people walk out in confusion and disgust was hard. It's always hard to watch someone try to continue on when you know the end was a while back. The end of the show marked him playing, which trailed into ramblings and a bunch of people going up to the stage as he signed albums.  The next day the press had a field day with the show. In fact it was still getting brought up the week of his passing. We were one of the last show he played. A co worker reminded me of that as we sat around talking about it the next day. That's pretty sobering to say you saw of one BB King's final shows ever. While it was the show I had wanted to see as a fan, it was cool to say you saw one of the greats on the Blues Mt. Rushmore. I found a clip of BB play with SRV, Albert King and Paul Butterfield. It's linked below. It's an amazing jam session and if you aren't familiar with any of those people, might I suggest checking out some of their works, so you can appreciate what music is.

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