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From The Desk Of Kevn Kinney: Blue

Kevn Kinney‘s music has always been lurking in the cobwebbed corners of your mind, even if you weren’t aware of it. After making the big move from Milwaukee to Atlanta back in the ’80s, he happened to be close to Athens, Ga., the birthplace of R.E.M., when that band was really catching fire. He caught the always-open ear of Peter Buck, who produced some material by Kinney’s band, Drivin N Cryin, which would latch onto a support slot for an R.E.M. tour. Fast forward to the new millennium, and Kinney has moved to Brooklyn, where he’s cut a fine solo record, A Good Country Mile, with Anton Fier and the Golden Palominos. The new disc somehow manages to fit Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Van Morrison under the same tiny leopard-skin pill-box hat. Kinney will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

Kinney: This is dedicated to Eddie “Gypsy Blues Man” Kirkland. He was 87 years old and was leaving town the morning after driving himself to a show in Tampa, Fla. King Curtis backed him up on the 1962 release “It’s The Blues Man” featuring Billy Butler. I had the honor to play with him the Christmas before he passed, and we played a Drivin’ N Cryin’ song, “When You Come Back Next Time, You Gotta Stay.” He loved that song, and we loved him. You can watch it on your TV typewriter. Eddie had 73 children.

What is the deal with blue?
Blue is beautiful
When someone is blue
they use the word blue for being down
Why not brown?
I’m feeling brown.
skies of blue
but I’m feeling brown.
Kerouac used blues
but it was really just
observations
Hotel room mirrors and backseats.
Blues singers are OK
As long as they’re old and black.
No hopped up suburban guitar slingers
pretending to be from an old neighborhood
in Chicago
three ex wives, eight kids
and broke
but when they sing the blues it’s so they can rid themselves
of all the world comin’ down on them.
Their eyes are closed
and for eight minutes
of what can best be described
as a big city mantra
over an over
bah dah dah dum dum dum,
bah dah dah dum dum dum
But behind the closed eyes
I see the beauty of the fields under a blue sky
or the shores of a pebble beach
and the blue water of Lake Michigan
or sittin’ on the front porch
on a sunny sunday afternoon.
Sundays are the best
’cause bill collectors don’t call
and when the song is over
there is a whole of the people
who’ve been through the same thing.
Thank you for the journey
old broke black man
playing six sets a night
and in those waves of beauty
and mountains of desperation
I see blue
and it feels good.

Video after the jump.

One reply on “From The Desk Of Kevn Kinney: Blue”

Wow. Very nice. I have missed this song. Great tune and Eddiie’s strong sound took it up a notch. Yeah it feels good. Great way to start a day. Even if its starting out a little grey. i ”ll be looking and I know it out there.

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