Author: Debra Devi

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!

Greens are the tough-yet-nutritious leaves of collards, kale, mustard, or turnip… and since this is the blues, slang for a number of other things. Find out the whole story now!

See how grave dirt came to be used as a curse, and how the bleus tied it into our modern vocabulary!

The word goofer comes from the Bantu kufua and the Ki-Kongo kufa. Both mean “to die.” But Goofer’s dust digs deeper than that. Find out what magic Ma Rainey and the early blues masters were talking about.

Musicians say the word thousands of times, but do you really know where the word “GIG” came from? Find out! From the man that knows everything… The NITE tripper… Dr. John.