𝘾𝙇𝘼𝙍𝙀𝙉𝘾𝙀 "𝙂𝘼𝙏𝙀𝙈𝙊𝙐𝙏𝙃" 𝘽𝙍𝙊𝙒𝙉~𝙇𝙄𝙑𝙀 𝙁𝙍𝙊𝙈 𝘼𝙐𝙎𝙏𝙄𝙉, 𝙏𝙓~~"𝙃𝙊𝙉𝙆𝙔-𝙏𝙊𝙉𝙆"

I never believed that the blues "make you sad" despite B.B. King's lyric to the contrary.

My personal theory and belief is that the blues reach the exact point of melancholy in your life, then lift you up.

Sometimes, you don't really want to be "cheered up," just have the darkness inside reinforced for the moment. The blues can do that.

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was the first bluesman we met and interracted with.  

Mr. Brown had started his career in 1947 while attending a performance by the legendary T-Bone Walker.  When Walker suddenly got sick on stage, Gatemouth jumped on stage and finished the show using T-Bone's guitar.

But, the night we met, Gatemouth had just finished his first set at a tiny Main Street club in Little Rock and walked over to the bar to ask for a Diet Coke.

The wide leather belt that went around his thin waist simply said "GATE" in back.  "Gatemouth" would not have fit.

My late wife was well received by bluesmen as she was a very beautiful woman in her 30's typically wearing a "blues" cap on her head, white with blue "notes."

Gate tipped his cowboy hat and said "Thank you, Ma'am!" when she told him how much we loved his music.

Gate was one of those musicians with almost too many skills, a multi-instrumentalist he's sometimes called.

He would take his guitar "into outer space" a la Jimi Hendrix, then pull out the fiddle.

The half dozen harmonicas on his belt all played differently and he used each one in his act.

While Gate was a delta blues master, he had a bunch of songs about Louisiana life including his famous one about an "Alligator-Eatin' Dog."

At a very dark time in our lives, my late wife and I immersed ourselves in the blues, coming out the other side stronger than ever.

It saddened me to learn that Gate's home in Slidell, Louisiana was completely destroyed in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and that he died a month later.