I Know Blues Singers Don’t Go To Heaven – Blues and Religion Pt. II:
Today's show is part two of our look at the intersection between blues and religious music. Religious imagery is prevalent throughout blues music, particularly the blues of the 20's and 30's; songs talk about the devil, make fun of the preachers, deacons and reverends, use biblical imagery and speak of the afterlife, both heaven and hell in frank terms. In addition there's a slew of bluesman who struggled between blues and religion, blues artists who moonlighted by singing gospel and those bluesmen who eventually turned full time to religion. On the flipside are artists who straddled blues and gospel and those artists who's musical language was similar to the blues artists, most notably the so-called guitar evangelists, plus sanctified singers and groups who's instrumentation drew from secular music like blues and jazz. We explore all this and more on today's program.
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