Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Blames It On The Blues

Ma Rainey – Blame It On The Blues

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Fact: Certain blues songs should only be experienced at high volumes. Like this one.

“Blame It On The Blues,” however, remains unique due to the complete lack of non-melodic percussion one would expect from a song falling into the aforementioned category. For three glorious minutes, Ma Rainey endures without hand claps, without foot stomps, washboards, or chain-rustle.

In this case, the volume is for Rainey’s voice, for when she moans the word “Lord” on the heels of the first verse. That restraint in her vibrato — you can hear the hung head, the clenched fists, bared gums, curled lips, all in that one word. And when you hear it loudly, “Lord,” when the impact of her resignation finds itself magnified by the current of sonic pressure flowing from your speakers, it’s enough to kill. Not maim, not stun; kill. Enough to make you loll your head from side to side like an invalid and think, “This is it.”

Shoulders slumped. Lids lowered. A lifetime of weariness in one little word.

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