"He Tipped His Hat to the Lord, Didn't He?"

Thanks to the generosity of a parent at my school, a few of us went to a blues concert the other night. When asked earlier to describe The Blues, I didn't quite know what to say. But, after the concert, I had a description, but more of that later. The show opened with a musician who made amazing music with his acoustic guitar, both a six string and a twelve string. Eric Bibb really had the crowd into his music because he was really into his music and appeared so happy to be playing. It wasn't long before I realized that many of his influences had a gospel music flavor. In fact several of his songs were just gospel. It was exciting to watch him and hear his music (I wondered if he might be a kingdom traveler). My neighbor must have had similar thoughts because his comment during the generous applause was "He tipped his hat to the Lord more than one time, didn't he?" indeed he did. After a middle act that I endured and an intermission, the main act was a British Blues leader from the old days, John Mayall, his music was very electric and amplified. His band was great and the concert was awesome, but at one point, the answer to the question I was asked came to me. This kind of "rockin' blues" (as the concert included in its title), was basically laments set to a more soulful rockin sound than rock music, yeah, thats it, lamentations of people, like, "where is the peace and mercy" and "she done me wrong, she'll be sorry", etc., etc., etc...
lament, lament, lament...
I hear the lament, now where are the answers John?
Well, Eric had it, the Gospel is the answer to all that suffering, we all need the Gospel,
every day...
and the Blues sure shows that need to be true... the blues are awesome, the music is great and it reminds me of why Jesus came...