Back to the Blues

We have the coolest family doctor there is. Dr. Dave, who has been a friend over 20 years, is a true renaissance man. He loves to fish, sample fine wine and bourbon, eat like a gourmand, and listen to all kinds of music.

Last night, he took me along to a blues show at the local community radio station: WDNA. Some years ago they bought a building on Coral Way, East of the Gables, and now host live shows there monthly. Dr. Dave picked me up along with his youngest Shira, who, while I was barely looking, changed from a little blonde grade schooler to a UF Engineering grad, who has just started her first real job working for the Hialeah Water Department. As a rare gringa in Hialeah, this will surely give her great tales to tell, not necessarily involving engineering.

We also fetched her boyfriend Craig, home from his 2L year at Georgia. He plans to intern this summer at the Dade PD's office. He's a fine young man -- I pointed out to Dr. Dave on the drive over to the event that we're old and in the way -- our kids are taking over the town. He agreed...

Anyway, we had a great meal at an ITalian place next to the studio called Portobello, owned by a Russian/Argentine named Vladimir. The food was delicious --salmon ravioli, friend garbanzo beans, and the best bruschetta I've had since I visited the Amalfi Coast.

Then it was on to the studio, for a show featuring Jesse Gilmore, a huge man with a booming bass voice, who played a mean guitar, and Nicole Starling, a lady I remember as a member of Little Nikki and the Slicks, from the early 80s. She's no longer little (she must be my age now) but still has a fine voice, and amazing ability on the fiddle.

The show was great, and featured young musicians as well. A tiny young man took the stage, with a trumpet nearly his size, and blew like a young Marsalis. Then an 18 year old, handsome fellow played piano and sang like John Legend. I think he gets lots of girls...

I had forgotten how much I loved the Blues. I first fell in love at Tobacco Road, in 1982. I was a college senior, going through the worst year of my life. My girlfriend broke my heart, in only the way a 21 year old's heart can be broken, and worse, my father died. I slept walked through my life at the time, but then went to the Road and drank several stingers, and the Fat Chance Blues Band (later Iko Iko) played, and the crying guitar strains, and simple lyrics of loss and misery, resonated with me.

You can't get the Blues unless you have heartache, but if the two come together in your life, you feel alive in your pain, and know that human existence is, after all, about exquisite suffering.

Last night the singers sang songs I never heard before, but I knew them. "I'm gonna ring a little bell...in YOUR ear..." And, "No matter how much you hurt me, baby, I will love you forever..."

My aging back hurt from sitting, so I stood in the back, and started swaying to the beat. A woman was next to me, probably about 10 years my senior, also swaying to the music. She had long hair, parted in the middle, like she had stepped out of 1972. The hair had been blonde, but was now gray. She wore glasses. She smiled at me, and I smiled back. We had a connection, for that moment -- with no words between us, we understood each other. There had been disappointments, but they were soothed with the Blues...

I came home with Dr. Dave, Shira, and Craig, to find a white Benz in the driveway. Sure enough, our friend Elizabeth had come down, to see her father probably for the last time, as he was put in hospice. Wifey was suffering from recurring back pain. The Blues understands.

Dr. Dave has cured my family of many ills. By taking me along last night, he gave some comfort to my soul.