I guess we’ve got the blues.

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this whole week has been heavy, can we have some light reading please? has there been any coverage on Ash and Shek? or has their marriage ended in hell? [link]

You are right, it has been a somber sort of week. Sometimes, it’s okay to marinate in that for a bit before we pick ourselves up off the floor and throw out that bottle of whiskey. 😉

Via an anonmyous tipster on the news tab, who wrote:

the finger picking ,the slide, this is a masterful bluesy rendition of an old pathos filled malayalam song

I’ve never heard anything like it (not that I’m conversant with either blues OR Mallu music).

40 thoughts on “I guess we’ve got the blues.”

  1. this whole week has been heavy, can we have some light reading please? has there been any coverage on Ash and Shek? or has their marriage ended in hell?

    Ash-Shek

    Ass-shake

  2. Love that sound!

    The mix fuses together scrumtuously!

  8. Wow, A N N A, with probably over 10 posts in the last 3 or 4 days, you must be the hardest working blogger in the web business. Just because you are a girl doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go fishing, you know…

    As for Bollywood gossip, here’s some. Only the best sources for you folks.

  9. great post…thanks…and the Ganga Delta Blues is awesome!

    I always thought Bengal baul music was bluesy…very twangy, to say the least…Purna Das Baul collaborated with Bob Dylan, among others…

    An interesting discussion on bluesy ragas here…

  10. ANNA, we love you! Thanks for sharing some fun and for our unbearable rightness to blogging. Frankly, the constant trolling made reading such a chore, though we searched high & low for true commentary. Kudos to you for lightening our day, and even more respect to SM Intern, who helps keep this work full of taste & humour.

  13. This is an old song from a play from KPAC (The drama company that was instrumental in the communist movement in kerala). Blues – i don’t think so 🙂 Atleast the beginning is closer to carnatic music than anything else.

  17. Very cool ! I’ve never heard anything quite like it. In the tradition of cooder and bhatt, but still totally unique.

    By the way, I know what he means by his dedication to the itinerant train singers of India. I’ve heard some incredible sounding stuff from these old (sometimes blind) singers on Indian Railways with often nothing but a tiny violin-like instrument (don’t know what it’s called) or percussion as accompaniment.

    What’s that guy’s name? Does he have an album?

    His youtube user name is apanikka (I’m guessing that means his last name is Panikkar).

  18. From the same U tube link more info on the song “Cover of an old Malayalam song “Paambukalkku maalamundu”.

    But don’t know the guitarist

  19. The guy is definitely very talented – it’s impressive how good the vocals sound with just a guitar accompaniment. So what’s the genre? Backwater blues?

  20. Rahul: SO Fabulous to see a mutineer spreading hilarity. No, I am a girl, but Labbie Singh has his own infatuations with Anna & Co. as do the rest of the dawgs in house.

  22. He plays guitar really well, it looks effortless. To be able to sing and play a melody line on the guitar at the same time takes a lot of practice that not everyone can master. Excellent fusion that shows he’s open to outside influences but loves his culture too. Awesome.

    DJ Drrrty: Someone once told me that Hendrix was one of the few people who could sing one melody line, and play a totally different line on the guitar at the same time. Any thoughts on that?

    And ANNA, you’re on a posting rampage, thanks and keep it up please. Really enjoying them, especially this one. At this rate you’ll need a break when summer’s over.

  23. You know, it would be nice if some Bollywood or South Indian filmmaker would hire a guy like this to add a different sound to their music insetad of the horrible knockoffs they do of Western songs.

  24. Has everyone heard the incredibly infectious track by Pakistani band, Zeest by now? a fave among the Rang de Basanti set in the subcontinent…Bhenchod Sutta Na Mila (not the official video)

    I’m too bashful to translate the lyrics for the non-Hindi speakers. More on the track

  25. I don’t recall the name of the movie; I think it features a “Desi busker” doing his thing. Here is my humble attempt at translating those Mallu lyrics:

    Snakes have holes Birds have the skies The son of man Has no place on earth to lay his head

    I came from somewhere I am going somewhere Lighthouse, O Lighthouse, Is there light, is there light? Is there light in your hands? Carrying the burden of sorrow, I’m a bad omen. Sitting in your glass houses Stone me not, stone me not, Stone me not.

    Yearnings have frozen The ring-finger is stunted The mind alone, the mind alone Has not been stunted

    OK, off I slink back to my hole.

  27. Thanks for the translation UMM.

    Snakes have holes Birds have the skies The son of man Has no place on earth to lay his head

    Now that you’ve translated it, I can follow along the “Pampukal etc….aakashum onda… Manushya Puthra Thala…etc” [from my shamefully rudimentary malayalam comprehension] That’s a quote from the new testament btw. That makes the mashup even cooler.

  29. Thanks Anna. I didn’t know how to get to the original youtube page. I clicked on the big video on his site and was about to lose my respect for him when I heard this Steve Vai sounding crap, but then I saw he called the video “Cheesy” and realized it was tongue-in-cheek. His other songs are good.

    I like how he made the video posted here look grainy and black and white.

  30. DAMMIT, DJ Dirty P, you beat me to it. “A Meeting By the River” is one of my favorite albums of all time. I was just about to suggest the same to this crew, but you were ahead of me.

    Good stuff! And I’m happy to know there are other people out there who love what I love.

    Now I need to go listen to it again. I think it sums up how I feel very well this week.

  31. Rahul, remember your advice to me, man. Even smacking them with a stick is dangerous, tempting thought it be.

    SM Intern, cleanup on comments #12 and #20.

  32. Salil, I think there must be a disturbance in the force. Some or all of Saira, you and I are misunderstanding each other’s comments.

  34. Very interesting.

    Anyway, to spread the link-love, here’s a great song from a fantastic film ‘Waisa Bhi Hota Hai -Part II’ (A tribute to Coen bros and Tarantino).

  35. Here’s the lowdown: Grateful Dead luthier and Alembic Guitars founder Rick Turner turned his pal Ry Cooder on to a Water Lily Acoustics record of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, an Indian slide guitarist. Ry freaked, the gears turned, and soon he and Vishwa were sitting barefoot with their slide guitars on a giant Persian rug inside Christ the King Chapel in Santa Barbara, CA, while our hero Kavi Alexander threw up his tubed Blumlein pair and fed them spicy homemade curries and fresh Indian tea to grow the vibe.

    The story I heard is that they found this church, Christ the King Chapel, and the sound inside the church was outstanding. Cooder set up and played, and fell in love. Then he heard VM Bhatt, and invited him to play with him. The church was an ideal spot, and the sound there worked fabulously for the instruments involved.

    You have to hear the album to understand, I guess. The word “warm” doesn’t begin to do it justice. DJ Dirty P, that reviewer has it right. It’s “the vibe.”

  36. Saira and Labbie Singh are the real deal, folks. 🙂 Move along, nothing to see here.

  38. I want to make a little explanation. I made my comments regarding Punjabi culture and the US to explore those ideas, nothing more was really meant. Just to test out those ideas and challenge the accepted wisdom, or some of it. It was not meant to offend, and I hope it was simply something that may or may not have been useful for someone to consider. Sometimes in reaction to events like ANNA mentioned, it seems helpful to look at things in a different way, rather than defending the old way.

    Too much pride in one’s culture can be stifling too.

    Also, in general, why not consider easing up on the strong language regarding other people and their intentions. Its really distorting and sounds a little like high school.

  40. Hey people, i posted this video. it was such a pleasant surprise to see all your comments! both the critical and the complimentry ones. i dont know if the discussion on this has died down, but please provide me your comments on my youtube page. I didnt know about this. Thanks so much!! the reason i thought i’d try posting this is cos no one around me really appreciates my playing 🙁 -Adarsh
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oryK6At9soE