Lemon Fresh

driving down a secluded road on a pitch black night somewhere on the outskirts of philly hearing only four sounds: the rumble of the engine, the hissing wind through the windows, and one haunting ancient voice supported by the faint pluck of a stringed instrument...
songs about black snakes, tin cups, weary dogs, & hangmen...
on this particular trip, the voice is that of blind lemon jefferson, a very successful and talented bluesman of the nineteen twenties and thirties... but there have been many journeys like this, sometimes maybe skip james, another day bukka white, ishman bracey, son house, charlie patton, etc... each one a little different, providing cosmic transportation to their own variation of the blues landscape... each providing a slightly different chill to the spine...
it's mind boggling to think that some of this still important and strikingly well performed music is over eighty years old, and that people who weren't born for generations afterward, still turn to robert johnson, tommy johnson, or blind joe reynolds for companionship and inspiration...
guitarists, who seem so much more proficient at a younger age than used to be the case, still struggle (most often in vain) to emulate the styles of these ghosts of the delta...
granted, there are many who remain unmoved by a lonesome slide guitar riff buried like treasure beneath the surface dirt of a seventy year old 78 or acetate record, or are totally unimpressed that these recordings had no special effects to rely on, just one microphone, one musician, and his or her instrument (you could either play and sing, or you couldn't!)... and yet, i can't help but wonder how much of the music that has been recorded, and lauded during my lifetime will still be deftly sought out and considered absolutely essential by people (or even musicians!) eighty years from now... will future kids torture themselves trying to figure out the lost chords of madonna, pearl jam, u2, or tupac shakur? that is not to in any way cast aspersions on recent performers... they all obviously have talent... for all i know, future generations may very well pour over britney spears body (of work!) for inspiration, or research the mysterious life and death of sting... of anyone, the beatles and bob dylan certainly have a decent shot (it's over forty years right now), but there is one thing i am fairly certain about... whichever of our generation's crop of artists make it to the bandshell of musical immortality eighty years from now, blind willie mctell, mississippi john hurt, sleepy john estes, doc boggs, blind lemon jefferson, and a whole host of immortals from the earliest days of recorded music will still be right there with them.
for that, i am eternally indebted.