This is a song I wrote about my situation as a young adult, having gone blind several years before and still struggling with how that impacted my life; depression, anger, feeling like people were criticising and pushing me in directions I didn't want to go despite their good intentions, etc. The reference to a train in blues songs often means moving on (sometimes terminally so), however in this song it refers to my desire to get my life on track, about me feeling homesick and the train was my general mode of travel, or a desire to go back to my old life before going blind.

The guitar part is based on Charlie Patton's playing, specifically "screaming and hollering the blues", which is why I make reference to it in the lyrics as well, and the vocals are based on another one of my blues heroes, blind Willie Johnson. The rawness of both seemed the best choice for this particular blues.

—- Blind Wolf
PS. find and like me on Facebook as: Blind Wolf: blues, folk & world music

That same old blues Lyrics

I went out walking 'cause I felt so blue (2X)
Clearing my mind, I don't know what to do

The world keeps spinning, everything keeps going wrong (2X)
Every new day it's the same old song

It's that same old blues, keep playing in my mind
Screaming and hollering about why I should step out of line
Why do you treat me like this all the time?

You criticise me how I can't do anything right (2X)
In the morning, midday, evening and night

You keep saying that you can't work with me (2X)
There's a reason, but you're too blind too see

I'm gonna say it, I'm gonna  say it plain
Don't wanna be here, just wanna get on that train
I am leaving before it drives me insane

I'm gonna say it, I'm gonna  say it plain
Don't wanna be here, just wanna get on that train

That same old blues

This piece is a concept improvisation based on a nebula; its swirling colours and periods of turbulence and calm represented in sound. Believe it or not, but the instrument you hear in this piece is a four-course folk cittern.

Nebula

This is an improvisation on my four string fretless cigar box guitar. Normally these instruments are primarily used for down and dirty Delta blues, however I decided to have a fretless one so that I could indulge my interest in microtonal music (mainly inspired by Turkish classical music). In this improv I'm playing the CBG in the style of an oud. The scale used is makam uşşak (bayati in Arabic). The tuning, from low to high is Eb Bb Eb Ab.

Microtonal cigar box guitar improvisation

This is a little bit of Soukous I came up with. I figured I'd make a recording of this, initially for myself to see how the guitar and bass parts fit together, but thought: "why not share it." So here it is. The title "when the rains stop" is merely a working title. The beginning half of the melody is composed, the other half is improvised.

When the rains stop

I figured I'd record myself jamming over an African riff I came up with the other day, loop that, adde some rhythm by hitting the pickups, and loop that too. This is just a simple recording of the result as it sounded in the room, rather than my usual DI out signal. Enjoy.

African Jam

This is something completely different from what you may be used to hearing from me, but sometimes a lot of creativity can be found at times when you're troubled by events, and this track is an example of that. This was the work of several intensely creative hours in which I was trying to get my mind away from worrying and my feelings away from anger, sadness and depression. Those feelings do come through in this song, but at least they got vented in a positive manner.
This track features my Telecaster and Jaguar bass, and was recorded directly from my Blackstar amp, which was also responsible for the reverb, delay and heavy distortion.

Broken

This is a completely improvised piece, for which I took inspiration from Celtic music, airs, jigs, reels, etc. and all those elements come through quite distinctly. It is played on a four-course cittern tuned to ADAD, using its built-in pickup to record with. The shifting background sounds are created by the Old Blood Noise Endeavours Dark Star pad reverb pedal, which I decided to use to create a texture that interacts with the music, etherial and dream-like during the slow sections, yet more turbulent, but still maintaining that etherial quality during the faster ones.

Celtic Reverie

Meditation Amid The Cherry Blossoms

A short bit of music that evolved while I was testing out the Fat tone Wegen pick, which I received today for testing. It's already my favourite acoustic guitar pick.
Recorded in my living room on  aTanglewood Sundance Historic parlour with far too old Elixir strings tuned to DADGAD, played with a Wegen Fat Tone pick and the professional accompaniment of a snoring dog in the background. No compression or anything, just adjustment of the volume so the melody floats on top nicely.

Friday morning session

I'm a blind multi-instrumentalist with a wide range of musical tastes.