Homeboy Sang The Blues
from:  Grandpa's Ashes

 

”Homeboy sang the blues. Y’all don’t hear me. I said, homeboy sang the blues. I ain’t real sure what the song was about, but I do know that everybody there was into it. He started out howlin’, then added a little moan, and before anybody knew we was all caught up.

I ain’t sure if he was singin’ about his dog or his woman, but something left that man and it cut him deep. He sang about making some deal with the Devil. U’m pretty sure what he owed was com’n due, cause he started sing’n ‘bout walkin’ the train tracks. He said he was hopinin’ a train would come along and put him out of his misery. He sang about leapin’ from a tall building and letting his sorrows stain the sidewalk. He sang about look’n down the barrel of a gun he was holdin’. He sang ‘bout hang’n high and then about walkin’ in the lake until his head was six feet under.

Somewhere in the middle of the song he stopped singing and just played his guitar. Now that’s when homeboy played the blues. Y’all don’t hear me, I said homeboy played the blues, mind-ya. First he made that ol-guitar squil, then he made it scream, and finally he had it cryin’. Just when we thought he was through, he made that thang sound like a train comin’ on. Um tell-ya the sound of the train was so real I looked to the left, then to the right, then turnaround and looked behind. Cause for a second there I thought I might get runned over too. He hit one note that hurt so much I could see the Devil smilin’ and could feel them hot coals ‘bout me feet. As God is my witness, homeboy played dem blues.

When he got all he could out-a-that guitar, he put it down and started tappin’ his feet and clappin’ his hands and hummin’. Movin’ his head from side-to-side he moaned some more, then he groaned some more, then he howled some more. Finally, he talked about how loved cost him his soul but he didn’t mind none. Like I said, I don’t know if he was singin’ about his dog or his woman.

Finally he got quiet. So we did the same. It got so quiet in here you could hear homeboy’s heart beat. He got up, put the guitar strap ‘round his neck. We had never seen’t him before and we had’t seen’t him since. I’ll never forget that night. Somewhere between too dark and not light, homeboy walked in and sang, played, and made us all feel the blues. He rocked his head and made us rock ours. He clapped his hands and moaned and we did the same. Yep, by the time he was done we all learnt somethin’ ‘bout the blues and what life and love and losin’ such would make a body do.” The old man gulped down the shot of whiskey we bought for him. He looked through us when he stood and said, “I don’t know to dis day if it was his woman or if it was his dog or if it was the Devil comin’ to collect, but somethin’ made that man teach us the blues that night. I did hear some say that he had sold his soul and every now and again he would sneak out from hell and play the blues, but I can’t swear to that.” Then he walked out of the door and disappeared into the night. I had been to that bar a thousand times and never saw that man before and I have been there a thousand times again, and never saw him again. 

I watched him open the door and just before he walked out, he picked up something and put a strap around his neck.