Thanksgiving Day Blues, Norman Rockwell (1942)
One of the albums we’ve been meaning to tell you about for a while is Mississippi bluesman Grady Champion‘s latest release Bootleg Whiskey (Malaco Records), and one of these days, we promise we’ll still make that happen. But in the meantime, we hope you don’t mind us throwing back to a 2012 post in which we visited a tune from Champion’s Dreamin’ CD that’s particularly pertinent to this week’s U.S. holiday, a little something called “Thank You for Giving Me the Blues“.
And because it just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without at least one extra helping, here are a few lyrics from a similar track from Mighty Mo Rodgers, “Thank You Mississippi” from Mo’s new Mud ‘n Blood CD (DixieFrog Records):
“I came to Mississippi,
lookin’ for the truth (yes I did).
And what I found now
was them Mississippi blues (that gets you through).
I wanna’ thank you Mississippi
for giving me the blues (uh-huh),
I wanna’ thank you Mississippi
and I got things to do (like praise my blues).
From pickin’ cotton
to pickin’ blues –
it ain’t no difference,
we all pay dues.
Can’t deny,
blues don’t lie,
and Mississippi blues will
make you high.
I wanna’ thank you, Mississippi,
for giving me the blues.
We’ve all got places to go now
and I’ve got things to do (play my blues, yeah).
Thank you Mississippi, thank you Mississippi,
Thank you Mississippi, thank you Mississippi,
for giving me the blues”
Here’s wishing you and your loved ones a holiday filled with all the things for which you’re grateful.