Emotional Connection

List night, I was listening to Fred Dixon play some old, mournful blues, and I was totally captivated. Sure, the guitar was there, but it was clearly in the background. It was Fred’s voice that carried the song.

That got me to thinking… I have some recordings of some amazing blues guitar players and amazing singers, but not all of them hook me like Fred did last night. On the other hand, I have some recordings of some pretty rough-around-the-edges singers and guitar players that are totally mesmerizing.

So what’s the hook? I don’t think it’s a mystery—even the American Idol mentors and judges harp on it—the hook is emotion that flows from the performer to the audience.

In the blues, I think that the emotional connection may be even more essential (than in other musical forms), since the context of the song often centers around a raw and emotionally challenging experience. Within that context, success in a performance occurs when the performer can break down that suspension of disbelief in the listener and get the audience to believe that the pain (either from a bent guitar note or a raspy line of verse) is real for the performer.