Ryan Dusthimer: Everyday

Artist Statement

My focus is on blues and folk music/culture. I'm interested in the historical context of certain music as well as the charged political, emotional, social, narrative and expressive nature associated with these styles of music. As a musician, I am inspired by the skilled and stylized playing. I am moved by the returning theme of nihilism and loneliness in the human experience that is personified through blues music and the historical moral narratives apparent in folk music. My interest is to re-interpret lyrics/concepts and create visual manifestations of them to continue in my development as a musician/poet/visual artist, as well and study the physical nature, evolution and cultural appropriation of this music.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Everyday

Blues in My Breakfast

"Well my breakfast was a failure, just like my night
before. Well I man-handled that pan, just like I fell
out of that door.Oh my breakfast was a failure just
like my life before."

-Reed Thieme

"Well, good morning blues,
blues how do you do.
I'm doing all right well,
good morning how are you.

I couldn't sleep last night,
I was turning from side to side
Oh Lord, I was turning from side to side
I wasn't sad, I was just dissatisfied.

I couldn't sleep last night,
you know the blues walking ‘round my bed,
Oh the blues walking 'round my bed
I went to eat my breakfast,
the blues was in my bread."

-LeadBelly

Blues Style

Black Cat Bone

Black Cat Bone: From Hoodoo mythology, a mystical charm that is an actual bone from a black cat that has been ritually blessed. Carried for good luck in an individual's "mojo bag," the charm is alleged to attract money and ward off evil. The term is referred to in many blues songs, including Muddy Water's classic "Hoochie Coochie Man.

-taken from about.com