Dear Doctor, help me get going in the mornings on my way to work. I’ve got the blues and need your wisdom.
The Doctor is flattered by your compliment, but I’m befuddled as to whether you want me to prescribe some blues music, or music to shake you out of the doldrums, so I’ll give you a bit of both.
Start your day with a coffee and a gulp. That is, a band called Gulp, whose Season Sun LP (released by Sonic Cathedral) will transport you from the tarmac to a tropical shore – all shimmering harmonies, crystalline vocals and essence of sweet hope. It’s a blast of careless summer guaranteed to brighten up a humdrum day. Play the track Game Love first.
Deepen the groove now with Big Boss Man, a modern resurrection of the great house band of Stax records, Booker T And The MGs. On Big Boss Man’s The Last Man On Earth album, the vintage organ sounds throb and swell, so get out your brown leather driving gloves and rock the 70s vibe all the way to work.
One way to make every morning a little better is to fill your car with classic sounds. One must for your collection is Avalon Blues by Mississippi John Hurt. If wisdom can be distilled into a vocal, this is where you’ll find it. Salty Dog Blues, Spike Driver Blues and Candy Man Blues unfold with Hurt’s melodious finger-picking underlaying a voice drenched in life. You’ll arrive at your chosen destination with a conviction that, like John Hurt himself, you, too, may be rediscovered late in life. And that’s a feeling that will surely shake away those morning blues.
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