Last night I went to a blues dancing class. The class last night discussed the idea of stretching. It was an interesting thing to learn in relation to dance. It started with using a point on the body, then picking a spot in the room and slowly moving that body part toward that point. All the way until you reach a point of imbalance, then bring it back.
I’m still really new to the idea of blues dancing, but in watching this aspect of dancing being put into action I realized that this is the concept that makes blues dancing the fluid and sexy thing that it is. In going thru some simple steps it was fun to find out how much you have to rely on the dance partner to make stretch work. In the group I had two people I did it with where we came up with an interesting form. So much so that the instructors asked us to do it again for the rest of the class. That was funny.
Since they play a lot of blues at the class, I figured it would be good to stretch out today with a blues tune by Jeff Healey. Blue Jean Blues as it is I believe was actually written by ZZ Top, but I might be wrong. However, the former bluesman Jeff Healey also did a version of it and that is what you’re hearing right now if you’re on Single of the Day.
Jeff was a pretty wild player. Great sound. Strange playing style. Mostly because he played with the guitar laid out on his lap. Then he’d play the guitar with his hand down on the neck from the top down, making a lot of use of his thumb. You can see him doing this in the movie Roadhouse. I’m sure there’s also videos on YouTube that show him playing live to.
Big blues.
Go get it and get your stretch on!