Album Notes

A blues newcomer, Arnold Lindsay’s “Bad Night,” was one of five finalists (1 of 5 out of thousands of entries!) in the 2006 Independent Music Awards blues category which drew competition from veteran artists across the globe. Lindsay’s strong Mississippi Delta blues lyrics tell the story of life as it was back in the day and as it is now in the minds of true blues lovers. The album, “My Name Is The Blues,” is all original and is Lindsay’s first work and has earned him airplay as bumper music on Mississippi’s hottest stations including “SuperTalk Mississippi,” hosted by Paul Gallo and on the station’s JT& Dave show. Lindsay’s live Christmas 2006 on-air performance for the Gallo show was well received throughout the state. “Bad Night” also has gained airtime in Poland. At the 2007 Jubilee Jam, Lindsay’s opening performance of strong, driving Mississippi blues brought out a crowd who endured the 90’s degree weather to dance and enjoy. Lindsay’s blues band has played local venues like the 930 Blues Café and Hal&Mal’s, but now seems to be on the verge of discovery. I heard Lindsay did well at the Lynch Street Festival, but I didn’t make that event. This is one CD you should get now. It’s original and it’s the first for Linday, who I’m told is in the studio now working on another CD of original songs that promise to delve deeper into the heart of the real Mississippi blues – no fakes, no fillers. This is music from the heart. Lindsay learned the blues early in life, tagging along with his uncles and great uncles as a child and earning the nicknames 'Old Man,' and 'Slow Poke.' Lindsay often heard the conversations of the old men, like his uncle 'Moonie', who had grown up in rural Mississippi, having gotten their pleasures from picking guitars in the country or playing harmonica. It's the early life where Lindsay heard Moonie crooning songs like "Dust My Broom." Lindsay credits his late uncle David Conston of Yazoo City, with teaching him the blues. Lindsay’s uncle David used to play blues on an old Sears guitar in the 1950s and 1960s, sometimes at The Blue Flame in Yazoo City. Uncle David taught the then young man to make songs out of the pains he felt when his girlfriend loved another man or when he suspected something just wasn’t right. Lindsay eventually was given that old guitar, which he played around with along with some acoustic guitars that his parents bought him. Lindsay later on gave up the guitar and focused on learning the string bass, earning him a scholarship in the Jackson State University orchestra where he played first chair bassist. But the blues called him back and he began to write and sing his greatest passions and talents to this day. When Lindsay lays back with that microphone, tosses his head to the side and starts patting that foot, look out! – It’s about to be some serious blues singing coming down. Lindsay grew up around Jackson's Farish Street, the historic black community, where everyday, all day, there was blues blaring from the juke boxes of the many cafes, little restaurants, where folks sat and drank Schlitz beer, Champale and now and then, a little nip from the eighth of whiskey in their hip pockets. All the jukes nowadays are gone. Only Peaches Cafe still survives. And if you walk in, go to the juke box and play Arnold Lindsay's "My Name Is The Blues." It will make you walk outside, look at the old buildings and get a sense of what life must have been like back then. It's an incredible rush! Take my advice, I’ve seen him perform. This is a star on the rise and we all should check him out and settle in to see what else this guy’s mind will create. I sometimes listen to the title track "My Name Is The Blues," and I am taken back in time to what Lindsay is talking about. What was it like to see B.B. King and Robert Johnson perform their first gigs? Why do I feel the blues sometimes and can't paint a color to them? Then my friends and I can't get enough of "Up In The Delta," and how Lindsay talks about those old Delta myths, about why you should get up your hair after it's cut, and about not eating your girlfriend's spaghetti. My great-uncle explained it all to me and it's amazing someone can sing about it so thoroughly and so easily. If you love blues as much as I do, you'll understand why America needs this kind of music, especially the way that Lindsay sings the stories.