Pat Blythe – The Women of Blues Revisited – Part IV – Maggie & Janis

I have “moved” Janis Joplin from my Women in Rock series to this one. When I started the “Women of ……” series, I felt she had a foot in both camps. However, the more I listen to Joplin the more I realize her feet were far more firmly planted in the blues as her voice alone attests. There have been comparisons over the years between Maggie Bell and Janis Joplin. They are reminiscent of each other and that starts with the hair. Scotland is steeped in the blues (just listen to the pipes and some of the Celtic music) but the seeds were planted, and the roots run to the core of the earth, in the U.S.’s “deep south”. Keep in mind, much of the southern U.S. became home to the Scots fleeing the oppressive English in the late 1700’s. Combine that with the African “slave” songs….mix with oppressive heat and stir….so, sometimes I wonder, who exactly influenced whom?

Roxanne Tellier: Humans, Hearts and Homes

The concept of ‘home’ is a funny thing. As kids, we only know what a home should feel like by the one we live in. All our stuff is there. We have a bed, and people feed us. We visit other kids’ homes, and discover that there are other ways to live, other foods to eat, but when we’re tired or sick or just generally feeling lost in a great big world, we only know one thing – we wanna go home.

Pat Blythe: The Women of Blues Part Four – Maggie Bell

Pat Blythe continues her series The Women of Blues with this fourth installment on a Legendary Scottish singer….

Pat Blythe: Women & Songs — Part One

Editor’s Note – Please join us in welcoming our new writer, Pat Blythe to the DBAWIS Bullpen and Home for Chatty Pop Culturalists. Pat takes over Wednesdays for our much missed Nadia Elkharadly and joins Roxanne in bringing some badly needed Estrogen-fueled verbiage to our Hallowed Halls…and to help Roxanne keep us male hooligans from spilling beer on the carpet and hiding popcorn in the couch, and making sure we take the garbage out once in a while and occasionally bathe.

This is Pat’s first article for us. Her regular column starts next Wednesday with the 2nd part of today’s offering, and continues every Wednesday thereafter.

For more information on Pat, please check the short Bio at the bottom of this column.

Roxanne Tellier: 20 Feet from Stardom

I’d been longing to see the Academy Award winning documentary film “20 Feet from Stardom” since it first came out in 2013, but it was only recently that I actually had the chance.