A. P. Meister

Well, God is in His heaven
And we all want what’s his
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

(“Blind Willie McTell” by Bob Dylan)

A lot of McTell’s music has that same completeness that you find in Robert Johnson. Finely crafted songs…and amazing singing & playing! He’s one of those musicians who seem to transcend genres as well as time & place.
Really like the Dylan song too, by the way.

“There are only two kinds of songs; there’s the blues, and there’s zip-a-dee-doo-dah.”

Townes Van Zandt

Late at night, after rehearsal or whatever, I often read a bit in Robert Earl Hardy’s great biography of Townes Van Zandt. Townes is one of my favorite songwriters & this (often used) quote remains worth pondering…

I’ve had this painting on the wall (an unframed poster, that is) a long time for inspiration. Read Wallace Stevens’ beautiful poem much later.

And the color, the overcast blue
Of the air, in which the blue guitar

Is a form, described but difficult,
And I am merely a shadow hunched

Above the arrowy, still strings,
The maker of a thing yet to be made;

The color like a thought that grows
Out of a mood, the tragic robe

Of the actor, half his gesture, half
His speech, the dress of his meaning, silk

Sodden with his melancholy words,
The weather of his stage, himself

Wallace Stevens: The Man with the Blue Guitar, IX (1937)
Pablo Picasso: The Old Guitarist (1903)