The Blues Come and Go

Written and produced by Dean Hall

Dean Hall — vocals, bass, and all guitars
Dennis Wage — B-3
“Shufflin” Bill Swartz — drums
Chris Haseleu — tracking engineer
Dale Brown — technical engineer
Dean Hall — overdub and mix engineer
Andrew Mendelson — mastering engineer (Georgetown Masters)

I grew up playing the blues, more or less, by accident. We had a local record shop in Grayson, Kentucky (I think it was DJ’s Record Shop), but albums were very expensive. The record shop mostly carried country & western music and bluegrass, neither of which interested me at the time. I had an old AM radio my grandfather gave me, and I would stay up late at night with it under my blanket and listen to far-away stations. I discovered a whole new world of music with that radio. There was a late-night blues show I could pick up some nights, if the atmospheric conditions were just right. I was amazed by the music coming from that station. It was so raw compared to the 60s rock played by the local FM station, which was pretty raw by today’s standards. But the blues struck a chord in my soul–it was primordial.

The radio was my only source for music at that time. Then one day, some folks moved out of my grandfather’s trailer park and left behind a few records. I ended up with a whole album by B.B. King, a Beatles single (Hey Jude and Revolution), and several Johnny Cash singles. I liked the Beatles songs, but the B.B. King album hooked me. I found “that note” B.B. would play a lot and I could play along. It was amazing! When I got tired of that, I would put on Johnny Cash’s A Boy Named Sue, written by Shel Silverstein, and let Shel’s story take me to another place and time. Around that time, Jeannie C. Riley had a huge hit with Harper Valley PTA. The story told in Harper Valley PTA was intriguing—evidently millions thought similarly—long before I realized my father had written that song. I think listening to Harper Valley PTA and A Boy Named Sue shaped my early interest in story songs. For me, that type of songwriting marked a considerable demarcation from conventional country music at that time. Still, it wasn’t the blues.

Good blues will take you to a place and leave you there, abandon you somewhere you may or may not want to go. That’s the beauty of the blues; I go there as often as I can.

Lyrics: The Blues Come and Go

Another day of dying is coming to a close
The last drink from a bottle only leaves me wanting more
As the rain falls out my window I read the last words you wrote
Nothing lasts forever but these blues come and go
These blues come and go

I can’t forget that moment that look upon your face
The last time that I saw you just before you walked away
I could write it on a page or carve it deep down in a stone
Nothing lasts forever but these blues they come and go
These blues come and go

The rain keeps on falling like the tear drops my the floor
The memories in the whisky are all I’m living for
So many years of trying come quietly to a close
Nothing lasts forever but these blues come and go
These blues come and go