Skip to main content

Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of "blue notes." It emerged in Black communities of the United States from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.

Friday Nite Videos -- May 9, 2014

Portside
Barack Obama, Joel McHale at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The Universe: First 13 Billion Years. Josh White, Jr, House of the Rising Sun. Rhapsody in Blue Set to New York City.

Josh White, Jr. House of the Rising Sun

Josh White, Jr. and David Amram at the Clearwater Power of Song Award ceremony and concert premiering the film David Amram: The First 80 Years. Symphony Space, NYC, Nov 9, 2012.

Friday Nite Videos -- March 21, 2014

Portside
The Myth of the American Dream. Turn! Turn! Turn! Big Bang Gravitational Waves Discovered. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The House Rent Boogie.

The House Rent Boogie

John Lee Hooker's House Rent Boogie dates to the late 1950s, but it speaks to today's housing crisis.

Friday Nite Videos -- Feb 21, 2014

Portside
Ellen Page at Time to Thrive. Flashmob: Ravel's Bolero. Truthful Tuesdays in South Carolina. 'Ew!' with Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell & First Lady Michelle Obama. Carolina Slim -- Every Day I Have the Blues.

Carolina Slim -- Every Day I Have the Blues

Bluesman Carolina Slim (b Elijah Staley) started his journey in South Carolina and spent the last two decades as far north as 107th & Broadway in NYC. Mostly he played the subways. He moved on to his next destination last week at the age of 87. RIP.

Friday Nite Videos -- Jan 17, 2014

Portside
Playing for Change: I'd Rather Go Blind. Defending the Right to Protest. UNMANNED: America's Drone Wars. Organisms Do Evolve.

Friday Nite Videos -- Jan 3, 2014

Portside
Bill Moyers on North Carolina: Battleground State. Auld Lang Syne, with lyrics. The inner workings of the $50 billion divorce industry. How Gollum, star hobbit, was brought to life. Bobby 'Blue' Bland's Stormy Monday.
Subscribe to blues