If you think the blues are on the shelf, Amira El-Naqeeb urges you to think again When Brandon Santini, vocalist and harmonica player with the Delta Highway blues band, told me: "We are the high octane of the blues music," I couldn't help but say, "Amen". At the start of their recent Cairo gig the members of the audience were still trying to figure out the music and attempting to digest it. By the time Delta Highway were playing their third song "The Devil has a Woman" they were swaying and clapping. Although blues wasn't always my favourite style of music, the energy and passion of this band not only ignited the stage of the open air theatre of the Cairo Opera House, but also won me over. Their enthusiasm was a fresh breath blown into the veins of the classical genre. Delta Highway was founded in 2003 in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. "It was only me and my buddy Justin Sulek on the guitar," Santini said. The two moved to Memphis later that year to take in the sounds and history of the delta region where the core of the blues lies. The band has two more key players; Paul Chase on bass and Kevin Eddy on drums. These four men are well respected by veteran musicians, and are considered a fresh breath in the world of blues. On 16 December 2008 Delta Highway was nominated for the 2009 Blues Music Awards for Best New Debut Artist. Delta Highway, along with Billy Gibson, on harmonica, and vocalist and pianist Eden Brent, were in Cairo at the end of last month on their Bluzapalooza tour. The concert came in response to an invitation by the American Ambassador in Egypt Margaret Scobey, a native of Memphis, Tennessee. This was the first time the American Embassy had invited a Memphis all-star blues band. Last February, the embassy invited the Charlie Young Jazz Quartet, which gave a glimpse of another side of the American folklore and cultural make up. In Scobey's speech at the opening of the concert she highlighted how powerful art and culture were as tools to build understanding and bridge gaps between nations. Blues originated in Afro-American communities in the United States at the end of the 19th century as a form of self- expression sung mainly by lower-paid workers, especially in the cotton fields of Mississippi. Blues influenced later American and Western popular music, and became the essence of jazz, rock and roll, and bluegrass. When Brent took the stage, the mood changed from high octane to more classical and romantic melodies. Her voice is powerful with a melancholic edge to it that makes the word blues fits into place. Brent is a native of the Mississippi Delta and a four-time Blues Music Award nominee. She grew up in a family of musicians; her father and brother played the guitar, and her mother was a jazz singer. Later, joined by blues producer Steve Simon on saxophone, they took us to Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra's musical -- where everything is possible: love, music, and dreams, who can ask for anything more? According to Brent, jazz is more complicated and sophisticated than blues, but they tend to overlap. Asked about her visit, Brent remarked that Cairo had history from the Pyramids and the Nile to the Egyptian Museum. "When I was asked to join the tour I didn't hesitate for a moment." she said. "May be because I grew up on the Mississippi River, and Egypt has the Nile," she added in her husky voice. When Billy Gibson, aka the Prince of Beale Street, took over the stage, the audience were on their feet. Gibson's talented performance reached its zenith with the song, "Why don't you love everybody?" The crowd sang along, swaying, dancing and clapping. Gibson lit up the stage, with his liveliness, and enthusiasm. Gibson, who has a BA in music from the University of Memphis, first picked up the harmonica at a very young age. This Beale Street Entertainer of the Year is also a multiple Blues Music Award nominee. Beale Street is known as the heart and pulse of blues. Gibson was quoted as saying, "For a young musician, all you have to do is look and listen and you can learn so much." Gibson's desire to learn and improve as a musician took him to Clarksdale, Mississippi, where he played with blues guitarist Johnnie Billington and drummer Bobby Little in Billington's group The Midnighters. At the end of the concert the crowd was not quite ready for the night to end. If this concert is to prove anything, it would be that Egyptians from different age groups are ready to devour all kinds of music.
