"Chasin' Dem Blues" last weekend

“Blues So Real It’s Almost Fiction”

I asked a teen what was her favorite music. She said, Hip Hop and R&B. I asked her what R&B stands for. She said, Rap and something else.

Most music purists recognize the blues as the basis for all of today’s music -- rock, hip hop, rhythm and blues, gospel, and jazz.

Although a lot people claim they don’t like the blues, the blues style is still very present in much of the music we listen to everyday.

Chasin’ Dem Blues, in its last weekend at the Delaware Theater on the Wilmington Riverfront, is an astounding musical that entertains and educates on the ubiquitous blues format in nonstop singing, live music, and dance.

This multimedia production is performed by only five actors -- a male and female lead singer, a drummer, guitarist, and pianist. All of them participate in presenting the creation of Paramount Records, from its transformation from the Wisconsin Chair Company to the original ‘race label’ that put out ‘race music’ with the ‘race singers’.

The cast performed the big hits from the blues stars in the late 1800s early 1900s while sharing their background which so often led the artist to die broke although they sold a lot of records. 

All the music was performed live, and they played blues instruments like a slide guitar, ragtime piano, washboards, tambourines, washtubs with the string and stick to provide the bass, banjo, railroad spikes being clanged together, and the simple snare drum set. 

The singing was over the top amazing. From the fun ditties, to the gospel standards, it was a hand clapping and emotional performance. 

As they repeated several times: 

The blues is all about GOOD LUCK GONE BAD & BAD LUCK GONE WORSE.

Remaining performances: Tonight, Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Saturday and Sunday at 2pm.