Not Exactly Louisiana

He lay cocooned in a summer quilt waiting for the dawn to break. A warm breeze slips in through the window, rustling the slatted blind. It taps its foot so lazily, against the sill in four four time.

Magenta coats the bare white walls; a blackbird tunes its clarinet. He sighs, the mountain of the morning, like a giant, looms ahead. He launches forward from the mattress and the warmth of that soft bed. His man tits shrunk back in the chill. Then farting, stumbling, to the kitchen, drags a head that has not slept.

The kettle finger snaps its switch, and drum rolls water to the boil. The coffee, ground, gives up its bitter pungent, slinky, oil rich scent. Satisfied, he grunts and smiles. He grabs a tee shirt from the washer, he’ll wash the thing another day.

Her body warms in the morning sun, he brushes past, and she moans a polyphonic sigh. He rubs her neck with lemon oil, her golden body resonates, now he’s down on her hard belly, caressing with carnauba wax. He draws her tight up to his torso, strokes her fretted ebony neck. Firm fingers glide around her waist, to pluck and quiver strings of steel. She bucks and moans, she squeals and cries. He pumps and slides all soaked in sweat. They’re almost finished, not quite yet.

A pentatonic lick and bend, a turnaround, then pump again. The final cry, the final scream, He slumps breathless she vibrates. A silk scarf mops her sweat soaked neck, Miss Gibson’s satisfied again.

Jimmy Reed stares from a frame, a dusky voyeur to their act. The player looks up at the picture; then picks her up to try again.

Notes on the Piece.
Lemon oil and carnauba wax are used to oil the fret board of a guitar and wax the body.

The ‘pump’ or ‘pulse’ is a technique used in most forms of acoustic guitar accompaniment. Blues and Ragtime guitarists developed this technique very effectively. ‘Big Bill Broonzy’ was a master of this technique.

Miss Gibson. The name ‘Blind Gary Davis’, or ‘Reverend Gary Davis’ gave to his most treasured guitar, it refers to the Gibson J200 flat top acoustic guitar. This gospel blues performer had just about every notable singer songwriter of the sixties and seventies pass through his hands. He refused to record blues music and for this reason did not become widely known or popular. He is a cult figure and few can match his ability, although many try.

Mathis James ‘Jimmy’ Reed an American blues guitarist and songwriter. He developed the electric blues guitar sound. He was a great influence on many of the British blues guitarists and bands. Notably, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Peter Green and The Yardbirds.