WINTER BLUES

With all this cold weather lately, the winter mood has already set in for me.

It wasn't until I started university that my winter mood started morphing into a sort of "down" feeling. You know what I mean, right? Low energy levels, just wanting to chill inside instead fighting a snowstorm to get to lecture are all aspects of winter university life that have got me down at times during the winter months. Something that has eased the struggle a bit for me, though, is blues music. The genre has made up a big part of my playlists since my final year of high school, when academic stress first really started getting to me. The blues has its roots in spiritual music that was sang by African-Americans during the times of slavery. The lyrics often use a sort of "call and response" pattern. These soulful cries of blues musicians tell tales of heartbreak, debt, depression, and all sorts of ways life can kick us in the butt. For the most part, though, I can't really relate to any of these concepts in my own life. Still, there is a moment of catharsis that I experience when listening to the woes of these musicians. Some musicians that I would recommend getting started with are B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Albert King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Spotify has some great some awesome playlists for people new to the genre to get started with. B.B King is an especially great place to start, so check out this YouTube playlist of some of his famous songs here.