Elijah Rock, Man in the Saloon, returns to North Coast Rep and is the “Ladies Man” for the production. Elijah is smooth, has a great voice, blends well with the three ladies on stage and he has wonderful facial expressions. He is featured in songs such as “I’m Just a Lucky So-And-So”, “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues”, “Dirty No-Gooder’s Blues” (sung with Anise), and “Baby Doll”.
TR Robertson – The latest play/musical in North Coast Rep’s 41st season is a nostalgic trip to 1930’s Chicago through a 26-song journey of some of the most iconic Blues’ songs ever performed. A talented cast of three women and one man along with an amazing five-piece Blues band on stage takes the audience through a two-hour wide range of Blues musical styles. A cramped, but intimate stage incorporates three-bedroom sets, a raised section for the band and an open area center stage that perfectly fits this production. The range of songs chosen for the musical uses’ songs from some of the greats of the Blues era. Songs from singers like Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, Jimmie Cox, Ann Ronell, George W. Thomas, and many more fill the stage performed with wonderful interpretations by the cast who use solo numbers, duets, trios and quartets showing their range of talent on stage.
So, what is The Blues? The Blues is an old music form dating back to the 1860’s musically. Wikipedia says The Blues uses “spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants and rhymed ballads from the African American culture” in creating a style like no other music form. Traditional blues also uses single lines repeated four times in the song. The Blues reference goes back much further than the 1860’s. In Britain, to have the blues referred to “visual hallucinations from alcohol withdrawal”. In the early 1800’s Blue Laws were created allowing no alcohol to be sold or served on Sundays. In 1798 George Coleman wrote a one act farce called Blue Devils, a term used in describing melancholy and sadness. John Audubon wrote to his wife in 1827 saying how much he missed her and that he had the blues. In 1862, Charlotte Forten, an African American anti-slavery activist and poet, wrote in her diary how lonely she was and that she had the blues. The Blues is so much more than just a song. As you listen to the songs in Blues in the Night you can hear all these references – sadness, lost love, drinking, lost hope, and at times funny references to all of these and more, putting the feeling of the blues to music.