The Talking Covid Blues in Winslow, Arizona by a Blues Legend
Standin' on the corner of Winslow Arizona, I watched tourists taking pictures of musician statues and murals making reference to the 1972-Eagles song, "Take it Easy." Across the street, bluesman Tommie Dukes was playing for tourists on his electric guitar for tips. I asked him to tell his Covid story. He declined, saying he was on break. In 1997, Dukes was inducted into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame in Phoenix. He was a real bluesman, more comfortable with his music doing the talking. He sat down and started some talkin' blues. He "lost a lot" of his friends. Loved ones and family died. It's a troubled day when you lose "someone that you love." "Some people believe it and some people don't," he said of Covid. "Until they get it." Dukes' talking Covid blues was spontaneous and heartfelt. The heartache, pain, and death of Covid is a natural for the talking blues. -- 30 -- Winslow, AZ, April 23, 2021. An interview with Tommie Dukes The Story Cycle • Americans in a Pandemic • Michael Sean Comerford --Description to be added--- Video Was Produced by the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program University of Florida Program director Paul Ortiz, PhD. 352 392-7168 http://oral.history.ufl.edu 241 Pugh Hall University of Florida Gainesville, Florida 32611 Cat. No. RSSC 071 Tommie Dukes 04-23-2021
Standin' on the corner of Winslow Arizona, I watched tourists taking pictures of musician statues and murals making reference to the 1972-Eagles song, "Take it Easy." Across the street, bluesman Tommie Dukes was playing for tourists on his electric guitar for tips. I asked him to tell his Covid story. He declined, saying he was on break. In 1997, Dukes was inducted into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame in Phoenix. He was a real bluesman, more comfortable with his music doing the talking. He sat down and started some talkin' blues. He "lost a lot" of his friends. Loved ones and family died. It's a troubled day when you lose "someone that you love." "Some people believe it and some people don't," he said of Covid. "Until they get it." Dukes' talking Covid blues was spontaneous and heartfelt. The heartache, pain, and death of Covid is a natural for the talking blues. -- 30 -- Winslow, AZ, April 23, 2021. An interview with Tommie Dukes The Story Cycle • Americans in a Pandemic • Michael Sean Comerford --Description to be added--- Video Was Produced by the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program University of Florida Program director Paul Ortiz, PhD. 352 392-7168 http://oral.history.ufl.edu 241 Pugh Hall University of Florida Gainesville, Florida 32611 Cat. No. RSSC 071 Tommie Dukes 04-23-2021