Isaiah Grant
The Corsair
Blues is a type of popular music originated in Mississippi by Black slaves.
The slaves played and sang the blues to lament the hardships that went on in their lives.
Of course, the genre would evolve into rock.
Every year, on Labor Day weekend, the Pensacola Interstate Fairgrounds hosts a blues festival which is dubbed “The Last Blues Party of the Year”; this year, the festival was postponed for two weeks because of Hurricane Isaac. This past Saturday, I walked to the fairgrounds to see the “last blues party” for myself.
Grover “Papa Rock” Rivers and Nikki deMarks of the city’s R&B station, WRRX, were on hand to emcee the event.
Blues artists such as Wilson Meadows and Nathaniel Kimble performed. I view the event as African-American Southerners gathering together, like a family reunion, to dance, get drunk, and party their backsides off for a whole evening.
They acted like they were at a pep rally, all frenzied to the music.
I stayed at the fairgrounds for only five hours. When it got real dark, and the streetlights were about to come on, I walked back home feeling worn out from people partying around me.