If You Have To Ask, You'd Never Understand

City of the Future = Eastside.

Seasick Steve's Blues

Watch Seasick Steve’s blues, that old man in a vest; listen to the story coming out of his long, white beard. When this American dude landed in Paris in the ‘70s with $10 in his pocket, several things saved his life: nights under bridges, police vans, women, alcohol, and, above all, his guitar and his blues. Look at this former hobo who behaves the same whether he’s in a room at the Hôtel Concorde in Paris, in the streets, or on a stage in front of some 65,000 people. I can picture him in front of his label’s executives (Warner) just as well as I can envision him in front of the guy who, years ago, sold him the worst guitar in the whole world. I can also picture him being as simply captivating as the time he laughed for a good fifteen minutes with the wild crowd of the ATP Festival because he broke a string and didn’t really know how to change it.

Seasick Steve - A Take Away Show - Part 2 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

We could tell you "The amazing story of Seasick Steve, a poor man who became rich and famous thanks to his music", but he doesn’t need that. The first of his albums that Warner released was recorded in his kitchen with an old four-track. There’s no amazing story, there’s better: this white bluesman’s ballad in the world and in life. He performed both in the Parisian subway and at Glastonbury. Who knows what he’ll meet on the next corner? Anyway, he keeps a rhythm, and it’s this very rhythm that compels us to walk with him for hours. So we did just that on a May afternoon, immersed in Seasick Steve’s freedom.