{"id":812,"date":"2012-02-22T19:15:04","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T00:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/?p=812"},"modified":"2012-02-22T19:15:04","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T00:15:04","slug":"the-president-sings-his-hometown-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/02\/the-president-sings-his-hometown-blues.html","title":{"rendered":"The President sings his hometown blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Obama is not to be forgiven for signing the heinous Nat’l Defense Authorization Act<\/a> and several other bad moves, but as a blues fan I give it up to the guy for singing “Sweet Home Chicago” with B.B. King while hosting the first ever \u00c2\u00a0White House blues party<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Obama’s version of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” was better,<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

and I can’t wait ’til he dips into the Marvin Gaye songbook (“What’s Goin’ On?”, not “Sexual Healing”). Singing must be how he won Michelle. Way<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0better than Romney’s version of “America the Beautiful<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

howardmandel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Subscribe by Email or RSS<\/a><\/p>\n

All JBJ posts <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Obama is not to be forgiven for signing the heinous Nat’l Defense Authorization Act and several other bad moves, but as a blues fan I give it up to the guy for singing “Sweet Home Chicago” with B.B. King while hosting the first ever \u00c2\u00a0White House blues party. Obama’s version of Al Green’s “Let’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-d6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":232,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/08\/year_of_the_blues_images_calen.html","url_meta":{"origin":812,"position":0},"title":"Year of the Blues Images calendar, 2010","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\"This Old World's In A Hell Of A Fix,\" a 1931 sermon by Rev. Dr. J. Gordon McPherson, called \"The Black Billy Sunday,\" gives title and theme to the 7th annual Blues Images wall calendar, complete with artwork from the collectible Paramount and Brunswick \"race records\" of the late '20s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/tbn2.google.com\/images?q=tbn:bTZGADkAFRcGIM:http:\/\/digicoll.library.wisc.edu\/wiacrev\/data\/images\/V45\/reference\/WAR0450101901r.jpeg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":557,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2011\/10\/funky-freqs-and-other-blues-derivations-in-nyc.html","url_meta":{"origin":812,"position":1},"title":"Funky freqs and other blues derivations in NYC","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"October 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"There's not enough hard-core blues 'n' funk in New York City -- that's the premise of my new City-Arts column, prompted by the Free Form Funky Freqs (Vernon Reid, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, G. Calvin Weston) performing at the Stone two Fridays ago. If this kind of power trio (or quartet --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":266,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/11\/blues_lyrics_write_to_win.html","url_meta":{"origin":812,"position":2},"title":"Blues lyrics: write to win","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"November 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"For tickets to Jazz at Lincoln Center this weekend or a dvd of Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson performing live, try writing a blues. How hard can it be?\"Minutes seem like hours, hours seem like days,Seems my baby would stop her lowdown ways\" -- Muddy Waters, \"Country Blues\"\u00c2\u00a0\"Woke up this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":96,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/06\/hometownofobama_blues.html","url_meta":{"origin":812,"position":3},"title":"Hometown-of-Obama Blues","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"June 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The music of Chicago -- gritty urban blues -- is famously about hard times, heartache and struggle. But practitioners of the genre may boast a refreshed if wary air of accomplishment this week, upon favorite son Barack Obama's ascension to\u00a0 Democratic presidential candidate.\u00a0At least, that's my thesis, which I'll test\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":297,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/02\/nyc_blues_extra_grammy_winner.html","url_meta":{"origin":812,"position":4},"title":"NYC blues extra: Grammy winner Honeyboy Edwards @ BB King’s","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"February 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"City Arts, for space reasons, left off the last graph I'd submitted: True blue fans will flock to hear David \"Honeyboy\" Edwards, running buddy of legendary Robert Johnson and recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, at B.B. King's March 11. Edwards is 95, a lifetime achievement for any blues\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":560,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2011\/10\/jim-oneal-living-blues-founder-ill-and-uninsured.html","url_meta":{"origin":812,"position":5},"title":"Jim O’Neal, Living Blues founder, ill and uninsured","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"October 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Jim O'Neal, founder in 1970 of Living Blues magazine and a serious independent researcher into American roots music, is among the 59 million Americans without health insurance, and has lymph cancer. A series of benefit concerts are scheduled to raise funds for his treatments and a fund has been set\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/jim-oneal.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}