"Gluten Free Blues"

This is part 2 of an 11-part series celebrating 5 years since the release of PUSHKIN STREET, my debut album of 11 "gypsy zest" songs. I'm going to share a post about one track per week for the next 11 weeks.

This week: "Gluten Free Blues"!

Likened to Salvador Dali meets Frank Zappa meets The Beatles meets Dick Dale meets Tim Burton meets “I’ve never heard anything like that before”, Raffi Joe's fusion of music familiar and foreign reflects the baffling, beautiful, and bountiful textures that ignite life with magnificent mystery and draw from his travels to the world's most uplifting and demoralizing destinations. The melodies and lyrics of PUSHKIN STREET - named after Yerevan, Armenia's hub of progressive music - tell intimately absurd and absurdly intimate stories, demand justice for a fractured world, and sound like tunes one could dance or sing or drive or cook or swim or shower to. Available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify, Bandcamp, and more.

“Gluten Free Blues” was originally written as a wedding gift for my friends Joe and Kristine. We bicycled across the United States together in 2009. They fell in love, married, and now have three kids! I remember one of them had a gluten allergy, so the song was written from the perspective of the non-gluten free partner (jokingly) lamenting about having to adjust dietary habits to accommodate to the significant other ("From here on out, guess I'll just have to nibble on my shoes"). The lyrics have several references to our bike ride. "Shipshewanna" (the name of a chief of the Potawatami indigenous American tribe), for example, was the name we gave to a kitten we rescued somewhere in Indiana. "Love my lady like a nap on the road" also refers to the many short sleeps that would be taken by this couple.

There are a few things I really loved about this specific recording. First is the more extended blues form of the chord progression during the solo section. Second is the final riff which I lightly rearranged from a recording I made of my guitar teacher Brian playing with a vocalist. Third is the vocal harmonies throughout, particularly the layered acapella chord in the finale.

Here’s a live recording of Gluten Free Blues playing with some amazing musicians…

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Listen to Gluten Free Blues here (http://bit.ly/2wlCgLL), and if you like what you hear, then please consider purchasing PUSHKIN STREET (follow this link: http://bit.ly/2wBCYIZ) to support grassroots music-making along with my efforts towards future recordings for which planning has begun! #TBT
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And of course, thank you to all the amazing people who helped make this possible. Jon T, Julian, Chris, Brian, Jon B, and many others too many to list for their support, encouragement, and enthusiasm.