The Blues Ain't Nothin': Tales of the Lonesome Blues Pub

When I was a child, in our Irish farmhouse home, men would wander in every night to sit by our fireside. My mother would supply them with plenty of hot tea and they would regale us with stories into the wee hours of the morning. Stories of people, of legends, of past and present, of ghosts and apparitions, of the natural and supernatural world; all of these finding their own reality in the storytelling. This was the tradition of the seanchai, the storytelling historian of the Celts. In The Blues Ain't Nothin' : Tales of the Lonesome Blues Pub Tina Jens' resident ghost Jayhawk accomplishes the same feat for her: merging the past with the present, and showing that the Blues is music, language, art, communication, that lasts for an eternity ... and beyond. Three weeks ago I spent an evening in Kingston Mines in Chicago, soaking up the Blues. I only wish that I had read The Blues Ain't Nothin' before that evening. It would have explained the feelings that I had ... the very same feelings that I experienced when I sneaked out of bed, glued my ears to the slightly ajar bedroom door, and with my eyes and mouth wide open, listened to those ghost stories around the fireside of my youth. Tina Jens is a true seanchai !

This book is awesome! Parts of it appeared in other forms in anthologies and a magazine, so there is a bit of repetition, but that doesn't hurt anything. Jens is a blues lover, and it shows. She includes a recommended listening list and a bibliography. Part I: 1981 Preacherman Gets the Blues The Lonesome Blues Pub has a resident ghost, Jayhawk, a blues player who was killed in a fire in the pub, and tradition says the first number of the night must be played on his guitar. But tonight, the guitarist flouts tradition. Big mistake, especially when someone does pick up the house guitar, and starts playing Satan Came Walking, and an old man and a little girl have to play the blues to fight hellfire. Part II: 1989 Miss Sarah Leaves the Blues Behind The ghosts are getting to Miss Sarah, so is the loneliness of being a single mom raising her daughter in a blues bar. To deal with the first, she brings in a psychic, and when a handsome man crosses her path, she is smitten. But instead of laying ghosts, the psychic raises them, and being with the handsome man will mean leaving the bar. Her daughter, Little Mustang, though, plays blues with the ghosts, and will keep their home going. Part III: 1991 Tracks of a Hellhound In which a long-lost recording of Robert Johnson is found and played, requiring the intervention of Johnson himself to send the hellhound back where it came from. Part IV: 1996 Damned Fool Man In which Miss Mustang and her cohorts deal with the ghost of a serial killer, and a bar full of people with the Lovesick Blues Part V: 2000 Stranger Ev'rywhere Harpsicrazy is a paranoid schizophrenic harpsichord player, trying to keep the voices quiet. He's a regular at the bar, and Miss Mustang knows just how to handle him. And then a college kid thinks it'll be funny to drop something in Harpsicrazy's drink. This is the best story of the bunch. Jens gets right into the head of Harpsicrazy, and a good bit of it, the best of the best, is told from his point of view.

A great meshing of 3 great elements: the Blues (of course) and its its associated mythology; the ghost story, and the fantastic or sf "pub" story ala Robinson's Callahan's. Is it scary in the same way King or Koontz or Straub are scary? Not at all. Does it use things that are scary in the hands of other writers (ghosts, Hell-Hounds, etc.) to create a smoky, boozy, unreality that feels like the Blues? Yes, it does. Less a novel than it is a string of Twilight Zone-like realted stories, but still an outstanding read.

I found this novel an entertaining read from the first page to the last. It's obvious that the writer knows lots about the blues and she manages to fill her book with an infectious enthusiasm that's refreshing to read in this time of cynical, cookie-cutter horror novels. All of the characters are well drawn and the ghosts are memorable creations. My only question is when will some smart TV producer turn this book into a series!!

The Blues Ain't Nothin': Tales Of The Lonesome Blues Pub by Tina L. Jens is a ably written novel set on Chicago's North Side, and features a blues club haunted by ghosts of blues legends. The eccentric regulars are a bit scary in their own right too, in this unique and unusual novel of music, lives, love, and the special emotional evocation that can only come from true blues. If you've ever enjoyed a genuine Chicago blues session, then read The Blues Ain't Nothin' and be prepared for total engagement from cover to cover!