Fringe: Trouble in Mind: 100 Years of the Blues

Argyle Cellar Bar - 10/08/23

The other day I reviewed jazz singer Jacqui Dankworth at Stockbridge Parish Church. It was a very good concert and one of the things that made it good was the very talented piano accompanist Charlie Wood. Jacqui praised him and said not only was he a good pianist but he was a very good singer and she knew because he was her husband! So that’s why two days later we turned up at the Argyle Bar in Marchmont which not only is a nice pub at the ground level but has a lovely cellar where they regularly have jazz and folk sessions, used in the festival as a fringe venue. 

Charlie Wood is an American singer, songwriter and piano player who comes from Memphis Tennessee and later New Orleans, where he was based in Beale Street. You can’t get a better Blues base than that. He has performed with a wide range of famous musicians including B. B. King and Georgie Fame and has made a number of records and written some award-winning songs. In other words Charlie is jazz royalty and now he is based in Britain and married to British jazz royalty in Jacqui Dankworth. In London jazz venues I’m sure Charlie and Jacqui would sell out. In a festival Edinburgh with 3000 different events they have both been struggling for audiences; my advice is to go and see them both. Charlie has regular slots at 5 pm in the Argyle Bar and twice weekly at 2 pm in the Jazz Barr. Jacqui Dankworth has 2 more concerts in Stockbridge Parish Church over the weekend.        

Charlie gave us a musical tour of the blues beginning with ‘Nobody Knows You When You are Down and Out’, written by Jimmy Cox in 1923 during the Prohibition era in the United States, confirming he was not only a fine pianist but a very good singer. He sang songs by Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, BB King and many more, and in between explained the origins of the blues and the progress of the music. He also revealed where the Rolling Stones rock group got their name; it came from a Robert Petway song originally called ‘Catfish Blues’, but Muddy Waters called it ‘Rollin’ Stone’ and Brian Jones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards adopted the name for The Rolling Stones. The rest is history. Charlie closed with one of his own songs ‘Never Gonna Stop New Orleans’. It was great show and you are never gonna stop Charlie Wood. Go and see him in Edinburgh when you can.