It’s all about the Blues

The night came alive at the ‘House of Blues’ at Jubilee Hills as five bands came together to showcase their passion for the Blues genre on the occasion of International Blues Day on Saturday. The bands hailing from different parts of the country have one thing in common, their love for music.

“Blues is the mother of all music,” says Saikat Basu of Songsmiths quoting the legendary artist BB king. As the concert kicked off with opening act by Smaran, the audience started pouring in and soon the entire place was filled with people clapping and humming to the popular hits.

Not all these artists have had professional training, most of them named their passion and interest towards the blues as their ‘trainer’ while some picked up the skills from YouTube. If you ask them what got them into this genre that is not so common in India, the singers claim that blues have always been present in India and it’s just that nobody calls it by that name.

“Whatever music you make from heart and comes from within you is blues. And look at the social scenario of our country, its all Blues,” say the band members of Songsmith.

These artists are not only performers but are also contributors into improving the indie scenario of the city, Girish, the lead singer of Peace Frog, who owns the House Of Blues, says, “Hyderabad badly needs places where singers can just go and jam, because there Is nothing more important than music for us.”

While all these bands say that the independent music scenario especially in terms of genres like Blues needs improvement, they are hopeful that it will improve. “We can definitely say that audiences are open and appreciative to our music now than what it was three years ago. But still Bollywood is our biggest competitor,” says the members of the band HC project.

They say that Blues is all about emotions and happiness and all of that came alive with the bands performances that left the audience feet tapping with their original scores and covers from their inspired artists like Eric Clapton and BB King. ­

By Alekhya Tadepalli