I have a saying for myself: “Opera is in my blood, and blues is in my bones.”

Opera, my supreme music passion, will be addressed later. But for now, it’s the blues, baby, the blues.

Blues love hit me in the music of John Lee Hooker and Nina Simone when I was a teenager. The Hooker album is one of those “best of” compilations. Simone’s album is simply called The Blues. My first album of hers, and still my favorite. I bought both of those albums from one of those music clubs offering 7 cds for 99 cents, or something like that. (They ALWAYS nail you on shipping.)

But THE blues album I own and cherish the most is Buddy Guy’s The Blues Singer. It immediately grabbed me because Guy strums simply and plaintively while singing with a painful purity. His tone is by turns darkly bitter, slyly ironic, boldly righteous, and sweetly seductive. The man is now 73, but his voice sounds 30 years younger.

Great music is emotional. It sets you on fire. It makes you cry. It makes you contemplate. Any of these and more, and all of the above. Everything else is background music. When great music is played in the background, you need to stop and catch a phrase.

Blues plays to sorrow, to pain, to loss…You are forced to sit down with it. I have my own blues, a rollercoaster I hold on to for dear life, the bottom coming up fast and quick. At the bottom, it neutralizes, and I rise out of it. But those blues are cruel. They are a snarled knot of anger and sadness, with a thread of frustration running throughout. There are always tears.  It’s temporary, but it’s difficult. And hard. And exhausting.

An emotion is not usually one clean word. It’s a compound equation. Or recipe. Throw in a fistful of bitterness, a shake of regret, a drop of resentment, a glug of vitriol, and there you have it. Blues pie.

I made an actual pie yesterday. It is my mom’s recipe, a crumble fruit pie from Farm Journal’s Complete Pie Cookbook. I made it with blueberries (sorrow), blackberries (bitterness), and raspberries (vitriol). And a Chocolove Raspberries in Dark Chocolate bar. I finely chopped the chocolate, then coarsely chopped a few chunks for topping.

Marie’s Blues Pie

Berry Filling

Combine 2/3 cup of sugar, ¼ cup of flour, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, and chocolate shavings. Add in 4 cups of berries and coat with dry mixture.

Combine in a pie plate (8” or 9”):

2 cups flour

2 tsp sugar

1 ¼ tsp salt

Whip together:

2/3 cup canola oil

3 Tablespoons milk

Mix with fork two mixtures until all flour is moistened. Reserve 1/3 dough to top pie. Press remaining dough in pie pan. Add fruit filling. Crumble reserved dough over filling for top crust. Scatter chopped chunks of dark chocolate. 425 degrees for 40 min.

Serve with a dollop of vanilla ice cream to lighten things up;-)  (But only if you want to lighten things up.)

This blog posting is short, yes. But this past week and a half has been one long blues wail, so it is what it is.

P. S. This post borrows a little from the wonderful movie Waitress. Go watch it.