And here's to the blues, the real blues— where there's a hint of hope in every cry of desperation.

We start our lives with blues . . . with music. It's our first language. It's the rhythm of the womb. It's your mama's heartbeat inside your head.

The music echoes in the emptiness. It reminds us where we came from and where we’re bound.

You got infinite channels and limitless rhymes, but the riddles of livin' stay undefined?

The music plays . . . and your sense of reality is heightened to a dream.

Now listen for your song. Everybody’s got a song. When I used to chase the Trane— John Coltrane that is— he used to tell me, ‘If I know a man’s sound, I know the man.’ Do you hear the melody playing in your mind? Does it move you, nudge you off your seat?

Your muse ain't singin' on your MTV? Can't even see him on your HD TV?

And a ride in a hearse tells us we’re all close to that final cruise . . . when the body dies and we move on. It’s just the body, man. It’s just the body. The soul’s already gone. So don’t be afraid of a dead body absent a soul. It’s empty, man. No resident. What you need to worry about is a living body that’s lost its soul. Now that is scary, man.” - Funk N. Wagnalls, owner of the Grim Reapers auto lot, a character in Professor Brown Shoes Teaches the Blues.