I WANTED TO BE A BLUESMAN

In David Joseph's fourth collection of fiction, I Wanted To Be A Bluesman, he explores human relationships through the Delta-dipped lens of the blues. Each of the twelve stories in this collection are carefully intertwined with the blues-from Mississippi to Chicago and places in between. Along the way, the bricklayer, priest, car thief, cook, and others are connected through the common thread of the blues. Whether traveling by car towards Clarksdale in searing summer heat or on a train bound for the north, the blues cross borders and play on. And yet, these aren't so much stories about the blues as they are stories about regular people who are connected to the music through the manner in which the blues have spoken to them and shaped their lives. The music provides the backdrop for their dreams, desires, memories, decisions, uncertainty, secrets, and, in some cases, their chance at redemption. Written in the clear, plainspoken prose that has become his signature style, the stories in this collection emanate coolness amidst hardship, acceptance in the wake of regret, understanding in the presence of difference, and humility in a world starving for it-not so different from the blues themselves.