Irving gets the blues

photo: Anne Dyson / The Blue Shoe Project

By: Sterling Robertson

The Dallas Morning News / Neighborsgo editor

Everybody gets depressed every now and again, but few folks really get the blues. That’s why Mike “Blue Shoe” Dyson is trucking around his traveling blues project to schools in North Texas.

Dyson is on a mission to teach kids more about the blues and the history of music in the United States.

On a warm Sept. 26, Dyson brought his show to Brown Elementary, and his friends Bobby “Green Shoes” Parker and David “Bernesto” Berntson came along to help out.

Parker made sure to show off his 50-year-old Jimmy reed guitar, which he played with astounding precision, and Berntson kept things hopping with his mouth harp, or harmonica.

The two talked to the kids about the blues and its history in the United States. As photos of blues musicians and pioneers were displayed on a screen, Parker and Berntson played tunes and talked about the importance of knowing your cultural background.

There was even a segment on the history of instruments, including the diddley bow. Berntson brought out this own diddley bow, which is a long board with a wire stretched along the length of it that is played much like a guitar.

“Blues is present in all type of music,” Berntson said at one point. He played some well-known tunes to the kids to illustrate that a lot of songs have the same structure or message as blues standards.

The kids happily clapped and danced as the musicians played an assortment of blues tunes. A few kids even got to work playing air guitar. And even though the songs might be sad, everyone was smiling.

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