Singing The Blues
Even before stardom embraced her, narcotics were the demons haunting the life of this extraordinarily talented maiden. Janis, intertwined with the blues, was a celestial match. Her lyrical compositions often mirrored the strife and struggles of love, heartache, solitude, estrangement, addiction, and unfairness. She sang of despair, of being a penniless outcast yearning for a brighter existence – a narrative that is quintessentially the blues.
Back in the vibrant year of 1964, the legendary Janis Joplin and the soon-to-be iconic Jefferson Airplane guitarist, Jorma Kaukonen, collaborated in the breezy city of San Francisco. They breathed life into a collection of blues songs, seven of which were captured in a single session. These included the soulful “Typewriter Talk,” the haunting “Kansas City Blues”, and the melancholic “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.” This hidden treasure was posthumously released as a bootleg album.