I was invited to play the blues night at the Rogue Bar this past Monday and I used the opportunity to re-learn some of the old blues songs that have inspired some of my own material. One of those songs was Blind Willie Mctell’s “Lord Send Me An Angel.”

When I started writing songs in my first year of college I was looking for anything to listen to. Sometimes I would go to a bookstore close by and peruse its music section just to see if anything caught my ear. I was thumbing through some of the blues CDs one day and came across a small Blind Willie Mctell collection. I’d never heard any of his music before but for some reason I just felt like I needed to get this CD. So, I bought it without any hesitation and I absolutely loved it.

It was Mctell’s storytelling blues style and mesmerizing 12-string guitar blues picking that intrigued me the most but I really fell in love with the song ‘Lord Send Me An Angel.” Despite its seemingly Christian title, its really not that faith based at all. Only in the first line is there any mention of it. The rest of the song portrays cockiness in the face of personal difficulties, like discrimination and women troubles. That cockiness is precisely the reason why I liked the song right away. I particularly like the line, “When the men see me coming, they go pinning their women to their side.” Every healthy male feels that way on a good day whether they admit it or not. (I’ve tried to incorporate this type of cockiness in my own stuff, in fact, if you can name one of my songs that does I might send you something cool…)

When I was thinking about a set list for blues night this was one of the first that came to mind. I hope you enjoy my live performance of Mctell’s classic tune.