Bobby Rush has a way with words. At 85, the blues singer writes about the world in a rural American vernacular that has all but disappeared. “If you have a chicken and you’re feeding him, if you take away its food like corn, they squawk,” the “Chicken Heads” singer recently told Rolling Stone, speaking about the imagery used in his brand new song “Good Stuff.” “When you feed [a hog], you say you’re ‘sloppin’ a hog’…If you put the trough up on his noise and snatch it away from him, he’ll squeal because he wants it.”
“Good Stuff” is the latest offering from Sitting on Top of the Blues, Rush’s first release since his Grammy-winning 2016 LP Porcupine Meat. The song, a mid-tempo country blues number that features Rush’s signature harmonica playing, is a meditation on lust and sensuality. As Rush says of the song, “I’m talking about a lady walking down the street.”
“I like the way you carry yourself girl, you’re so cool,” he sings, “You’ve got a sweet personality and a smile so bright/You can make a man do wrong when he won’t do right.”
Rush is one of the very last of his generation of bluesmen still making new music and regularly performing. His new album Sitting on Top of the Blues will be released on August 16th. As Rush puts it: “I’m a bluesman who’s sitting on the top of my game, proud of what I do and proud of who I am.” Bobby Rush is touring the U.S. through November.