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Skies’, Rye River Revival ‘Tears in the Mash Tub’, Blind Benny Walker ‘Old Times’,

Blue Steel Jackson ‘Steel Rain’, Copper Blues Carter ‘Coal Rust’ etc. etc.

Everything about these albums – the artist’s names, the album titles, the song titles,
the music – just screams Artificial Intelligence (AI) – I’d advise everyone to give

anything on Velmora Music a wide berth.

Graham Harrison

Bluesblabber—That Yellow-Ass Coon—
Bandcamp

Bluesblabber is a nom-de-music of Dicky Setiawan
a native of Indonesia, living in Jacarta who declares
himself to be “Just an ordinary guy who's deeply in
love and heavily influenced by early era Blues,
Ragtime, Jazz, Folk, Country, Gospel, and a touch of
mainstream music.” He describes himself as ‘a
nobody’ and says “This particular nobody is
nothing but a "Yellow-Skinned Thief', an Asian guy
who admires and plac[es] old time music and
musicians on a pedestal. Who shamelessly (yet
unintentionally) steal[s] bits and pieces of their
work as a way of showing love.”

I have written that rather long introduction in order to address the use of the word
‘coon’ in the title of the album and in the title of one of the tracks ‘That Yellow Coon
Rag’. Now seen as a racial epithet I would argue that an artist may legitimately use
the word to describe himself if he so wishes, much as it is legitimate, if not universal
for some African American people to refer to themselves as ‘nigger’.

That lengthy explanation is necessary for the best of reasons. (A bit of self revelation
coming up). I am close to 84 years old. I have been listening to this music since I was
about 14. I have tried to play and sing it too, and just like Dicky, I love the music and
all that it holds. I have a collection amounting to some thousands of tracks and for
the last 20 years have been the editor of BiTS and for the last 10 or so have produced
and presented two blues radio shows.

(And at last, here’s the point) I have never, not ever, heard anyone who was not a
professional musician, replicate so closely and effectively the sounds, the rhythms
and the ambience of those early blues recordings. I know from my own efforts how
extremely difficult it can be to emulate that stuff and thus, often find myself
gobsmacked by the skills of the early masters. Well Dicky Setiawan, has those skills
in abundance.

This is Dicky’s third self-produced album (all available on Bandcamp). It consists of
17 tracks ranging from ragtime banjo and guitar pieces to double entendre (and
occasional single entendre) songs that cleverly hint at forbidden fields or improper/
impermissible behaviour. Check out ‘Buttery Sausage, Banana Juice, & Greasy Gears’
or ‘What Have You Done To My Meat’.