Skip to footer

Obama sings the blues with Mick Jagger, B.B. King

President Obama took the microphone Tuesday to sing a few bars of 'Sweet Home Chicago' during a blues concert at the White House. Are Mick Jagger and B.B. King in danger of being upstaged? You decide.

|
PBS
President Barack Obama sings the blues with B.B. King at the White House.
  • By Linda Feldmann Staff writer

| Washington

"Let the Good Times Roll".... "The Thrill is Gone".... "Sweet Home Chicago." A Republican recipe for ending Barack Obama’s presidency after one term? Not quite. It was blues night at the White House, and those were on the play list.

More important, B.B. King was in the house, and when Mick Jagger (yes, that Mick Jagger) handed President Obama the microphone Tuesday night, that was all it took to get the First Crooner to belt out a few bars with the King of the Blues (see video below).

Buddy Guy, another legendary blues man in attendance, told Mr. Obama he’d heard about the president singing a little Al Green recently and added, “You gotta keep it up,” according to the Associated Press.

The concert, timed for Black History Month, was the latest in the “In Performance at the White House" series and will air Monday on PBS. This one is called “Red, White and Blues.”

Also performing: Trombone Shorty, Jeff Beck, Shemekia Copeland, Susan Tedeschi, Gary Clark Jr., Keb’ Mo’, Derek Trucks, and Warren Haynes.

Set list

1. “Let the Good Times Roll” (Ensemble)

2. “The Thrill Is Gone” (B.B King)

3. “St. James Infirmary” (Trombone Shorty)

4. “Let Me Love You Baby” (Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck)

5. “Brush With The Blues” instrumental (Jeff Beck)

6. “I Can’t Turn You Loose” (Mick Jagger)

7. “Commit A Crime” (Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck)

8. “Miss You” (Mick Jagger, Shemekia Copeland, Susan Tedeschi)

9. “Beat Up Guitar” (Shemekia Copeland, Gary Clark Jr.)

10. “Catfish Blues” (Gary Clark Jr.)

11. “In The Evening (When The Sun Goes Down)” (Gary Clark Jr.)

12. “Henry” ( Keb’ Mo’)

13. “I’d Rather Go Blind” (Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes)

14. “Five Long years” (Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, Gary Clark, Mick Jagger)

15. “Sweet Home Chicago” (Ensemble)

[ Video is no longer available. ]

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Obama sings the blues with Mick Jagger, B.B. King
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2012/0222/Obama-sings-the-blues-with-Mick-Jagger-B.B.-King
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe