If you can’t get to Broadway in the next few years the next best thing to enjoying a bright “new” musical called It Ain't Nothin’ But The Blues is available on an MCA CD. In the liner notes, principal author “Mississippi” Charles Bevel’s comments warrant repeating here:

“The blues does not mean black music. It means having the courage or audacity to speak what is in your heart without consulting your head. That human attribute is colorless. But what is now termed The Blues has to be placed in the context of the uniqueness that derives its forms from its African roots, that which acquires most of its energy from a people being forced to continuously live on the outer edges of the majority culture in America. From slavery, through legal segregations, to the many present forms of isolation, blacks have developed unique ways (not all of them musical) of expressing the constant pain and frustration that comes with being perpetually quarantined. And since music is the easiest way to express matters of the heart, The Blues — the pain and the joy — whether directed inward or outward — is, and will continue to be, the most persistent form of expressing black culture in America.”

The original Broadway cast album is available on MCA 088 112 150-2 (2000). Recorded from various performances at Lincoln Center (produced and mixed by Spencer Proffer), the authors have enhanced the CD with spoken narrative and more than 30 historical photos.