Blues Variations

For String Orchestra
Duration: 10:30 minutes

All-Blues Saturday is an Arkansas staple. Just as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, there will be blues on Saturday in the “Natural State.” I took for granted that every Saturday was blues for everyone everywhere growing up. The radio, a mainstay in the dining room of my childhood home, was always on, day and night. It was as if it were part of the structural foundation of the house itself, and if you removed it, the house’s stability would be compromised. When the radio was off, the house felt off. On Saturdays, it played the blues all day. We were washed over by the familiar sound of 12 bars worth of stories and experiences delivered by incredible storytellers like B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Johnny Taylor (who was himself a native of Arkansas and a favorite artist of my father).

 I naturally came to miss regularly hearing the blues after leaving the South; it was everywhere. And while the blues may not have originated in Arkansas, it certainly spent time growing up there and was highly influenced by proximity to the Delta region and Memphis. Many early bluesmen worked their way through Arkansas and nearby states, often in towns/cities along the Mississippi River. Helena, AR, was once a blues epicenter in the region and is home to the King Biscuit Blues Festival, one of the largest and longest-running blues festivals in the United States.

 I drew inspiration for the main “theme” of this work from a bluesman named William Bunch, better known as Peetie Wheatstraw. Wheatstraw was an influential artist in the Delta region during the 1920’s and 1930s. He was also raised in Arkansas and may have been born in Cotton Plant, AR. The theme is reminiscent of his song Devil’s Son-In-Law. From that, and the basic 12-bar blues form, I created a work of 12 variations, each of which carries some characteristic found in the blues that I experienced growing up and as a young musician playing in Memphis. This work pays homage to one of the signature sounds of my home state.

Commissioned by New Century Chamber Orchestra as part of the Emerging Black Composers Project, made possible through the generous support of Mark Salkind and Miranda Heller.

Blues Variations was premiered by New Century Chamber Orchestra at the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, CA on April 23, 2026.