"Like Being a Good Minister" by Big Jesse Yawn, from "Jook Right On" by Barry Lee Pearson "Blues is a deep, deep feeling where you let out how you really feel inside through a song. What I do, or when I go on stage to do a performance, this is a normal setting. Anything that's inside of me, from days gone by even, it all comes out through a song... the good, the bitter, the ugly. It all comes out. Consequently, when I'm done, I'm usually just like a man that's been born again. I'm completely relieved of all frustrations. Oh they will reoccur, most of them, but temporarily I'm floating. I don't care. Well, I try to reach the people in the audience. Being a blues singer is almost like being a good minister or preacher. You got a congregation out there, we'll just say for the benefit of what we're saying, an audience. You try to reach somebody. If you don't reach them, I think you defeated the purpose. But if you can communicate with them, and they're feeling what you feel even if it's not as deep as what you're feeling, that's it; you've accomplished something. What I'm gonna say now if a little far fetched but, a preacher has a job to do. So do I. In some weird way or the other I feel like a lot of times in singing to audiences I reach them, and very possibly relieve them of some of their bad feelings, ill feelings. I've had people say, "I just feel better all over. What you said was what I wanted to hear and I just feel better about it."" In his story “Like Being a Good Minister,” Big Jesse Yawn discusses his role in the blues community and equates it with being like a pastor in a church community. Yawn uses religious language throughout the text to drive home the notion that he is similar in role to a religious leader. He says: You got a congregation out there, we’ll just say for the benefit of what we’re saying, an audience. You reach somebody. If you don’t reach them, I think you defeated the purpose. But if you can communicate with them, and they’re feeling what you feel even if it’s not as deep as what you’re feeling, that’s it; you’ve accomplished something. Yawn’s words evoke a specific scene, one that most Southerners are familiar with: a passionate preacher at the front of a crowd, gripping the pulpit with both hands and a Bible splayed in front of him. Women in the front rows hold tissues to their eyes, men yell “Hallelujah!” and “Amen!” every chance they can. The preacher’s words connect with them; the emotions that the preacher creates resonates within the crowd and moves them to action. Similarly, Yawn’s blues playing does the same thing: instead of preaching a church sermon, he performs a concert or live set; instead of using a sermon, he uses lyrics–singing about healing from heartbreak, taking control of circumstances that seemed impossible to come back from. Yawn moves people with his music, and relieves them of “some of their bad feelings.” One could find Yawn's comparison that relates the blues to the church ironic, due to the fact that the demographic of people who were strong patrons of the church did not historically overlap with the group of people who listened to the blues. This irony gives the comparison more meaning and weight because Yawn relates his position to a position of power over people who would not like the type of art he makes.

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