'The kids feel it' — summer camp has kids singing the blues

What is the blues? The blues is pain set to music.

Take "I'd Rather Go Blind," the 1967 classic written by blues queen Etta James. Beaten by her drunken foster father, James spent time in Cook County Jail for forging checks to support her longtime heroin habit. You can hear it in her voice.

Posing definite artistic challenges for singers who are not Etta James, such as a high school student from the Northwest suburbs.

"Something toooooold me, it was oh-oh-ver," sings Nyrobi, 17, slowly, in a thin, wavering voice, on a small stage on the first floor of Columbia College, 1014 S. Michigan on Wednesday. "When I saw youuuuu with her, talking. Something deep down in my sooooul...."

Jackie Scott interrupts.

"The woman is writing this song because she saw her man with another women," says Scott, an imposing woman with a gold ring on her left hand that spells, "BLUES." "Imagine you saw your boyfriend with another girl. You're not going to be singing."

And here she delivers a spot-on imitation of Nyrobi's airy warble.

"You're not going to do that, right?" Scott continues. "You're going to push it out a little more."

"SOMETHING TOLLLLLLD ME," she belts, in a strong, loud voice. "IT WAS OHHHHHVER!"

Welcome to day three of Blues Camp Chicago, where the world of summertime childhood fun meets the snap-brim hat and two-tone shoes discipline of blues musicianship. There are studio rehearsals, sound checks and sing-alongs, plus snacks, skating and "sneakerball."

"We want them to be kids, of course. We want them to understand and appreciate blues, as American roots music," said Fernando Jones, the veteran Chicago blues man who founded Blues Camp Chicago 17 years ago.