Refugee Blues Refugee Blues "Refugee Blues" is a poem by W. H. Auden, written in 1939, one of a number of poems Auden wrote in the mid- to late-1930s in blues and other popular metres, for example the meter he used in his love poem "Calypso", written around the same time. The poem dramatizes the condition of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in the years before World War II, especially the indifference and antagonism they faced when seeking asylum in the democracies of the period. In some later editions of Auden's poetry, the poem is not identified by name but is the
Pickin' the Blues Pickin' the Blues Pickin' the Blues is the title of a recording by American folk music artists Doc Watson and Merle Watson, released in 1985. In 2006, it was re-issued on a limited edition, 180 gram all-analog virgin vinyl record from Analogue Productions. Writing for Allmusic, music critic Eugene Chadbourne wrote of the album "What we have here is really a delightful blend of several different blues traditions, transcending the stupid questions of race as if it were a bit of dust that can be blown off the phonograph needle... Watson is such a fine vocalist that he is able