BLUE4U NOWICKA "The Blues Are Alive"

by jenny heying

Nobody plays the blues the way Blue4U Nowicka does. Sure there are other blues performers and they play the blues well, but Blue4U is a woman all her own. She has a smooth sultry voice that is just made for blues and that smoothness is matched by the guitar she accompanies herself with.

In front of a modest but blues loving crowd at Nevermore's L'Quen Oreben Park, Blue4U opened her show with a trio of seductive blues escapades. “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out” set the tone while “Wild Women Don’t Have No Blues” pushed it to the limit. Blue4U calmed us down with a mellow “Since I Fell For You” making the touchy feely crowd snuggle a little more.

Ms. Nowicka’s voice is a charm. While it’s a smooth subtle voice most of the time, it occasionally falls into that raspy tone to accent the blues feeling. Either way, it’s a bluesy voice and she carries each tune gracefully yet you still feel the blues. It proves you don’t have to smoke a pack of cigarettes and drink a fifth of gin to get the blue's message across.


If Blue4U’s voice doesn’t do it for you, her picking and strumming will. She holds her own with her guitar and it feels the blues as well. With “Lonely Avenue” she let her guitar do the talking and man her guitar really has the blues. It’s a perfect fit for her voice and together, the blues don’t know what hit them. When she uses her slide, it’s incredible.

Blue4U is not an in your face kind of blues performer. She quietly gets her message across and does it in a polite way. “Georgia On My Mind” is a case in point. It was sweet, sentimental, and lovely. The Blues, oh yeah, it was the blues. She’s a polite person and in-between and during her songs, she politely acknowledges those in the crowd.

I get the feeling Blue4U couldn’t be nasty if she tried. She did do “Were You Born An Asshole?” which you’d think would be fairly raunchy, but from Blue, you never get offended. She got raunchier with “Bitch With A Bad Attitude”, surprising me somewhat, but I loved it.

Blue4U Nowicka is a veteran in Second Life® and is only three days older than me, signing up in November 2006. Her time here has been well spent and as a seasoned Second Life® performer, she has mastered the performances required in Second Life®. She chats, reads chat, and generally makes the crowd feel welcome and appreciated. And to top all that off, she writes as well treating us to “Chillin”.

Blue4U is keeping the blues alive in Second Life®. But more than that, she lives it and makes you want to live it too. While we may not want to live the blues, we certainly enjoy our time while we do. She makes sure of that. You appreciate her singing and her musicianship. Keeping the blues alive is a full time job but Blue4U doesn’t seem to mind. By the way, if Blue4U is the blues, then I want them.

Second Life® is home to many musicians crossing many genres. While I have seen a few blues performers and quite frankly, I liked them all, Blue4U Nowicka has staked her claim to being at the top of the blues heap and I don’t think she wants to come down. I don’t think she has to worry.

She did a marvelous sentimental cover of “Sam Stone” and a lively version of “Don’t Bury Me”. She closed her show with “Dirty Dog”,an impressive cover of Lynard Skynard’s “Mr. Banker”, a sad sad “Life Goes On” and finished with the most amazing version of “Play Me’ I’ve ever heard and a gorgeous “The Way You Love Me”

Yes, the blues are alive and well and living in Second Life®. Just look for Blue4U Nowicka.