Blues

John Sinclair and The Blues ScholarsMuddy WatersMagic SamLISTEN !

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When I was quite small (probably about seven), I used to listen to an elderly black lady belt out spirituals in church. No piano, organ, guitar, or anything... just plain acapella. And there sat little old me, totally captivated. Although there was no background music, I recall that throaty voice she sang in.... highly suitable for blues. I believe this (among other things) may have been somewhat responsible for attracting me to black music in general, including blues, which is very hard to describe except for the fact that it's guitar-based, sometimes with gravelly, emotional vocals. All I know about blues is that it has influenced many musical artists, both black and white... and that I love it!

I like the blues, but not as a standard. I think everybody can relate to this style of music. After all, who hasn't had the blues?

A complex "type" of music, ranging from the hidden complexities of the supposedly simple Delta style, to the hard charging, often horn enhanced Chicago variety, with about twenty variants ranging up and down the Mississipi valley and into Texas. Add to that the influence of British musicians who discovered it, adapted it, and brought it back to influence traditional bluesmen and you have what I believe to be the most vibrant and growing style of music in North America. Of course there are some god-awful charlatans masquerading as bluesmen. Why wouldn't there be. But fortunately they are easy to spot, and there are so many fine musicians active today that its easy to find pleasure here.

To hear the blues, you need to come to Memphis and sit down with a good BBQ and a cold one. Chicago Blues is just as good if you can't make it to Memphis.

I have only recently got into blues music, but now I don't know how I'd feel without the likes of Gary Moore and Wes Montgomery in my musical repertoire... A great, if not the best type of music. Most of the other types has a large majority of dross, with only a few good artists, but blues has a large range of high-quality and very skilled musicians.

blues is not too bad, it knows how to tap into peoples emotions

like cyanide, the blues is harmless in small doses. however a whole evening's worth of 12-bar progressions gets very wearisome. it's best served up as an ingredient rather than on its own and so is best heard in the context of folk blues, blues rock and bands such as The Band and Little Feat.

Blues is good but there is a certain type I dont care for. I dont like the bles that has the harmonica and the throbbing bass. I prefer the other style which blends with jazz. I also like blues that merges with country.

A fiver for Chicago Blues!

blues depresses me, although I guess that's what it's supposed to do. I find it draggy and boring.

The Blues is the most raw,honest and real type of folk music.Much of it's roots lie in the Fertile Delta and Cottonfields of Mississippi,but it goes way back further than that.Many of the same riffs (sung by slaves in the south before abolition)are riffs that came over from Africa,where they were singing in their own fields traditional songs passed down through the generations.This music was perfected in the Juke Joints and Barrel Houses where the plantation workers would dance,sing and drink to let off steam before returning to their brutally hard lives.When Blues people like Muddy Waters and T-Bone Walker started playing with full bands and electric guitars,the Chicago blues era was born,and THAT is the source of what later became Rock n Roll.The Blues is the DEEPEST music I know.It comes from the heart and soul of the common people.It is about human suffering,weakness and strength,injustice and transcendance.Powerful Stuff!

The best guitar playing you will ever hear will be from a blues artist. The lyrics to the songs can be silly at times, though.

Great all time music, the real deal....

Classic Blues is haunting, poetic, and fascinating. (John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Robert Johnson.) A magnificent American art form. Modern Electric blues (Vaughn, B.B. King, Albert King, some Clapton) gets a 4-star rating. . .great guitar work.

The blues is more than just music it's a feeling. No it's not just about depression, misery, suffering etc. It isn't all guitar based either. There are different styles of the blues- piano blues, west coast blues, new orleans blues, jump blues, texas blues, delta blues, modern blues, soul blues, modern electric blues, british blues, female blues, chicago blues, and more. Blues had a tremendous impact and influence on rock n roll. Some great blues artist include Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Big Billy Broonzy, Muddy Waters, B.B King, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Son House, Sonny Terry and Brownie McKee, Buddy Guy, Howlin Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Etta James, Louis Jordan, Junior Welles, and many many more.