Why the Blues Really Hit The Spot

A purpose of music is to help soothe the soul, and a good blues tune simply and effectively addresses some common problematic scenario that many may face and hence relate to strongly.

PLus, any particular master of the blues puts their unique spin on an otherwise common theme that provides insight into what distinctly makes that particular musician tick. That's what makes the blues particularly interesting to me. It's a musical common denominator that enables one to distinguish what makes various artists tick by the way in which they play it.

its as varied and broad as any other music catagory, and spills into jazz, bluegrass, pop, folk, rock....you name it. i find it comforting as stubby states above. each year i spend a week or more in NOLA and get a little of my soul back....The highway 61 'roadtrip' is a hoot as well.

First, get the box set of CDs, Martin Scorsese Presents THE BLUES. This is from the PBS special...the re-mixing is some of the very best and will sound fantastic on a high-end system.

I play lots of the Blues, but not too often with company.

Anyone ever hear the old tried and proven...?

If it is getting late and you need to wind down the party, put on some Blues...all (but one, or two...) of the Whit Women will be out the door in no time.

You will not like what I have to say on this, I think. But I think blues is absolutely dead as an idiom. The period of country blues between the advent of the first recordings around 1924 and the mass migration to northern urban areas in the 30's produced raw, authentic, genuine expressions of the human soul that were the culmination of African and European influences mixed together with the poignancy of aspiration amid suffering. This led directly into its urban counterpart in cities such as Chicago, where the electric technology transfered that same spirit into a new context with new instrumentation. Just as authentic and powerful, the urban blues produced between the post war 40's and early 60's is some of the greatest American music ever made.

After the blues became the official basis for white rock music (particularly in England) it stopped evolving and growing. It became something to mimmic, to copy, and to asshimilate. As an artform, after the mid 60's is became nothing but a a caricature of itself, which is what it is today. The old LP's prove this when compared to the crap played in New Orleans clubs which offer the musical equivalent of a civil war re-enactment. The innovation and human creativity that made the form great is long long gone. It can be copied, even mastered (as a copy) but it no longer grows. Just listen to Charley Patton, Robert Wilkins, Robert Johnson, Sonyboy Williamson, or Howlin Wolf and compare THAT to anything after the British blues explosion.

Its true perhaps that there was never much money to be made in just singing the blues and money talks (and sings).

But, a lot of acts did just that by taking elements of the blues and applying them to new forms of music that broadened the appeal of the blues. Led Zeppelin comes to mind as perhaps one of the best examples of this.

Also...on the bright side the influence of the blues is felt perhaps in more diverse areas of music today than ever before, so its overall impact is greater than ever I would say, even if true that there are also many other fish in the sea out there as well in terms of other forms of music.