It's Blues week.

[Mojo]

Well folks, it's Blues week this week here at MB.

Wikipedia has this to say about the genre.

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues chord progression is the most common. The blue notes that, for expressive purposes are sung or played flattened or gradually bent (minor 3rd to major 3rd) in relation to the pitch of the major scale, are also an important part of the sound.

The blues genre is based on the blues form but possesses other characteristics such as specific lyrics, bass lines and instruments. Blues can be subdivided into several subgenres ranging from country to urban blues that were more or less popular during different periods of the 20th century. Best known are the Delta, Piedmont, Jump and Chicago blues styles. World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues rock evolved.

The term "the blues" refers to the "blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness; an early use of the term in this sense is found in George Colman's one-act farce Blue Devils (1798). Though the use of the phrase in African American music may be older, it has been attested to since 1912, when Hart Wand's "Dallas Blues" became the first copyrighted blues composition. In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood.

Some of my blues favourites...










Reading Materials
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[Engine]

Originally Posted by mojopinuk

Well folks, it's Blues week this week here at MB.

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.

That's the stuff I like. Here are some:

EDIT: These are all early 20th-century Delta Blues, not 19th-cent. spirituals, etc..
Also, these videos have relatively good sound quality for this stuff but still turn it way up so you can hear the nuances

Charley Patton - Down the Dirt Road Blues


Bukka White - Fixin' to Die Blues


Tommy Johnson - Canned Heat Blues


Charley Patton - Hang it on the Wall

[Jonny Redshirt]

You can't beat Robert Johnson, king of the Delta Blues.

YouTube - Robert Johnson - Come on in my Kitchen

YouTube - Robert Johnson- Crossroad Blues

Another of my favorites is Blind Willie Johnson, who straddled the line between blues and gospel. Regardless of genre, he's awesome.

YouTube - Blind Willie Johnson - 'Nobody's Fault But Mine'

[ThePhanastasio]

A few of my favorites:

[OctaneHugo]

Should prolly listen to more blues.

[alltherowboats]

[Necromancer]

Classics.
YouTube - ZZ Top - Rough Boy

YouTube - ZZ Top - Waitin' for the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago

[James]

My fav Blues song.

Great stuff.

[Engine]

This is the best week ever

[jackhammer]

Well most people have gone for early Blues (and quite rightly so) and I do have Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, Memphis Slim, Son House and Sonny Boy Williamson II in my collection but I really have to be in the moood to listen to them, so instead it's electric Blues I present here.


This is one of my favourite riffs ever and is just so buoyant and perfect for air guitar. Some purists dislike SRV but his heart was always in the right place.

B.B King (of course) and a version with Tracy Chapman on guest vocals that I really like.

Fleetwood Mac were quite the band once upon a time.

Taken from Born Under A Bad Sign album from '67. Essential Electric Blues album.

I have posted about this bad ass MF on here before and a shame he died relatively young. Burglar is such a skanking album.

I don't really like Waters Solo output and I like Clapton even less but the guitar work on this track is phenomenal (not strictly Blues-apologies).