Portal:Blues

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The Blues Portal

Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.

Blues music is characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the AAB pattern, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African-Americans.

Many elements, such as the call-and-response format and the use of blue notes, can be traced back to the music of Africa. The origins of the blues are also closely related to the religious music of the African-American community, the spirituals. The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery, with the development of juke joints occurring later. It is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century. The first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a wide variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues, Delta blues and Piedmont blues, as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues and West Coast blues. World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues rock developed, which blended blues styles with rock music. (Full article...)

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Folk Singer is the second studio album and fourth album overall by Muddy Waters, released in January 1964 by Chess Records. The album features Waters on acoustic guitar, backed by Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar. It is Waters's only all-acoustic album. Numerous reissues of Folk Singer include bonus tracks from two subsequent sessions, in April 1964 and October 1964.

Despite not charting in any country, Folk Singer received critical acclaim; most reviewers praised its high-quality sound, especially on remastered versions, as well as the instrumentation. In 2003, the album was ranked number 280 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. (Full article...)

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B.B. King in concert.

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Quotes

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Blues is really America's finest art form and most dominant art form of the 20th century.

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— Georgie Fame

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Blues is a natural fact, something that a fellow lives. If you don't live it, you don't have it.

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— Big Bill Broonzy

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The blues is a low-down achin' heart disease
Like consumption killing me by degrees.

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— Robert Johnson, "Preaching Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)"

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When you lay down at night, turning from one side of the bed to the other and can't sleep, what's the matter? Blues got you.

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— Lead Belly

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The blues had a baby and they named it rock and roll.

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— Muddy Waters

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Bishop performing in 2010

Elvin Richard Bishop (born October 21, 1942) is an American blues and rock music singer, guitarist, bandleader, and songwriter. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 2015, and in the Blues Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2016. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various blues-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Roy Rogers, 2014 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 2Curley Weaver (from List of blues musicians)
Image 3Robert Cray, 2007 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 4Muddy Waters with James Cotton, 1971 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 5Deborah Coleman, 2009 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 6T-Bone Walker at American Folk Blues Festival, Hamburg, 1972 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 7Buddy Moss in Georgia prison camp, 1941 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 8Chris Thomas King, 2005 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 9Pinetop Perkins in Paris, 1976 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 10Eric Bibb, 2006 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 11RonnieEarl, 1996 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 12Albert Collins at Long Beach Blues Festival, 1990 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 13Keb' Mo', 2012 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 14Ethel Waters, 1943 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 15Memphis Minnie, 1930 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 16Eddie Clearwater in Montreux, 1978 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 17Bessie Smith, 1936 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 18Robert Jr. Lockwood, 1982 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 19Jimmy Rogers, 1991 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 20Luther Tucker, 1964 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 21Bobby "Blue" Bland (from List of blues musicians)
Image 22Lucky Peterson (from List of blues musicians)
Image 23Willie Dixon at Monterey Jazz Festival, 1981 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 24George "Harmonica" Smith, 1980 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 25Blind Lemon Jefferson (from List of blues musicians)
Image 26Jay McShann in Edinburgh, c.1995 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 27Albert King in Paris, 1978 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 28Master Kora maker Alieu Suso in the Gambia (from Origins of the blues)
Image 29Paul Butterfield at Woodstock Reunion, 1979 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 30Alvin Youngblood Hart, 2009 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 31A watercolor painting of a camp meeting circa 1839 (New Bedford Whaling Museum). (from Origins of the blues)
Image 32Dexter Allen, 2004 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 33Louis Jordan in New York City, 1946 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 34Debbie Davies, 2019 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 35Lowell Fulson in Paris, 1980 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 36Big Joe Williams, 1971 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 37Robben Ford, 2007 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 38John Lee Hooker in Toronto, 1978 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 39Eddie Shaw, 2015 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 40Jimmy Witherspoon, 1974 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 41An 1890s photo of the tourist steamer Okahumke'e on the Ocklawaha River, with black guitarists on board (from Origins of the blues)
Image 42Joe Louis Walker, 2007 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 43Corey Harris, 2006 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 44Sara Martin and Sylvester Weaver (from List of blues musicians)
Image 45B.B. King in Rome, 1984 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 46Charlie Musselwhite, 2003 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 47Henry Townsend, 1983 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 48Susan Tedeschi, 2006 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 49Lead Belly (from List of blues musicians)
Image 50Son House (from List of blues musicians)
Image 51Emancipation from Freedmen's viewpoint; illustration from Harper's Weekly 1865 (from Origins of the blues)
Image 52Luther Allison (from List of blues musicians)
Image 53Mamie Smith (from List of blues musicians)
Image 54Freddie King in Paris, 1975 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 55Shemekia Copeland, 2019 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 56Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843 (from Origins of the blues)
Image 57Cedric Burnside, 2018 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 58Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, 1999 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 59Big Joe Turner, 1955 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 60Koko Taylor, 2006 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 61Mississippi John Hurt, 1964 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 62Otis Rush, 1997 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 63Jimmy Burns, 2012 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 64Kenny Wayne Shepherd, 2010 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 65Lonnie Johnson, 1941 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 66Kenny Neal, 2012 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 67Mississippi Fred McDowell, 1972 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 68Jimmy Rushing, 1946 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 69Ma Rainey (from List of blues musicians)
Image 70Hubert Sumlin in Montreux, 1978 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 71Junior Wells, 1983 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 72Buddy Guy, 2008 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 73Billy Boy Arnold (from List of blues musicians)
Image 74Eric Clapton, 2006 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 75"Sweet Home Chicago" performed at the White House with Barack Obama joining B.B. King on the chorus (from List of blues standards)
Image 76Son Seals, 1977 (from List of blues musicians)