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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Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the style. Vocal styles in Delta blues range from introspective and soulful to passionate and fiery. (Full article...)

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Otis Rush at the Long Beach Blues Festival

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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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Burnside performing at the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee

R. L. Burnside (November 23, 1926 – September 1, 2005) was an American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He played music for much of his life but received little recognition before the early 1990s. In the latter half of that decade, Burnside recorded and toured with Jon Spencer, garnering crossover appeal and introducing his music to a new fan base in the punk and garage rock scenes. (Full article...)

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

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