...a song-form with an AAB rhyming scheme in three four-bar segments--each one part vocal, part instrumental response--using a I-IV-V chord progression, including chords with flatted "blue" notes, usually thirds and sevenths.

The origins of the blues precede recorded music, and even after the arrival of the phonograph, the blues was regarded as such a low-class and/or simply un-commercial form that it existed for a full 20 years before it was recorded. In the wake of the Civil War, blacks' field hollers and work songs, cross-blending the various music traditions brought by the slaves from Africa, began being developed into songs. Anglo-Saxon church music and folk-ballads were also transformed into forerunners of blues and gospel songs, again drastically influenced by the ex-slaves' African musical heritage. Another strain entered the mix with the jumped-up dances and songs popular in medicine shows. Initially, the blues instruments of favor were the harmonica--cheap, easily portable, and, in the African manner, an

Texas bluesmen also experimented with more complicated guitar parts, often tending to arpeggiate (pick the single notes of) chords as a signature style. Blind Lemon Jefferson was easily the top Texas bluesman of his day. Like Blind Willie, he too was on the road frequently, and like Robert Johnson, he soaked up elements of a number of styles (including Mississippi Blues), making them part of a powerful, personal style. Blind Lemon left behind some 80 tracks before his mysterious, premature passing (in 1929 or 1930), and his legacy lives on through those recordings.

instrument capable of imitating the human voice--and the banjo.

From the late '40s on, Chicago established itself as the world capital of electric blues. The foundation was created by three blues guitarist/vocalist titans who brought their different perspectives from Mississippi to the Windy City: the intense Muddy Waters (né McKinley Morganfield), the wailing Elmore James, and the ultra-relaxed Jimmy Reed. Adding fuel to the fire, the aptly nicknamed Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett) also relocated from the Delta, via Memphis. A second Sonny Boy, Sonny Boy Williamson (who originally went by Rice Miller), created recordings which have latterly eclipsed those of the earlier Sonny Boy as part of the Chicago blues heritage. He also came from Mississippi, but by way of Arkansas --with lots of other stops along the way. Williamson was associated with Chicago largely due to his classic recordings for the city's Chess Records, which was also home to the biggest hits by Waters, Wolf, and Little Walter - Little Walter being a Waters sideman who brought a new, high-energy kineticism to the blues harp.

Some topics in this essay:
Tommy Johnson, Civil War, , Robert Johnson, Louis Blues, Freddie King, Louis Johnson, Joe Turner, Georgia/the Carolinas, Lee Hooker, robert johnson, sonny boy, st louis, lonnie johnson, blues --, john lee, sonny boy williamson, blues piano, vocal instrumental, little walter, skip james, john lee hooker, style blind lemon,