I'll Play The Blues for You

Honoring Black History Month, I thought I’d do a topic on the blues, which is very much a part of our history. W.C. Handy was the first known black man person to write the blues. However, the blues goes back to slavery time when the slaves worked in the field. West African slaves sung the blues to get through hard work in the fields.  Here is link for the history of the blues.

“Following the end of the Civil war, black men had few options other than back-breaking manual field labor or becoming a traveling minstrel. Many chose the occupation of traveling minstrel playing raucous, all-night country dances, fish-frys, and jukejoints. These musicians relied on their physical stamina and mental repertoire of many blues songs. Although the lyrics of many blues songs are soulful and melancholy, the music as a whole is a powerful, emotive and rhythmic music celebrating the life of black Americans. The lyrics of the songs reflected daily themes of their lives including: sex, drinking, railroads, jail, murder, poverty, hard labor and love lost.” ~~Stephen B. Pendrak, Scanton University~~

Therefore, I present to you a few blues videos and hope you enjoy.  On the videos that say watch on youtube, just click on the link inside the video screen and it will take you to the video.
Albert King


B.B. King and Bobby Blue Bland


Muddy Waters


Howling Wolf


Little Walter


ZZ Hill