Blues is an African-American music that traverses a wide range of emotions and musical styles. “Feeling blue” is expressed in songs whose verses lament injustice or express longing for a better life and lost loves, jobs, and money. But blues is also a raucous dance music that celebrates pleasure and success. Central to the idea of blues performance is the concept that, by performing or listening to the blues, one is able to overcome sadness and lose the blues.

Among the formal, identifying musical traits of the blues are the familiar “blue notes,” a three-line AAB verse form, and a characteristic use of the familiar blues chord progression. Historically, the popularity of blues coincides with the rise of the commercial recording industry, the introduction of “race” records aimed at black record-buyers after 1920, and the emigration of black Americans from the rural South to the urban North. Many of the earliest black American recording stars were blues singers. The first blues songs to be recorded, often called “classic blues,” were jazz-influenced songs in a vaudeville style, sung by the great blueswomen: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and others. These singers were often accompanied by pianists, guitarists, or even small jazz combos.

The “country blues,” usually considered an earlier form of the genre, was actually recorded in the mid-1920s. There are several regional styles of country blues, including delta blues from the Mississippi Delta, Texas blues, and Piedmont blues from the Southeast. Country blues was usually recorded by a single male singer, self-accompanied on the guitar or piano, with perhaps an accompanying harmonica or simple percussion. Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Boy Fuller, and Robert Johnson were country blues musicians.

Beginning in the 1930s, blues musicians fell under the influence of urban culture, including popular music and jazz. Combos incorporating piano, guitar, and percussion developed, although the country, “downhome” origins of the musicians were still evident in the music. Major musicians of the 1930s included Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy, Little Brother Mongomery, Leon Carr and Scrapper Blackwell, Lonnie Johnson, and Memphis Minnie.

After World War II, the use of electrified instruments became inevitable. During the 1940s, some blues bands even incorporated saxophones, although the preference was for amplified harmonicas, especially in Chicago, a predominant center of blues recording in the 1950s. Blues from this period is often called “urban blues,” “electric blues,” or simply “Chicago blues.” Important urban blues musicians included Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Elmore James, Howlin’ Wolf, T-Bone Walker, and B. B. King.

Blues remains with us in contemporary American culture, and as a traditional musical form it has been subjected to countless revivals and reinterpretations. Its current practitioners often integrate the sounds and instrumental pyrotechnics of rock music and the sheen of urban soul; but the twelve-bar form, variations on the blues chord progression, and emotive lyrical content remain relatively unchanged.

Text adaptation from ( http://www.mojohand.com/blues-definition.htm )

Existem vários álbuns clássicos de Blues, mas resolvemos colocar aqui algumas raridades, não tão fáceis de encontrar nos blogs. Álbuns sugeridos pelo nosso especialista Portuga dos pampas.

Complete History Of The Blues

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Plug It In! Turn It Up! (Electric Blues The Definitive Collection! Part 1: Beginnings 1939-1954)

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Plug It In! Turn It Up! (Electric Blues The Definitive Collection! Part 2: 1954-1967)

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Plug It In! Turn It Up! (Electric Blues The Definitive Collection! Part 3: 1960-1969)

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Plug It In! Turn It Up! (Electric Blues The Definitive Collection! Part 4: 1970-2005)

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Big Mama Thornton:

Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984) was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record the hit song "Hound Dog" in 1952.[1] The record was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for seven weeks in 1953;[2] the single sold almost two million copies.[3] Its B-side was "They Call Me Big Mama." Three years later, Elvis Presley recorded his even more broadly successful rendition of "Hound Dog," based on a version performed by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. Similarly, Thornton wrote and recorded "Ball 'n' Chain", which became a hit for her,[1] yet Janis Joplin's later recording of it made a bigger impact in the late 1960s.

Big Mama Thornton - 30 Most Slow Blues

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Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog

Big Mama Thornton - Sassy Mama

Johnny Winter:

John Dason "Johnny" Winter III (born February 23, 1944) is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters. Since his time with Waters, Johnny Winter has recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums and continues to tour extensively. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and in 2003, he was ranked 63rd in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Johnny Winter - (1974) Saints & Sinners

Johnny Winter - Nothin' But The Blues 1977

Memphis Minnie:

Memphis Minnie was a Blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter from the early 1930s to the 1950s. She was born in Algiers, Louisiana in 1897 as Lizzie Douglas. She had many songs, some of the most famous being "Bumble Bee", "Hoodoo Lady", and "I Want Something For You". Her performances and songwriting made her well known in a genre dominated mostly by men. She died on August 6, 1973 and is buried in Memphis, Tennessee. There's a famous anecdote from this period regarding a guitar contest between Minnie and Big Bill Broonzy. In 1933, when Big Bill Broonzy was very popular in Chicago, a blues contest between him and Memphis Minnie took place in a nightclub. As Broonzy tells the story, in his autobiography Big Bill Blues, a jury of fellow musicians awarded Minnie the prize of a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of gin for her performance of "Chauffeur Blues" and "Looking the World Over".

Memphis Minnie - Let's Go To Town