Old-time blues, acoustic blues, deep blues, traditional blues, pre-war blues, folk blues, primitive blues or Country blues, it has many names, but in its essence it is the pure, ethereal, original music of rural African-Americans that originated in the Southern USA during the 1920s and 1930s. Today, people of all ethnicity and origins play it worldwide. The blues has traveled the globe and found kindred musical souls, celebrating the commonality of the human spirit.
This website has one simple message: The acoustic blues is alive and well in the 21st Century––nothing more, nothing less. I believe that the musicians included here are “among the best” of the contemporary acoustic blues scene, musicians who are keeping the traditions alive while helping the old-time blues progress and stay vibrant. The musicians included are predominately “traditional” and “acoustic” performers. That definition is applied with an open and liberal outlook. Selection is inclusive without regards to race, nationality or stylistic preference.
We are unabashedly preservationist and love the pure, traditional blues; but, we also include musicians that are playing a new acoustic blues. There is a major trend to merge world music with the blues. This influx of Afro-Eurasian sounds, whether it is from West Africa or India, is a natural evolution of the acoustic blues, and an undeniable aspect of contemporary blues. There are new movements, like alternative blues, an edgy wild new deep blues that has incorporated punk elements. We do not condemn it, but celebrate it. This site features a diverse group: old and young, black and white, male and female. Some are famous, a few infamous, many are still under-recognized and “unsung”. There are one-man bands, street musicians, Indie and major label artists.
We are just getting started, and it is planned to eventually have all significant players worldwide listed. Pages are added constantly.
Some things we are not: This is not an attempt to feature all the aging bluesmen still alive, everyone knows that all those great masters of the original blues generation are hugely important in the genre. We love, respect and honor them. However, the focus here is on the “next generation” and those active today.
This is not a ranking or an attempt to create a hierarchy. Nor is it an attempt to judge, to define Blues “Purity”, or to pigeonhole artists. We promise not to declare anyone a “living legend”.
We don’t take advertising money from record labels and artists don’t pay to be included here. It’s about the music.
Enjoy,
Yours truly, Frank Matheis
Selection Criteria
There were no ”hard lines” drawn as to the selection criteria, but a few prerequisites were established:
Acoustic
The first criteria was that a selected musician should primarily perform and record acoustically meaning with a hollow body acoustic guitar, banjo or mandolin rather than an electric instrument with wired pick-ups. The acoustic blues is a guitar intensive genre, and we ended up featuring mostly singers/guitarists. Accompanists and other blues instrumentalists, such as pianists, fiddlers, accordionists and harmonica players, are not featured, although harp players are included if paired in duo with a guitarist.
The classification “acoustic blues” in itself is problematic. Some musicians stay true to the genre consistently, while others swing in both electric and acoustic. Therefore, in order to qualify, a musician must have issued a full-length album featuring acoustic blues in the last three years and/or be actively performing acoustic blues as a consistent element of his/her shows.
Diverse Styles
The musicians represented in this website incorporates a light-hearted, liberal approach to many styles, musical heritages and directions without imposing severe restrictions based on what constitutes “real blues” or “traditional blues” based on some narrow concept. Nor is there a litmus test on blues-purity. We proudly embraced the splendid diversity and range of the sub-genre: pre-blues and Songster tradition, ragtime, modern folk-blues, traditional folk blues, contemporary American primitive as well as every type of regional blues Delta, Piedmont, Texas, Hawaiian hula, and then some. There are no outcasts, with the old “that’s not blues” argument that has banished so many great musicians into the musical no-mans land.
Living/Active and Contemporary
The focus is on today’s acoustic blues scene and musicians who are presently active in recording and performing. Some musicians that I included are debatable. Ry Cooder and Bonnie Raitt easily come to mind. Both have been more devoted to the traditional blues earlier in their careers and mostly moved on to other musical styles, but still consistently play and perform the traditional blues and when they do, they are simply breathtaking and hugely influential. Some, like James Blood Ulmer, used to be involved in different musical forms before and are now playing deep acoustic blues. By focusing on players who are active today, we exclude many of the old-guard greats of the blues. For example, there are many senior African-American musicians, venerable heroes such as Honeyboy Edwards, who are a part of the heritage of the authentic deep blues, but are not included. They were often the inspiration and even mentors to many of the established or up-and-coming musicians featured here. The “old-vanguard” is held in high esteem and reverence, but the emphasis here is not on historical record. There are many blues anthologies who pay tribute and due respect to the last living originals. My effort was to highlight the next generation.
Solo & Duo Artists
This website celebrates the solo performer and duos, in the tradition of the Pre-War, traditional solo guitarist/singer, rather than bands. This was a most complicated criterion. Undoubtedly, there is a long tradition of acoustic blues ensembles and in fact, many of the original Pre-World War II artists that recorded solo often played in ensembles and many preferred to do so whenever the finances allowed it. A defining criterion for selection in the website was a preference for musicians who “mostly,” or at least “often,” perform and record solo. That’s not to say that they can’t occasionally have accompanists or ensembles backing them. It was harder than expected to make this work sensibly. In quite a few cases, this idea had to be abandoned and contradicted when the overall contribution a musician had made to the genre forced inclusion, despite the fact that he/she may appear mostly with a band.
