21st Century Blues – Unknown Artist
The Blues evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of African-American slaves and rural blacks into a wide variety of styles and subgenres, with regional variations across the United States and, later, Europe and Africa. The musical forms and styles that are now considered the “blues” as well as modern “country music” arose in the same regions during the nineteenth century in the southern United States. Recorded blues and country can be found from as far back as the 1920s, when the popular record industry developed and created marketing categories called “race music” and “hillbilly music” to sell music by blacks for blacks and by whites for whites, respectively.
The phrase “the blues” is a reference to the blue devils, meaning ‘down’ spirits, depression and sadness. In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood. The image above was taken by David during his recent visit to New Orleans and the New Orleans Jazz Festival.
