Blues recommendations anyone?


Hi everybody. I'm looking to expand my music library a little bit, and one genre that I don't have is Blues. I have a buddy at work that plays Blues on his boombox regularly and I've gotten a few names from him, but I was wondering if any of you have a favorite Blues artist or cd that you could highly recommend.
Thanks a bunch.
mjfvashon
Punch in Blues and I'm sure you will be reading peoples suggestions til dawn. One group I will reccomend is Little Charlie and the Night Cats. Their new Cd Nine Lives is killer and if you like that then check out their Night Vision and Straight Up offerings. Good stuff,not a bad song on these three CD's.
There are so many styles of blues that it's impossible to generalize. There's Chicago blues by artists like Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon. Delta blues ... There's acoustic, electric, piano, harp and full band.

If you're coming from rock, Stevie Ray Vaughn would be a start. I started by reading the credits on Zeplin albums.

From jazz, jump blues and Roomful of Blues or Downchild would be a good launch.

More traditional blues can be sampled from any of hundreds of compilation discs until you find a preference.
Mississippi John Hurt is more a "folky" style of the blues. Eric Clapton does some good blues too. Clapton's album "Me and Mr Johnson" is wonderful. He sings blues legend Robert Johnson's songs. Some great music.
robert randolph,johnny winter,jimmie lafave,buddy guy,rl burnside,john hammond. keb mo, jimmie vaughan. check out robert johnson, son house,muddy waters, john lee hooker,bb king, stevie ray vaughan and john mayall for perspective.