Why the Blues Really Hit The Spot



After a tough week at the office, I found myself headed to New Orleans for a short business trip.

As any of you who have visited Bourbon street know, there are plenty of live bands to choose from: Dixieland jazz, R&B, pop/rock cover bands and simple, down home, guitar driven blues.

I had a great time listening to every single band I could find, enjoying a wide variety of music last week.

But whenever I really settle in with a good, live blues band, I wonder what it is that makes the blues so timeless and appealing -- especially late at night with a good local beer!

So for fans of the blues, can anyone explain?

Do the blues more perceptively touch some aspect of human nature? During times of stress or loss, do the blues give you a sense of empathy and understanding? Or is there some counterintuitive explanation that the blues can somehow cheer you up in a mysterious way like Ritalin somehow calms hyperactive kids?

I guess I am asking the musically equivalent question of when and why people seek out movies like Love Story, Platoon or Terms of Endearment?

What are your thoughts and experiences and when do you most enjoy listening to the blues?
cwlondon
Even more of the great bluesmen and women would have died in poverty and obscurity if the folk music and British blues revivals of the sixties hadn't happened. Even Stevie Ray Vaughan helped put a lot of money into the pockets of aging bluesmen by creating interest in their music.

There is something about the blues that strikes a chord in many people and I think there will be blues booms in the future.

It's OK if blues purists only like prewar (WW II) or first generation electric bluesmen. I have my own cutoff points for the blues that I like. But everyone should listen to the music that moves them and hopefully their curiosity will lead them back to some of the original masters and some will be inspired to make new good blues.

I've read, but I can't say for sure it's true, that Muddy Waters last words in 1983 were, "Don't let the blues die." I'm with Muddy.
Cwlondon you should have planed your trip to the Big Easy for this weekend. Johnny Winter will be preforming at Harrahs Saturday night the 31st. A sweet sounding little venue. I will be there for sure. A big change from this past weekends country rock of the Eagles.

I am big on the the blues, been acquiring lps lately at a large pace. Doing what Jake and Elwood recommended. A sweet playing blues guitar does it for me. Dont know about makeing me blue cause my foot starts moving and i feel good hearing dem blues.
Also Snug harbor is a very nice jazz club in the French Quarter.

I heard a French funk/jazz group there once during the JAzz Heritage Festival weekend...one of the most memorable musical concert experiences I've ever had!