The Blues - On Life Support?

A couple days ago I finished listening to a pair of BBC radio documentaries - "The Room Where the Blues Was Born" and "The Death of the Blues?". I hope to write more about them another time but I want to note that the latter brings up the question of whether a form of music that has museums and societies dedicated to it is actually still alive and kicking. Here in Madison we have Bobby Bryan doing some great contemporary soul blues, as someone described the style he practices in the program. Yet, the blues scene here would be all but dead were it not for the Madison Blues Society. Almost contradictory.

Whether the blues are dead or not, I thought it would be good to post a couple more videos tonight. Here we have two contemporary blues practitioners. One is very traditional while the other seeks to modernize and update the music.

Guy Davis, "The Chocolate Man"



Chris Thomas King, "Revelations"