By the beginning of the 1960s, genres influenced by African American music such as rock and roll and soul were part of mainstream popular music. White performers had brought African-American music to new audiences, both within the US and abroad. However, the blues wave that brought artists such as Muddy Waters to the foreground had stopped. Bluesmen such as Big Bill Broonzy and Willie Dixon started looking for new markets in Europe. Dick Waterman and the blues festivals he organized in Europe played a major role in propagating blues music abroad. In the UK, bands emulated US blues legends, and UK blues-rock-based bands had an influential role throughout the 1960s.
Blues legend B.B. King with his guitar, “Lucille”.
Blues performers such as John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters continued to perform to enthusiastic audiences, inspiring new artists steeped in traditional blues, such as New York–born Taj Mahal. John Lee Hooker blended his blues style with rock elements and playing with younger white musicians, creating a musical style that can be heard on the 1971 album Endless Boogie. B. B. King’s virtuoso guitar technique earned him the eponymous title “king of the blues”.
In contrast to the Chicago style, King’s band used strong brass support from a saxophone, trumpet, and trombone, instead of using slide guitar or harp. Tennessee-born Bobby “Blue” Bland, like B. B. King, also straddled the blues and R&B genres. During this period, Freddie King and Albert King often played with rock and soul musicians (Eric Clapton, Booker T & the MGs) and had a major influence on those styles of music.
The music of the Civil Rights and Free Speech movements in the US prompted a resurgence of interest in American roots music and early African American music. As well as Jimmi Bass Music festivals such as the Newport Folk Festival brought traditional blues to a new audience, which helped to revive interest in prewar acoustic blues and performers such as Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, and Reverend Gary Davis. Many compilations of classic prewar blues were republished by the Yazoo Records. J. B. Lenoir from the Chicago blues movement in the 1950s recorded several LPs using acoustic guitar, sometimes accompanied by Willie Dixon on the acoustic bass or drums. His songs, originally distributed in Europe only, commented on political issues such as racism or Vietnam War issues, which was unusual for this period. His Alabama Blues recording had a song that stated:
I never will go back to Alabama, that is not the place for me (2x)
You know they killed my sister and my brother,
and the whole world let them peoples go down there free
White audiences’ interest in the blues during the 1960s increased due to the Chicago-based Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the British blues movement. The style of British blues developed in the UK, when bands such as The Animals, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and Cream and Irish musician Rory Gallagher performed classic blues songs from the Delta or Chicago blues traditions. Many of Led Zeppelin’s earlier hits were renditions of traditional blues songs.
The British and blues musicians of the early 1960s inspired a number of American blues rock fusion performers, including Canned Heat, the early Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, The J. Geils Band, Ry Cooder, and The Allman Brothers Band. One blues rock performer, Jimi Hendrix, was a rarity in his field at the time: a black man who played psychedelic rock. Hendrix was a skilled guitarist and a pioneer in the innovative use of distortion and feedback in his music. Through these artists and others, blues music influenced the development of rock music.
Santana, which was originally called the Carlos Santana Blues Band, also experimented with Latin-influenced blues and blues-rock music around this time. At the end of the 1950s appeared the very bluesy Tulsa Sound merging rock’n’roll, jazz and country influences. This particular music style started to be broadly popularized within the 1970s by J.J. Cale and the cover versions performed by Eric Clapton of “After Midnight” and “Cocaine”.
In the early 1970s, The Texas rock-blues style emerged, which used guitars in both solo and rhythm roles. In contrast with the West Side blues, the Texas style is strongly influenced by the British rock-blues movement. Major artists of the Texas style are Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and ZZ Top. These artists all began their musical journey in the 1970s, but they did not achieve major international success until the next decade.
1980’s to the 2000’s
The blues suffered a commercial downturn during the 1970s. Although the genre was still robust creatively through the decade, the increased popularity of R&B, funk and hard rock, combined with the advancing ages of modern era blues artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and John Lee Hooker lessened the commercial fortunes of the genre. It was the arrival of guitarslinger Stevie Ray Vaughan during the early-1980s that jumpstarted the contemporary blues craze, breathing new life into the careers of established artists and allowing young musicians the chance to earn a living and put their own imprint on the blues.
Guitarist Albert Collins was a unique stylist and an incendiary live performer whose appeal jumped across the aisle from fans of houserockin’ Texas blues to include many fans in the rock world. Influencing talents as diverse as Jimi Hendrix, Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Collins rode high during the 1980s blues revival, ensuring his place in music history.
2. Fabulous Thunderbirds
An important bridge between the classic 1950s Chicago blues and ’60s-era blues-rock, the Fabulous Thunderbirds rewrote the book with both style and substance. The band’s sound was straight-ahead barrelhouse blues with Texas roadhouse flair. Whether featuring Kim Wilson’s wailing harp or Jimmie Vaughan’s raging guitar, the band’s material always rocked the house to its foundation. The band’s live performances are legendary and, through the years, the T-Birds have re-defined the concept of the blues band.
Guitarist Lonnie Brooks forged a distinctive style that is often described as “voodoo blues,” mixing elements of R&B, Chicago blues, Memphis soul, and Cajun music into an intoxicating
brew. One of the most popular performers on the Chicago blues scene, Brooks also remains in demand on the festival circuit. Both of Brooks’ sons – Wayne Baker Brooks and Ronnie Baker Brooks – are full-time musicians with their own blues bands, and they often appear onstage with their father. The three musicians also have performed together as The Brooks Family.
R.L. Burnside is the best-known proponent of what is known as the “Mississippi Hill Country blues.” A raucous, rhythmic, foot-stomping brand of blues made to be performed in the region’s numerous juke joints, Burnside was one of the style’s most popular practitioners. Backed by a red-hot band that included two of his sons and a son-in-law, Burnside’s influences were modern performers like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, but his mentor was Mississippi Fred McDowell, so his electric blues sound is firmly footed in the country rather than the city.
For over 40 years, Roomful of Blues has carried the torch for a big band blues sound, and the list of talents that have passed through the band’s doors throughout the years is a veritable who’s who of successful blues artists. Although they began as a conventional blues-rock band, Roomful of Blues quickly evolved into a traditionally-oriented, R&B influenced jump blues band with a horn section that blew like nobody’s business, and a run of superior guitarists that would be the envy of any other band.
6. Son Seals
Frank “Son” Seals was a talented showman and fiery guitarist that many fans believe to be the best bluesman of the 1970s. Even as blues music was being eclipsed by the commercial growth of R&B and funk and, later, the dance floor appeal of disco, Seals continued to stay true to his uncompromising vision of guitar-driven blues. A gruff vocalist and raw, electrifying performer, Seals’ weapon was his mastery of the almighty guitar riff, which attracted an audience weaned on 1960s-era blues-rock.
Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan
Since at least the 1980s, there has been a resurgence of interest in the blues among a certain part of the African-American population, particularly around Jackson, Mississippi and other Deep South regions. Often termed “soul blues” or “Southern soul”, the music at the heart of this movement was given new life by the unexpected success of two particular recordings on the Jackson-based Malaco label: Z. Z. Hill’s Down Home Blues (1982) and Little Milton’s The Blues is Alright (1984). Contemporary African-American performers who work this vein of the blues include Bobby Rush, Denise LaSalle, Sir Charles Jones, Bettye LaVette, Marvin Sease, Peggy Scott-Adams, Mel Waiters, Clarence Carter, Dr. “Feelgood” Potts, O.B. Buchana, Ms. Jody, Shirley Brown, and dozens of others.
In the 1980s and 1990s, blues publications such as Living Blues and Blues Revue began to be distributed, major cities began forming blues societies, outdoor blues festivals became more common, and more nightclubs and venues for blues emerged.During the 1980s, blues also continued in both traditional and new forms. In 1986, the album Strong Persuader revealed Robert Cray as a major blues artist. The first Stevie Ray Vaughan recording, Texas Flood was released in 1983, and the Texas-based guitarist exploded onto the international stage. 1989 saw a revival of John Lee Hooker’s popularity with the album The Healer. Eric Clapton, known for his performances with the Blues Breakers and Cream, made a comeback in the 1990s with his album Unplugged, in which he played some standard blues numbers on acoustic guitar. However, beginning in the 1990s, digital multitrack recording and other technological advances and new marketing strategies that include video clip production have increased costs, and challenge the spontaneity and improvisation that are an important component of blues music.
In the 1990s, largely ignored hill country blues gained minor recognition in both blues and alternative rock music circles with North Mississippi artists R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. Blues performers explored a range of musical genres, as can be seen, for example, from the broad array of nominees of the yearly Blues Music Awar
ds, previously named W. C. Handy Awards or of the Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary and Traditional Blues Album. The Bilboard Blues Album chart monitors and therefore provides an overview over the current blues production. Contemporary blues music is nurtured by several blues labels such as: Alligator Records, Ruf Records, Severn Records, Chess Records (MCA), Delmark Records, NorthernBlues Music, Fat Possum Records and Vanguard Records (Artemis Records). Some labels are famous for their rediscovering and remastering of blues rarities such as Arhoolie Records, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (heir of Folkways Records) and Yazoo Records (Shanachie Records).
List of blues rock performers
AC/DC: Hard rock, heavy metal, boogie rock, blues rock, rock and roll (from Australia)
Aerosmith: Hard rock, blues rock, heavy metal (from Boston, US)
Bad Company: Hard rock, blues rock (from UK)
Cactus (band): Hard rock, blues rock, heavy metal (from US)
Chris Rea : Pop rock, Soft rock, Blues rock (from UK)
Derek and the Dominos: Blues, blues rock (from UK)
Dire Straits: Roots rock, blues rock, pub rock, country rock, new wave, prog-rock (from UK)
Foghat: Boogie rock, blues rock, hard rock (from UK)
The Hamsters: Blues rock, rock, Delta blues (from UK)
Jeff Healey: Blues, blues rock, hard rock (from Canada)
B.B.King: Blues (from US)
Humble Pie: Blues rock, hard rock (from England)
Gary Moore: Hard rock, heavy metal, blues rock, blues (from Northern Ireland, UK)
Mountain:Hard rock, blues rock, heavy metal (US/Canada)
Alto Reed: Rock, blues rock and jazz saxophonist (from US)
Bobby Tench:Blues rock, Electric blues (from England)
Pat Travers: Blues rock, hard rock, rock-n-roll, heavy metal (from Canada)
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Southern rock, boogie rock, blues rock, hard rock (from US)
Tesla: Hard rock, blues rock, heavy metal (From US)
George Thorogood: Boogie rock, blues rock, rock and roll(from US)
Stevie Ray Vaughan: Electric blues, blues rock, Texas blues (from US)
Joe Walsh: Rock, blues rock (from US)
Whitesnake: Hard rock, heavy metal, blues rock (from UK)
ZZ Top: Boogie rock, southern rock, hard rock, blues rock (from US)
Manal: Rock, blues rock (from Argentina)
Rui Veloso: Rock, blues rock (from Portugal)
Queen (from UK) (recorded only few blues rock/heavy metal songs such as “See What a Fool I’ve Been”, “Son and Daughter”,“Sleeping on the sidewalk”, “Hangman” in 70s and “Dog With a Bone”, “Lost Opportunity” in 80s—90s).
Comentários:
- O renascimento do blues continuou em meados dos anos 1970, liderada principalmente por bandas de blues que fundidos com rock, como Led Zeppelin e Allman Brothers.Iglauer encontrou o sucesso, gravando principalmente pouco conhecidos e mais jovens músicos de blues negros, como Hound Dog Taylor, Brooks Lonnie, Taylor Koko, Selos, Filho e Albert Collins.
- Durante a década de 1980, as sociedades de blues foram fundadas em cidades pela América do Norte e este surgiu em muitas faculdades e rádios comunitárias. Em 1980, o Prêmio WC Handy, começou um programa criado pela Fundação Blues, sem fins lucrativos para reconhecer anualmente os melhores do blues.
Black and Whites 