Blues

Etymology

The " term; blues" from the abbreviation of the English expression Blue devils comes (literally " blue demons "), which means " black thoughts ". That also returns to the research of the note " bleue". It is about the increased quad of the principal tonality of the piece. It gives a particular sonority characteristic of the blues. It probably originates in the African music in which the temperament did not exist and was probably introduced at the beginning of the blues by the American black slaves. It would be necessary to sell its heart with the devil to be able to play and find this " note bleue". The instrumentalist tries to imitate the lament of the singer. One of the oldest references to the blues finds in a joke of George Colman the Young person, Blue devils, has joke in one act (1798). Later, during the 19th century, the expression was employed like Euphémisme to indicate the Délirium tremens or the police force.

The use of the expression in the American Negro music goes back at least to 1912 with Memphis in the Tennessee with the piece of William Christopher Handy, “Memphis Blues”. In the words, the word blues translates a state of heart melancholic person.

History of the blues

Urban blues according to war

After the Second world war, the increasing urbanization and the use of the amplifiers for the guitar and the harmonica led to a more electric blues (such as the Chicago Blues), with artists like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters. These is the electric blues which will give later its roots to the Rock-and-roll.

Towards the end of the Years 1940 and during the Years 1950, the American blacks moved towards the cities of north like Chicago and Détroit, to find work there. In the cities like Chicago, Strait and Kansas City, a new style of “electric” blues was creates, which used the voice, the electric guitar, the low electric one, the battery and the harmonica amplified with a microphone and an amplifier. J.T. Brown, which played with the groups of Elmore James and J.B. Lenoir also used saxophones, but rather like instruments of accompaniment that instruments solos. The style of urban blues of Chicago was well influenced by the blues of the Mississippi, from where came from the musicians like Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and Jimmy Reed. The harmonicists like Little Walter and Sony Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) were well-known in the clubs of blues in Chicago. The other players of harmonica, like Big Walter Horton and Sony Servant boy Williamson, had also much influence. Muddy Toilets and Elmore James played of the electric guitar with a “slide” or “bottle neck”; the exercise consists in playing the notes on the handle by posing a metal end or a neck of bottle on the cords. B.B. King and Freddy King did not use the “slide”. The singers Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters marked the blues of their raucous and strong voices.

The double bass player and type-setter Willie Dixon had a great environmental impact musical of Chicago. Its songs like Hoochie Coochie Man , I Just Want to Make Coils to You (written for Muddy Waters), Wang Dang Doodle (for Koko Taylor), and Back Door Man (for Howlin' Wolf) became “standards” of blues. Several artists of Chicago Blues record their discs with Chess Records.

The style of urban blues of the years 1950 had a great impact on the popular music of the musicians like Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. Also, the style of urban blues of the years 1950 influenced the style of music of Louisiana of zydeco, especially Clifton Chenier. The musicians as T-Bone Walker (of Dallas) were associated with the style of blues of California, which is more “smooth” that the style of blues of Chicago.

The blues of John Lee Hooker were more individual than the style of blues of Chicago. At the end of the years 1950, the Swamp blues developed close to Baton-Rouge with artists like Slim Harpo, Sam Myers and Jerry McCain. The swamp blues was slower, with a style of harmonica less complex than in Chicago Blues. The most known songs of the style are Scratch my Back , She' S Tough and King Bee .

The Jump blues was another development of the blues of this period which influenced the popular music. The jump blues was a popular hybrid of the swing and blues, putting in the high-speed motorboat songs " up-tempo" orchestrated for Big band S. the musician of this kind which influenced the popular music the most was Big Joe Turner, which recorded the original version of " Shake, Rattle, and Roll, " Ruth Brown, and LaVern Baker (" Tweedle Dee").

Years 1960 and 1970

At the time of the years 1960, the styles of music influenced or created by the American blacks, like the Rock'n'roll and the Soul became popular styles. The white musicians popularized many styles of black American to the the United States and the the United Kingdom.

In the Years 1960, a new generation of enthusiastic of the blues appears in Europe and in particular in England. The main actors of what one then calls the British Blues Boom are the Yardbirds, the Bluesbreakers carried out by John Mayall or the Animals and include many stars the pop one and rock'n'roll to come Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck (all three members successively of Yardbirds) which integrates into their music of the influences Psychédélique S and pop.

These groups of blues of Europe and England influenced several groups in the United States, which also mixes the blues and the rock'n'roll, like Canned Heat, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, The J. Geils Band, Ry Cooder and the virtuoso of the electric guitar and inventive Jimi Hendrix. At the end of the years 1960, the style West Side Blues was created in Chicago with the artists like Magic Sam, Magic Slim and Otis Rush. West Side Blues of Albert King, Buddy Guy and Luther Allison was characterized by a strong electric guitar.

In the United States, guitarists and singers B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters were still presented on scene, and their performances inspired a new generation of musicians, like the New Yorkean Taj Mahal. The era of “Rights Civilian” increased the audience for the traditional blues, and the festivals as Newport Folk Festival programmed services the “large ones” like Its House, the Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, and the Reverend Gary Davis. J.B. Lenoir recorded songs which touched with the topics of the racism or the war of Vietnam.

The artists of the United States like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, all influenced at the same time by the traditional blues and the electric blues, made discover this music with the young public of the time. Interpretation that the artists of this generation gave to the blues will have later a very strong influence on the development of the rock'n'roll.

Years 1980-present

During the years 1980 the blues - as well traditional as contemporary - continued to evolve/move through the work of Robert CRAY, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder, Albert Collins, Keb' Mo', Jessie Mae Hemphill, Kim Wilson, Ali Farka Touré and well of others.

The style of blues “Texas rock'n'roll-Blues” was created in the years 1980, which uses the guitars solo and of accompaniment at the same time. The Texas style was strongly influenced by the Blues-rock'n'roll of England (e.g., John Mayall). The important artists of the style Texas Blues were Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and ZZ Top.

At the time of the years 1980 John Lee Hooker is become again popular, with his collaborations with Carlos Santana, Miles Davis, Robert CRAY and Bonnie Raitt. Eric Clapton (in the past of the Breakers Blues and the group Cream) is become again popular at the time of the 1990s with his album for MTV Unplugged , where he plays of the traditional songs on an acoustic guitar.

During the years 1980 and 1990, the “Blues scenes” were created everywhere in the United States, in Canada, and in Europe. These “Blues scenes” included/understood reviews of Blues (e.g., Living Blues and Blues Re-examined), the companies of blues, festivals of blues, and clubs where is played of the blues.

Musical structures of the blues

From a technical point of view, the blues rests on three elements: a Ternary rate/rhythm often Syncopated, the Harmony in I-IV-V (the notes " tonales" tonality, known since the ancient Greeks), and the melody which uses the range blues and the " notes bleues".

The blues had an influence on a very broad variety of musical styles, which integrated in variable proportions one or several of these elements. If one cannot then speak any more about blues one frequently uses the qualifier bluesy to indicate this particular coloring. It should be noted in addition that beyond strict technical guns, the blues is often characterized - but not always - by a tinted mood of a certain languor or melancholy.

Rate/rhythm

The blues rests on a syncopated ternary rate/rhythm. Each time is thus cut out in three eighth notes which one marks only the first and the third. If the rate/rhythm can be more or less fast, the blues is traditionally played rather slowly. The term of shuffle generally indicates an average tempo. As for the boogy , it is in general more supported rate.

Harmonize

The traditional blues is formed starting from a Cadence of 3 agreements, which is repeated on twelve measurements. In this case one speaks about “12 bar Blues”. These agreements, indicated by Roman numerals I-IV-V, are the first, fourth and fifth of the major range corresponding to the Tonalité of the piece. Sonorities most commonly employed are the agreements of seventh. In its forms more worked out a little, the Blues frequently resorts to agreements of ninth, even with other types of agreements.

The simplest structure generally follows the following form:

what for a Blues in would give for example (Anglo-Saxon notation):

The variation introduced with the second measurement (with agreement IV) is called a quick changes (fast English change). This stripped structure makes it possible to underline interpretation and to leave a broad place with the improvisation and the solos.

Melody

The traditional range blues is simply a pentatonic range minor to which one added a note. It is the latter (the decreased fifth) which gives the color blues to the piece, from where its name of Blue notes (“blue note”). Certain authors, in particular King Jones in his book the People Blues , advance the theory that it would be there an attempt at adaptation of a range suitable for the African traditional music.

5 + 1 notes of the range blues are thus: T + 1,5 + 1 + 0,5 (blue note) + 0,5 + 1,5 (+ T).
E.g. in C: C - MIB - F - Solb (blue note) - Ground - Sib (- C). If one speaks about decreased fifth, one should not say Fa# but G flat: C-fa# being an increased quad. But the sound is exactly the same one, it is a Enharmonie (except if the instruments are granted according to a unequal Tempérament).

The other range frequently used in Blues is the pentatonic major one. It is not the decreased fifth which is the blue note. Moreover there is two blue notes by mode. They are the minor third and the seventh minor one. For C: C - D - MIB - F - ground - - sib . The harmonic function remains major in spite of these two minor intervals and it is what gives the color of the Blues. If one exploits the pentatonic major one the minor third one obtains indeed these blue notes. Always for C: MIB - F - ground - sib - C. The decreased fifth - in fact fa# - is a passing note but is not the blue note. The majority of the Blues are in major modes for the accompaniment whereas the melodies are sung on the pentatonic range with the blue note. There exists however of famous Blues as a minor for example: Ace the Years Go Passing By by Albert King.

Instruments

Although the blues can be interpreted on any type of instrument, some are used traditionally than of others:

the Guitar: guitar acoustic for the traditional blues or, starting from the the Fifties the Electric guitar, connected with an Amplifying which adds tonal characteristics like the distortion.
the Harmonica, acoustics or used with a Microphonous and an amplifier.
the Piano and other keyboard instruments like the Organ Hammond (as of the Years 1960 and 1970) or the electric Piano (starting from the Years 1970).

Stamp

In the broad sense, the stamp is the “color” of the sound: even if they play the same notes, a guitar or a saxophone is characterized by their stamp. That is also true from one human being to another. There is habit to say that the traditional singers try to imitate the instruments, whereas the instruments of blues try to imitate the human voice (or sometimes that of Donald Duck, a bomber or a Mitraillette).

The bluesmen explored the stamp much: they in particular were the first, during the 1950, to employ Amplificateur S for the Guitare and the Harmonica. The strong and serious voices singers like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters play also much on the stamp. The technology and the effects of mode later added other elements to its blues, like the guitars dirty and saturated with the Rolling Stones or with Eric Clapton or the psychedelic effects employed, inter alia, by Jimi Hendrix: feedback, the distortion style “Fuzz”, and of the stranger effects still like “Rotary drill”, made up of a Loudspeaker in rotation.

Vibrato

The Vibrato is an effect applied to a note of music. Very employed in particular by the musicians of blues, this effect consists in causing a fast variation height of the note. Like all the effects of nuance, the vibrato brings a particular expressivity according to the way in which it is carried out: quickly or slowly, in a fluid or jerked way. The vibrato is an essential component of its blues, that is for the voices or on instruments such as the Guitare.

For the latter, various means were used since B.B. King, especially average mechanics which modifies the length of the vibrating cord slightly. Several techniques thus exist, which give each slightly different sound effect: to make vibrate the fingers of the left hand, or it sleeve of the guitar itself, or by moving the rest using a small lever called stem of vibrato .

Starting from the Years 1960, the musicians of blues-rock'n'roll also used means electronic S, like the pedal Wah-wah or the Effet Larsen (“feedback”) finely controlled. More recently, the musicians of blues started to use techniques Numérique S to create vibrato, like the programmable cases equipped with Processeur S of treatment of the signal, which make it possible to parameterize as well the stamp as the attack or the vibrato.

Topics of the words of the blues

Daily life

The songs which report the daily life start often in a banal manner. For example - When I Woke up in the morning I believe I' L dust my broom (While raising me this morning I thought that I was going to vacuum-clean my brush). And then, these songs skid often little by little, verse after verse - When I Woke up in the morning I believe my baby' S gone (While raising me this morning I noticed that my wife left), and then When I Woke up in the morning I believe I must go home (While raising me this morning I decided that it is necessary that I return to the house). In this manner, the history could finish in a more serious or painful way.

Local, national or world topicality

In the beginning the bluesmen were country brave men (the hill Billies , “French idiot”) lost at the fine bottom of the “delta of the the Mississippi”, plain Coton nière which is not the true delta but more in north. They often sang during local events such as the rising of the Mississippi ( High Waters Blues ), the construction of the dams ( Levee ), the fire of a cotton farm. With the rigor one speaks about a too distant big city not like the Orleans News, Memphis, Saint Louis. But there are fatally incursions or hopes of voyages in other cities of the United States, that is to find work, to make the military service or to take part in the fights of emancipation.

A bluesman can thus have to speak about the national topicality. An anecdote shows the second degree of the bluesmen and the use of a clean language. In Sweet home, Chicago , Robert Johnson dreamed to go; in 1980, the Blues Brothers will correct this error believing that Johnson had made a geographical error. In fact California in the imaginary blues means country of richness, of the gold rush, which represented Chicago at the time for the poor bluesmen of the Mississippi.

Finally the horizon will not fail to be extended to the sphere with the participation of some called in the Second world war, with the Berlin Wall, the Guerre of Vietnam. One finds all this in blues like those of J.B. Lenoir.

First and second degree

As much of poetic texts the blues exploits the interaction between opposites. The things are never simple as regards poetry, the language is not univocal especially when the author is a connected human being (or a teenager who wants to release himself from the parents in the rock'n'roll).

What means that it is always necessary to be wary when a text of blues is read, especially us other French-speaking people. Know if there is not a message codé ! Almost all the sentences have a more or less obvious rhetoric effect. For example in America corsetée in the Puritanism, it would be malséant to tell grivoiseries or even things of sex. From where multiple doubles sometimes slang, sometimes phonetic, often clever direction.

: to the first degree, that indicates that I have my mojo which goes (a mojo is grigris, an amulet amulet, it is normal that a superstitious slave is content that its amulet functions, but the Master card-indexes himself some). But, with the second degree “I have my zizi which goes well, you can come to check baby”.

A song known as: to the first degree, that indicates that “come cherished in my kitchen”. But that is also interpreted: “come cherished in my intimacy”. Then, the song which says: to the first degree, that indicates that the singer has a long black snake crawling. But also, it refers to the male sex of the singer. Another example, in the song which speaks about: to the first degree, that indicates that one speaks about large fireballs in the description of the fire of a cotton warehouse (the Master shares this desolation). But also, the poet has his testicles on fire (the Master sees nothing there).

But it is not so simple, a doubt ends up remaining, there are passages where it is not known any more if there are second degree or simple first degree: to the first degree, that indicates that one wants to be rocked all the night by his darling. But also, to rock and make roll could be a reference to the act to make love.

: to the first degree, that “don't you see indicate my heart on fire which burns of a strange desire? ”. Perhaps but also, it could state that there is another thing which is on fire? And why this quite natural desire be would strange? The same applies to the example given higher where the poet deplores the departure of his beloved. In the political arena and social it was even more delicate. How to criticize the white Master? How to complain about its fate?

Despair or joy

Another interaction enters of the opposites is done between despair or the joy. Blue , familiar ( depressed ): sad, cafardeux; to feel blue : to be feeling gloomy. The familiar word Blues wants to say “cockroach”, “spleen” but one cannot be satisfied some. The texts told mainly the hardness of the life and its injustices, which wrongly gave to the blues a reputation of music of despair, whereas the words are on the contrary often merry and full with humor. For example, the following song shows these emotions: Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legacy off off me, - Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legacy off off me - It may Be sending you baby, goal it' S worrying the hell out off me.

With or without God

Another interaction between opposites is that between the devil and god. There is habit to schematize the things by saying that Gospel and blues is two enemy brothers, the gospel speaks about God, the blues does not speak about it. There exist certain sulfurous legends which one finds in certain pieces ( Crossroad , Me and the Devil Blues ) according to which such or such guitarist would have passed a pact with the Devil at midnight to crossroads: exchange of a virtuosity époustouflante against its heart.

Are concerned with this legend Robert Johnson, Her House, Jimi Hendrix and others. More concretely at the beginning Bluesman (even phenomenon with the rockeurs) does not deal with God, but often creates for itself a dynamics, under the social pressure - reproach of mecreantism, even of diabolism frequently coupled with a reproach of sexual depravity - or according to a personal reflection. The artist can rock towards the gospel, definitively or with return tickets, like Skip James.

The same junction appeared with the birth of the Rock, spiritual sons of the Blues. For example Little Richard started with rock'n'rolls dishevelling and howling, its music was described as diabolic; it stopped its career to become Pasteur, it was singer of gospels and finally, since 1964, it oscillates between theology and the rock'n'roll!

Certain authors pushed to the extreme this dichotomy (God/not God) by presenting it like parallel with the opposition between a philosophy of resignation and a philosophy of the revolt. “I live a life of slavery, I can nothing change but that will go better to the paradise and I sing it in my gospels” or “I live a life of slavery but that will change when we revolt and I sing it in my Blues”; the typical author on this point is Roy Jones ( People of the Blues , Folio, Gallimard, Paris, 1968 - in the USA, Blues People , 1963). He went until affirming that the Blues was the natural Hymne Black Panthers (Black Panther Party).

To return from there to the basic concept according to which Gospel speaks about God and the Blues does not speak about it, say that the Blues is not asserted atheistic but rather laic, although this term is a Anachronisme and a ana-geographism. It is “laic”, it calls upon sometimes God of the Christians, it practices sometimes a religion animist (examples: got my mojo working , a mojo being a grigri or the male sex in slang and I' m has Voodo chile , the Vaudou being the imported version of Africa).

Love or hatred

The blues, of the times reflects of a love life. In Katie Melua, My aphrodisiac is you it speaks about that which it likes. Times the love and hatred are attached to the daily life of so-and-so. My babe just walked by , my darling just from has gone away. The love which one has for a person is important: if this person is lost, it is always liked but there is hatred for it.

The influence of the blues

Blues in the Music rock'n'roll

The influence of the blues on the Rock'n'roll and its derivatives is fundamental, and was confirmed and reinforced at several times:

First of all, the rock'n'roll is resulting from the blues, mixed at the end of the the Forties with “white” musics like the Country. At the beginning, the difference between the two styles is mean, so much so that many pieces can be at the same time attached to each of the two styles: the rock'n'roll of the beginnings is often a blues played on a faster tempo and with a binary rate/rhythm instead of the ternary blues. Moreover, the rock'n'roll does not follow necessarily the structure of agreements blues I-IV-V (see higher), even if that often arrives. Many musicians rock'n'roll of the first times, like Ike Turner, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry or Elvis Presley, started by practicing the blues, and continued to play it throughout their career.

In the decades which followed, the blues remained a great source of inspiration for the musicians rock'n'roll. The rock'n'roll even partly owes him its “rebirth” at the beginning of the the Sixties, with the movement of the British Blues Boom. Almost all the Rock musicians of this time very strongly took as a starting point the blues, and some, the such Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton or the Animals, even started by playing this style exclusively, with often for only difference with the original pieces a very accelerated tempo, a practice known at the time under the name of “turnip-up”. Thus, of many pieces being reproduced on the very famous albums of groups of the time are in fact of traditional somewhat altered blues… even if the small pockets “often forget” to mention the true authors of them! It is the case in particular of Rolling Stones, with songs like Little Red Rooster , I' m has King Bee or Love in Vain , which, today still, is much more often associated for them than with those which wrote them.

This influence that some, in particular among the movements of emancipation of the American blacks, qualified “plundering”, continued in the the Seventies and beyond that, with many groups with horse on the Rock and the blues. Thus, the group of London Hard rock Led Zeppelin largely sat its repertory on the blues: their first album éponyme was almost exclusively made up of resumptions the traditional ones of the kind, although the members of the group are quoted as authors of all the pieces! The truth for summer has partly restored by lawsuits lost by the group.

Beyond the simple resumption of pieces, the blues had a determining influence on the manner of playing of the rock'n'roll, in particular in the the Sixties. Thus, the guitarists of rock'n'roll use still today very largely the instrumental techniques and the ranges of the blues in their play. The very strong expressivity in this manner of playing makes it indeed relevant even in musical contexts without any connection with the original blues.

Today still, the influence of the blues is omnipresent in the rock'n'roll, sometimes in an obvious way as for groups like the White Stripes or The Black Keys, of which it constitutes most of the repertory.

Blues in France

In France, artists like Benoit Blue Servant boy, Patrick Verbeke, Bill Deraime or Paul Personne successfully incarnate a French-speaking vision of the blues, but of course very influenced by the American music. Instrumental side, the harmonicist Jean-Jacques Milteau is an internationally appreciated performer and records several albums which refer. With the guitar, Patrick Verbeke is a specialist recognized in the blues, and Jean-Pierre Danel, although not exclusively bluesman, shows its control of the kind in " Guitar Connection 2" with the title " NZ Girl Blues" , of the acoustic duets with Hank Marvin, or its instrumental resumption of " All the music which I like " of Johnny Hallyday.

Blues in the Pop music

One can see the influence of the blues in the songs of Harold Arlen, of Blues in the Night ; DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson, Birth off the Blues ; and in some songs of the The Beatles

Blues in the Country music

One can see the influence of the blues in the songs of Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Doc. Watson.

Blues in the Classical music

One can see the influence of the blues in the music of Maurice Ravel (his Sonate for violin and piano ), George Gershwin (her Rhapsody in Blue , the Concerto in major F , and Porgy and Bess ) and in the music of Arthur Honegger (Pacific 231).

The influence of the blues on the Cinema

The blues also influenced the cinema, especially in the United States. The film Crossroads (Walter Hill) (1986) watch the sulfurous myth of the pact with the devil. Bandage its Ry Cooder and mythical duel between the hero of the film Ralph Macchio and Steve Vai in person. The famous pact of Robert Johnson is evoked in the film O' Brother , of Joel Coen.

The two films of John Landis, Blues Brothers (1980) and Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), which draws up a panorama of various styles and putting in scene a plethora of high-speed motorboats, had an important influence on the image of the blues.

In 2003, declared “year of the blues” in the United States, Martin Scorsese produces a series of seven documentary films on the blues entitled The Blues, has Musical Journey :

The Soul off has Man , of Wim Wenders, in connection with Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J.B. Lenoir,
the Road of Memphis ( The Road to Memphis ), of Richard Pearce, which deals more particularly with BB King (French title the Road of Memphis ),
Of Mali in the Mississippi ( Feel Like Going Home ), of Martin Scorsese, on the African origins of the blues (French title Of Mali in the Mississippi ),
Devil' S Fire ( Warming by the Devil' S Fire ), of Charles Burnett, a fiction on the conflict of the blues and the gospel,
Red, White and Blues , of Mike Figgis, on the British blues (Tom Jones, Van Morrison),
Godfathers and Sounds , of Marc Levin, on Chicago Blues and the hip hop,
Piano Blues , of Clint Eastwood, on the pianists of blues (Ray Charles, Dr. John).

(The card in Allociné)

Principal artists of blues

See also: List of the musicians of blues by style

Musicians: See the musician category of blues and the List of the musicians of blues by style.
Singers: See the singer category of blues.
Singers: See the singer category of blues.

See too

- Celebration off Blues , realized by Antoine Fuqua and produced by Martin Scorsese. Filmed in Radio operator City Music Hall in New York on February 7th, 2003.

Specialized press

Collective of the Radios blues: Grouping of radio presenters local (France, the EEC, Quebec and Africa) whose topic of their emissions is the blues in its various forms.
Drunk Bag: quarterly review in kiosks, specialized in the drunk blues and it music.
Blues & Co: quarterly review only on subscription.
Crossroads: Blues, R&B, Country, Folk, Jazz…; monthly review in kiosks.
Blues magazine: quarterly review in kiosks.
BCR the review: Blues, Country, Rock' Roll; bimonthly review only on subscription.
Again Blues!: quarterly review in kiosks.
ABS Magazine: only on subscription (3n°/an http://www.absmag.fr)

Internal bonds

External bonds

Blues and Two I S Web site a well documented site (in English). One finds there the biographies of many musicians of blues
Trail off the Hellhound a site on the blues of the delta of the the Mississippi.
MNOPérigueux Festival of the musics of the Orleans News
Peppermint Blues: Webzine of the blues.
Bluesactu.com: The site of the topicality of the blues.
blueslinks: Your guides to the blues.
the Chain of the Blues (Fr): more than 550 French-speaking sites on the blues, (artists, festivals, magazines, etc)
Chronology of the press Blues (and rock'n'roll) in France

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