The last few years I have read quite a few articles and blogs regarding :the death of the blues as we know it.
I take this to mean that there are not enough African American blues artists to take the place of the ones we have lost. We do have some excellent Black blues artist coming up, but for the most part we don't hear the same traditional blues coming from them. We see the white musicians carrying the torch of the classics more often than not. Is this a bad thing???? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Some guys really do play and sing with feeling, but don't have the "pedigree" that some purists demand. It has always been fascinating and frustrating at the same time for me, a white guy playing black music, and mostly WITH the founders of blues, to read the reviews and to deal with people in power, mostly white, who would not accept anyone not of African descent as a true blues artist. It has gotten better in the last 20 years or so, maybe due to the fact that there are myriads of white players emerging all the time while a smaller percentage of black artists arrive. Without going on and on, I guess the question I pose here is one that has been posed before:
Do we want to hear white artists who have studied and truly love this music and work hard to live this life, or a black artist, possibly not as gifted as a vocalist or musician, but who may be the child of a famous musician, or just getting into blues because "they can", meaning there is a ready-made slot for them in the industry??
I myself prefer to hear the one who sounds best to my ear. Some of my favorite singers these days happen to be white, but I absolutely LOVE it when a black artist really sings and plays the blues. Most of my recordings are of African-American artists. I like it all and make no distinction, this is strictly an observation and hopefully can lead to some good discussions.
*The above text is just my personal opinion and nothing else
