Are The Blues an important part of your life?

Or, like many, have you overlooked this incredible art form?

I've been a blues musician for the better part of my life. I took up the guitar when I was a teenager, and though my friends all listened to hard rock, I was drawn into the blues. My first blues album was "Nothin' But the Blues" by Johnny Winter, and I was forever lost in the music since then.

I dare say that blues music saved my life. I went through some very difficult times in my 20s -- particularly, a lot of loss in my life -- and performing the music (as well as writing and playing it) was cathartic for me. As the late John Lee Hooker once said, "The Blues is a healer."

Funnily enough, I am now a professor of American Cultural Studies at an Ivy League University, where many students know me as the "blues teacher." I've had a couple of well-known performers (who happen to be colleagues and good friends of mine) sit in on some of the lectures, and they even played for the students (performing songs the students wrote!).

I suppose I got into teaching the blues because I wanted to pass the torch onto others. I know it has been a formative part of my identity, and I want to share that part of myself with others -- and see if, perhaps, it might do the same for others.

I know of at least one student who has gone on to pursue a career in bluesology. I am quite proud of that and him. Good question.

i don't really consider it much but i like music

I never took too much not of blues, like other similar music, like rock.

Anything I enjoy is important! I would miss the blues.

The blues is the epitome of all music. without it we would not have had any of the so called "great" musicians of the past few generations.
I'm sorry but I just don't see the influence in todays sounds.
I'm a great fan and could name my favorites, but there isn't enough room.
Agree with your words "incredible art form".

Yes, this specific art form is a part of my life. The simpler the better. I am a jazz fan as well so I start off playing a really simple blues piece until my mood settles and then all of a sudden I pick up a sequence that gets me going resulting in either a "jazzed up" or a heavy metal piece. Suppose I am really a metal head at heart. I do the same with Bach for some unknown reason. Blues is forever.

I couldn't overlook it, having the luck to grow up in New Orleans. My mother tells me I was humming Ray Charles songs in the crib before I could speak, around 1956-57.

My first 45rpm was Fats Waller's "All That Meat and No Potatos".

I was steeped in the blues from childhood, hearing it through screen doors, hearing neighbors playing records or the piano, hearing it as we went about the city.

In my teens, I took a more focused approach, but I consider the blues a huge part of my life.

I now live in Mississippi, an hour south of the Delta. Bar bands, no matter what they play, rock or country, are expected to have a few blues songs in their set list.

Not yet, but I am considering making the blues an integral part of my life soon. As no other art form expresses anger and frustration quite as well as blues, I find myself in need of them, even though when I was younger I couldn't relate to them at all. I'm looking for encouragement here, as I have 15 years on the road experience as a singer, musician, and band manager. If the project does materialize, I will also need some players...
I have noticed some areas in the southeast US that seem to be ripe for the pickin...if only someone would havge the courage to try knockin on the right doors!

I enjoy the blues in almost every mood. I like to talk about,share and learn about the blues The blues relaxes,inspires and motivates me. It is my belief that the blues have been with the human race from very near the beginning,not just the last half century.
T4

Probably, my two favorite types of music are Blues and music from the classical, romantic eras.

I used to play blues harp so much. (harmonica)

I love the blues it is the root of most of the american sound

All forms of traditional American music-blues, rock & roll, country, folk, cajun, etc- are an enourmous part of my life. I have spent 35 years researching blues, listening to blues, playing blues, teaching about blues, writing about blues. There is always more to hear, to read, to discover, to learn.

the blues is my life I lived them play them and write the blues and if there weren't any blues than I wouldn't exist I am the Blues

Blues can be just music but If you let it get under your skin into your soul it'll get you hooked to it.
Once you really feel the blues you can't help but answer it's call and you are sold for life

Blues changed my life. It made me love music again.

I can't afford therapy.

But I could afford a guitar!

Thank the gods for the blues.

very ! my nic is luvdabluezzz and my licence plate is LVDBLZ