"I don't know where you live, but I think the best thing about the Blues is the excitement generated when it's performed live. Search out Blues venues in your town and you'll probably find out that some of the best stuff is being done in the bar down the street by some band with day jobs and no record deal."

.. sorry to take negative issue with this point in such an otherwise enthusiastic thread celebrating inspirational & influential blues music at the core of much of the best music of the last 70 or 80 years or so..

but as far back as the 1970's, nearly all live blues i have had inflicted on me by local amateur and semi-pro bar room guitarists
has been uninspired performances, of turgid, emotionaly impoverished 12 bars 'by numbers' singing, mindnumbingly overlong and soulessly executed cliched guitar jam soloing, pityless and painfull blues murdering shite..

sorry but that seems to have been my reality of live 'grassroots' pub blues in the UK.


Times like this i really miss living in a big city and enjoying
decent touring 'authentic' performers;
and i so envy Americans for living so close to the heart of the real thing