Don't buy go out and buy a truckload of CD's. If you want to understand the blues you kind of have to go out and find your own answer. A recording that means something to one person won't mean squat to the next. You might fall in love with the work of Big Bill Broonzy, Gus Cannon, Hound Dog Taylor or some dude in your neighborhood that nobody knows about - but to really feel it . . .well, it has to be your discovery. Methodically buying a bunch of records won't get your mojo working.

The blues isn't a formula, a genre or any of that stuff. The blues just is what it is.

My advice would be to pick up an instrument (a guitar, banjo, piano- the blues has been played on just about everything. For all I know there is some guy howling away at blues bassoon somewhere) and get out into your community. The blues is everywhere. It's a living art form and as such there is going to be people to play with and learn from in your neck of the woods.

Get out there, get a personal connection with the music and let it take you where you need to go. After a while you won't just feel it, it'll be part of you.

-Patrick

PS
Don't try to tell me that nobody plays in your area. I grew up in Philly and managed to find people to play with: Cool Old Dudes
Finding Mississippi