Since Brucie wrote one name only in his post I'm thinking that this Blues artist must mean a great deal to him.

And also I'm thinking that maybe he {Brucie that is] wants to see if I [Azizi that is] will not just wait around for knowledge to be handed to me on a silver platter but will put some personal effort into getting what I've admitted I wanted-that is-a greater familiarity with the Blues.

So-though it really wasn't that hard-I google John Hammond Jr.

Here is an excerpt from one website:

   "So how does he continue to do it and do it with such
    passion? "Because I love it, that's how," he said. "It's my
    life." Blues doesn't get any better than this, in concept or
    execution. Stay on the road, John Hammond. We need your blues."
    -- BlueSpeak

"From coffeehouses to concert halls, festivals and beyond, John Hammond has spent forty years entertaining blues, folk and rock audiences around the world, performing intense solo-acoustic blues. A Grammy Award winner and four time nominee, Hammond is also a multiple W.C. Handy award winner who has shared the stage and/or recorded with many of the masters, including Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker and Howlin' Wolf. John has recorded over twenty five albums and his passionate commitment to traditional blues made him the natural choice to host the BRAVO TV special and Sony Home Video, The Search for Robert Johnson...."

end of quote

More on John Hammond Jr,

---

BYW, the accompanying photos on that website show that John Hammonds Jr 'happens to be' White.

Which is cool with me. I'm not one of those people who believe that you have to be Black to really feel the blues.

I think that you have to have experienced SUFFERATION [to use a Jamaican Rastas term] to really play or sing the Blues. And sufferation happens to us all.

I believe that Blues is one way to express a persons experiences with sufferation. Playing, singing, and {yes} listening or dancing to the Blues helps both the artist & his or her audience to overcome, work through, and come out on the other side of sufferation-hopefully stronger because of that experience.

That being said, as even a beginning student of the Blues, I have already discounted the wide spread misconception that ALL Blues music is sad.

It just ain't so as the lyrics and tempos of many songs demonstrate...
--

And if I'm not mistaken John Hammonds Jr. is the first non-Black person listed in this thread of Bluesmen and Blueswomen.

So Brucie, asante sana {thank you very much in Swahili} for starting that ball rollin.

I'm certain that other 'Catters can recommend additional non-Black Blues musicians and artists.

I thank you in advance.

Azizi