WYSIWYG, thanks for your suggestions. I FINALLY got highspeed connection this past week. Love it!!

And while I'm here, I want to give a BIG public thank you to Jerry Rasmussen for two acoustic blues CDs with greats like Robert Johnson, Bukka White, Blind Boy Fuller, Charley Patton-All names that I had read but until I received the CD voices I had never heard. I am awed by the history represented in these CDs and treasure them for that reason, and the fact that a new cyberspace friend made the compilations for me.

That being said I now know that I usually prefer the later blues music.

Jerry's compilation CDs arrived around the same time as a package from Hollowfox of vintage African American books and a book on another passion of mind-name origns & meanings..
Efkaristo poly {Greek for thank you}, Hollowfox!
   
And this week I followed Brucie's suggestion and started borrowing CDs from my area library...DUH! why didn't I think of that??

Guest who first mentioned Etta James, although this particular library branch didn't have much of a collection of Blues or ['other'?] folk music, I did get Etta James 'Matriarh of The Blues', and Etta James 'Blues to The Bone', and Jimmy Smith dot com Blues.

Even better than that-I found out that I could reserve CDs from other branches of that library {and do it online even!!].. So again following Brucie's suggestion I reserved a bunch of Lonnie Johnson..
and because I was on a roll ,I also reserved a several other non-blues Cds such as a children's CD by Taj Mahal and, in honor of a high school teacher who first introduced me to this singer, I also reserved a 4 set folk music CD of Odetta.

I'm passing this info along in case anybody else hasn't thought of borrowing CDs from the library...

Asante sana, Brucie...

And thanks to all who have posted here. I went back & read a number of archived Mudcat threads on Blues..You all have been very kind to me. As questions about blues and blues artists have been asked again and again, I could have been brushed off, but I instead I received warm consideration, advice, and support.

I appreciate it.

Azizi