Rob Naylor
"Although I'm sure there's still poverty, racism and pain in the southern rural culture, I don't think that it can be the same level of nose-grinding poverty and constant overt racism that applied when the blues originally emerged. So by Hoot's criterion, as the culture has evolved somewhat, there can be no more (or very few) "true" blues artistes and the vast majority of current musicians playing blues *must* be "copyists" as they "haven't lived the culture"."

So we disagree on width of definition. Conditions are somewhat improved but I believe that the people growing up under the current somewhat improved conditions chose to express themselves with "Rap". The most recent time that I was in Mississippi with two surviving blues musicians ther had been a recent Rap Festival which drew many thousands of people when the surviving juke joint probably housed a couple of dozen folks.

If you have ever been to Mississippi for instance you would soon discover just how much poverty still exists. But I've seen it in Chicago and Detroit too.

Hoot