From my years not only playing blues but also being around black blues players I have a different take on the ol' blues being the music of oppressed people...

Yes, black people were terribly oppressed but it was the blues that was an important part of their solidarity against the oppressors... It was the the Saturday night jukes and house parties where the blues was played that was their peace... Son House talks about this on a viseo I have of him from around 1964... Even though he is torn with the blues being "the devils music" he knows that on Saturday night it is the music that represents a celebration of surviving another week on Boss Hog's plantations...

Lotta folks who don't know the blues associate it with having the blues... Well, that ain't so... Blues music ain't sad... It joyfull... Country music is alot sadder than than the blues...

B~