It seems like the question is, can white men sing black blues? There seems to be a bbasic assumption that the blues IS black. Columbia put out a compilation of White Blues, with songs by people like Jimmy Rogers, who sang a lot of blues, songs Like Farm Land Blues... Like all forms of music, it all comes down to feeling. I've been put in blues workshops, which seems like a joke, and yet I do some blues that feel right to me. Maybe the question is, Should white singers imitate blacks? It's similar to the question of whether someone from Arkansas should do an English pub song with a broad English accent. Like "What is folk music?" there are no technical answers. There are whites who try to sound black who, to my ears, sound like a modern form of musical blackface. The Beatles sang blues.. especially John Lennon. Limiting the term blues to black music from the 20's and 30's, or Chicago blues on the fifties seems foolish.

Even Elton John sang,I guess that's why they call it the blues...

Jerry