You bet your ass we can. For instance, Paul Geremia, (italian ancestry) and me (half Italian Half Russian Jewish ancestry) Also my son David. But then, Italy IS rather close to Africa, isn't it?

Jack Radcliffe, an extremely able and versatile piano player, once told a newspaper interviewer that, "You got to suffer to sing the blues"
Notice, his last name is RADCLIFFE. he is a damned good blues man, in addition to stride piano, classical, ragtime, you name it. My wife, the ever lovely Donna Gibson is descended entirely from "British Isles" stock . Her family has been in Newport (as she puts it) since the earth cooled. She's got a good voice and she's a very good singer. However, we were fooling around with guitars and mandolins and recorders one day and she was trying to sing blues. It just didn't fit her Vstyle. And I told her that she was just too English for the blues. Then we remembered what Jack had told the interviewer and we commenced composing verses to a song entitled, "You Got To Suffer To Sing The Blues" Donna is a very very good songwriter. I was singing the verses into a reel to reel recorder as the verses were being composed. This is from the viewpoint of a rich never have suffered, W.A.S.P. (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) who desperately wants to sing the blues, but simply hasn't got the right ancestry.

(Any good "bluesy" blues progression melody will do"
YOU'VE GOT TO SUFFER TO SING THE BLUES
(words and music by Donna and Jody Gibson)
IMy Mama's in the D.A.R.
She wears twenty five hundred dollar Gucci shoes
My Mama's a daughter of the Oh-Merican Revolution, she wears two thousand five hundred dollar Gucci shoes.
But if she was a Barefoot Laundress, WWWOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW, Could I sing them blues.

II
My daddy's a wall street bnker, see him on the evening news,
My daddy's a wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wall street bank-oh, see him on dat evenin' news
But if he wuz a shaaaaaaaaayer cropper,
Ouch, I could sing dem blues.

III
I got twenty twenty vision, never spent a dayay in jail
My eyesight is per perfect and I neber been in dat jail
But if God would only strike me blind, AAAAOOOOOOOWWWWW I could really wail.

IV If I could find a way to suffer, I know I could sing the Blues,
If I could only suffer some, I know I could sing the blues.
So I'm gonna tear up all my credit cards and beat myself 'till I'm black an' blue.

V
So one day I asked my Mammy," Mammy, how do you sing the blues"?
One day I asked my Mammy , "Mammy, mammy, mammya Mommoh, How do you sing dem blues?
(spoken)and she said, (with English accent), "it's not mammy, it's nanny, you ninny, and I haven't the foggiest notion".