Thanks to the last two posters for reviving this old thread, which I missed first time around.

Speaking for myself, I like some of the old acoustic stuff and some of the newer electric stuff, too. My position on Jimi Hendrix is that he understood and performed the blues as well as anyone ever, which should not be negated by the fact that he explored other musical styles, too.

I *really* love Mississippi John Hurt, but I'm not sure his music (or Leadbelly's, or Josh White's) truly qualifies as "blues." My personal definition of The Blues rules out stuff that is "too folk" as well as the other extreme, "too rock." Doesn't mean I don't *like* music that's not the blues ~ just my personal filing system.

My single favorite blues recording of all time is Buddy Guy's "A Man and the Blues," really a set of duets with pianist Otis Spann backed with a rhythm section and, on some cuts, a horn section too. Most of the album (maybe half of the cuts, but the longest cuts) consists of the most excruciating s-l-o-o-o-o-w blues ever. The uptempo stuff is great, too, notably "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

I's like to add Chris Thomas King to the short list of contemporary young black acoustic blues players, along with Taj, Keb Mo, and Corey Harris. He's broadened his pop appeal now that he's a film actor ("Brother Where Art Thou" and one of the installments of the PBS "Blues" series), but his blues pedigree and personal qualifications can't be seriously challenged. His father, Tabby Thomas, has long been a mainstay of the Baton Rouge blues scene, both as a performer and as a club owner (Tabby's Blues Box).

I noticed that T-Bone Walker's name crept into the conversation without anyone first "listing" him as a fave. He was certainly a great one, and widely influential. Let me toss in the name of his protege Guitar Slim, notable at least for his one great signature tune, "The Things That I Used to Do."

And then there's Slim's protege, the recently deceased Earl King, a great songwriter and really more of an R&B/rock guy than a bluesman. Early in his career, Earl was sent out on the road under Slim's name ~ audiences on the chitlin circuit never know that he wasn't the "real" Guitar Slim (who preferred to stay home in New Orleans).