Somebody above wanted to know who I meant by "pretenders".

The reccomendations made by Wesley S are exactly the sort of musician I mean. I do not knock their musicianship and entertainment value and I am sure that many, many people enjoy what they do. However if somebody has just got fired up about blues by listening to Robert Kohnson & Memphis Slim it would appear that he is interested in the real thing. Virtually everything recorded by the blues masters over the years since the twenties is now pretty easily available much of it on reasonably priced compliations. Listen to some of these and then make your choice. The Yazoo catalogue (which is not a cheapo label) has a huge amount of top- notch pre-war material from which to chose, people like Frank Stokes, Furry Lewis, Blind Blake, Bill Broonzy etc etc. So I would say the way to go is as suggested by van
lingle
FINALLY before any abuse comes, I repeat I AM NOT KOCKING the worth of those guys mentioned by Wesley S (well not all), just pointing out the fact that they are not the original article.

Hope you find what you are looking for, it's all out there.

Hoot