I swear I don't want to start an argument--I agree that the musicians suggested by Wesley S. (and myself) are not Delta blues, which appears to be what Jonathan Swift was asking about in the first place. So, you're right--if you're looking for Delta blues or "true" blues, those are not the original article.

However, since the title of this thread is JUST GETTING INTO THE BLUES, I thought it might be nice if somebody put out some suggestions that weren't the most obvious ones but might still be of interest to somebody who was new to it. It's not like you can't learn from somebody who learned it down the road. Some of the modern musicians have DVD's out and have done a *lot* of research. As far as I know, there are no DVD's of Robert Johnson playing the guitar.