When I perform country blues I try to not only get it as authentic as possible but also talk alot about the music so that the songs I do have some historical context...
I agree with Azizi that if they are just rolled out in a manner shere people don't get the story that some could be misinterpreted as belittling the speech patterns of black musicans during the time in which these songs we popular in the black community... It is also important to remember that most black blues performers of the day also played and performed the white pop songs of their day and from my readings did them with more of a white dialect...
The blues, however, was more the folk side for black musicans and less Eruopean and more African in rythum and dialect...
But there is a fine line for us white traditional blues players and if we do the music historically without telling the stories then we are doing a dis-service to the music as well as distrespecting black people and black culture...
Now there are plenty of folks who do white blues with white speech inflections and mannerisms... That is fine because these songs represent more of an evolutionary style of music that came from the blues, rythum and blues, Chicago style blues and rock 'n roll from the 50's and early 60's... I understand that... It ain't African folk music... It's just current music based on a 1-4-5 chord structure...
My interests aren't in this evoutionary style but in the presentation of a more historically accurate story... I'm sure that there are folks who consider white people telling these stories and performing these songs close to the way they were performed a long time ago to be blasphomy but it ain't offered up in that way...
It's kinda like that discussion on race that we never get around to... When I perform and tell the stories part of what I am doing is having a part of that discussion...
In a way I understand fully what Son House was talkin' about in his monologue... People, black, white or brown, are conflicted... The blues is all about conflict... There is no blasphomy in white folks playing traditional blues... Conflict??? Well, yeah...
But one has to wonder how black folks felt in the 20's being asked to perform the white pop songs of their day one one hand but being told by the recording companies to just play blues on the records...