There's another aspect to this which no-one seems to have commented on - which is the younger musicians, black and white, who are taking the blues forms and extending them by sampling them or incorporating the music into different forms.

In the UK we have Little Axe - founded by Skip McDonald - who incorporates the spoken words of Howling Wolf into a modern groove. It's wonderful stuff and I thoroughly recommend it.

In the US there are music communes like Pig In A Can where old black bluesmen jam with young white musicians to create a different environment.

Have a listen!

I'm not a great lover of rap or hip-hop but, for a significant number of young black people, it's their self-expression - their way of staking out a musical claim. We've all done it - just in different ways.