Guess I'm just the dinosaur here. I've heard the old saw about Muddy Waters inventing electricity, but my view is that he electrocuted the blues — sent the genre to the electric chair, as it were.

With very few exceptions — James Cotton, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Willie Dixon and a few others — I just don't like the plugged-in bluesmen. For my money, none of them can touch the feeling and musical expertise of people like Josh White, Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Rev. Gary Davis, Big Bill Broonzy, John Hurt, Leadbelly and a host of others who could mezmerize audiences without all the jumped-up techs and accompaniment the later guys relied on.

There are a few still trying to carry their torches — Keb Mo, Josh White Jr., John Hammond and John Cephus and Phil Wiggins spring to mind — but it looks like people with my tastes are doomed to extinction.

Sigh.....

david