ddw..."I still also have some trouble with categorizing JH as a "blues" guitarist based on a few cuts. It might prove he COULD HAVE BEEN a bluesman, but his body of work still says to me he wasn't."

Exactly. "There's a distinction between rock musicians who acknowledge their blues influences occasionally, and those musicians who strictly play blues, however one cares to define the genre." Hendrix obviously falls in the former category. He wasn't a bluesman, he was a psychedelic hard rockin' electric guitar player...he knew which side his bread was buttered on. Maybe he'd heard too many stories about Robert Johnson et al dying penniless and unknown. But he knew blues and could play electric blues with the best of 'em. (all caveat emptors from a Hendrix fan apply)