M.Ted —— a couple of points....

I can't agree with you on the milieu being gone. Don't know if you picked up on the thread I posted a while back with a link to the photography of Bill Steber, who spends a lot of his time in the Mississippi Delta photographing the people of that area and their way of life. I'll refresh the thread for you to have a look. Double click on the photos to enlare them enough to see them well.

As for rap/hip-hop being today's blues...

Thematically, maybe. But musically, today's noise is just signifying set to disco music, but without a lot of signifying's playfulness. Most rap is just angry/nasty/in-your-face assholeism, IMO. It may have replaced blues, but I think it's a real stretch to call it today's form of blues.

cheers,

david