Genre guide

The blues.
Where almost everything began.

The blues was born in the American South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, drawing on African musical traditions, work songs, and spirituals to give voice to hardship, longing, and resilience. Built on a deceptively simple structure of twelve bars and bent, expressive notes, it became the foundation beneath jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and nearly all of modern popular music. From the Mississippi Delta to the electric clubs of Chicago, the blues turned personal sorrow into a shared and lasting language.

Browse featured Blues artists

From the genre's founders to the names still being discovered.

Blues articles

The Single Song That Connects Son House, Robert Johnson, and Muddy Waters

Son House was the direct teacher of both Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, and the same song passed through all three men's hands across two decades. The story of how House vanished to Rochester while his students became legends is the real root of the blues canon.

The Black Keys Made a Record for Themselves — and That's Exactly the Point

The Black Keys' fourteenth album 'Peaches!' is a blues covers record born from personal grief — Dan Auerbach's father was terminally ill during the sessions — and recorded live at Easy Eye Sound in Nashville with guitarist Kenny Brown, bassist Eric Deaton, and multi-instrumentalist Jimbo Mathus. Here's why its stripped-back return to R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough hits differently than a simple stylistic reset.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Went Back to the Beginning — and Brought a Different Voice

Kenny Wayne Shepherd's "Ledbetter Heights (The 30th Anniversary Sessions)" re-records his landmark 1995 debut in full, with co-producer Jerry Harrison and drummer Chris "Whipper" Layton back in the room — and, for the first time, vocalist Noah Hunt singing material originally recorded with Corey Sterling. Here's why it works.

Taj Mahal at 84: A Lost Bill Withers Song, a 16-Year Wait, and One of the Year's Best Blues Albums

Taj Mahal's new album 'Time' — out May 1 via Resonatin' Records — was recorded in 2010 but arrives now carrying a previously unheard Bill Withers song, a 30-year band partnership, and proof that the 84-year-old blues legend has nothing left to prove and everything left to say.