Sounds

Reporting locale: Memphis Beale Street in Memphis was to blues what 52nd Street in New York was to jazz.  Packed clubs, street musicians, all night card games, ladies of the […]

Reporting locale: Chicago The 1950s was the golden era of the blues.  During World War II, countless blacks left the fields for factories in cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and […]

Reporting locale: Newport, R.I. By the 1960s, Chicago blues had peaked and a backlash to electrified roots music was in full swing on college campuses and coffeehouses across America.  At […]

Reporting locale: London, England In the 1950s, first Big Bill Broonzy, then Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters performed in England, setting off a prolonged period of blues obsession by young […]

Reporting locale: San Francisco While America was listening to re-constituted country blues in the early ‘60s and England was experimenting with its own versions of electric blues, it wasn’t long […]

Reporting locale: Chicago Though the late ‘60s were exciting, as prolific blues-rock bands turned out gem after gem, the blues suffered its worst hangover in the decade that followed.  With […]

Reporting locale: Austin, Texas At the start of the 1980s, the future of the blues seemed as dark as the decade just passed.  But a pair of young bluesmen, Stevie […]

Reporting locale: New Orleans The revival that the blues experienced in the 1980s extended into the ‘90s, with more blues albums being released during this decade than ever before.  A […]

Reporting locale: Seattle, Washington The Blues concludes with a look into blues future.  Reporting from Experience Music Project in Seattle, where a major retrospective on the blues is underway via […]