And, in so doing, this playlist should and will annul the sense that the blues is dead. The roots music misapprehension places the blues in the past, as something which happened but which lives on only as the basis for further happenings. But blues is an active creative process—just like any popular music, from classical to rock-and-roll (both of which are adaptable to alterations and yet are still themselves). Even in earliest 20th-century America, there was simply too much musical communication for any sound to be called regional roots music, and this becomes all the more true both during World War II and after. But the blues was still the blues, something hard and human and yet quite amenable to the processes which affect and remodel any other sort of music, such as popular audience requirements and the need for personal and original expression of meaning. The goal of this playlist, therefore, is to demonstrate that blues music never was and still is not dead—as displayed by the more recent selections included— and that consequently the blues ought to be listened to as an active identity just like any other.
Note: Look for various versions of the same song on the playlist; often, both are included for listening with one descriptive paragraph discussing the song itself.
Note: Look for various versions of the same song on the playlist; often, both are included for listening with one descriptive paragraph discussing the song itself.
