Blues music in America is often or always considered roots music—music which precedes other music but which can never be new, creative, commercial, or experimental in its own right. This playlist project will be about blues music removed from the context of white historical revisionism; blues music can be “authentic” without being acoustic, anachronistic, confined to genre, and written without consideration for profit or for the white audience which can produce profit. Creative and commercially minded artists such as Muddy Waters, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Slim Harpo, Little Willie John, Etta James, Charley Patton, Keb’ Mo’, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Derek Trucks Band, Ry Cooder, Ali Farka Toure, and the Rolling Stones will, then, prove that the blues is an active and creative form, one which not only inspired the music to follow but which continually inspires itself to work against genre. (Photographs, album covers, song selections, bibliographic information, and suggestions for further reading are also provided throughout the playlist, as an additional resource in understanding this, the more accurate of the blues identities.)
