The one thing the blues don't get is the backing and pushing of TV and radio like a lot of this garbage you hears. They choke stuff down people's throat so they got no choice but to listen to it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The blues is like a planet. It's an enormous topic. You can't ignore the impact that it has had and continues to have on the whole musical culture. It's a tree that everyone is swinging from. Without it, I don't know where I would be. It's indelible and indispensable.
I didn't really grow up listening to blues, because I grew up in the Northwest. It wasn't really the center for blues.
If they played more blues, people would just get it - they try to hold it back but just about can't hold it back now because the blues is really going.
The blues is the foundation for a lot of things. Things have branched off. It's cool how music grows, but the foundation is always there. It's not going anywhere. The blues is always going to be relevant.
The blues is deceptively simple. Verse and chorus. Sometimes not even a chorus. Four bars that repeat, no Auto-Tune, electricity optional. It is the most direct, bare-bones of content. There is no interference between the head and heart.
Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable.
The blues is not the creation of a crushed-spirited people. It is the product of a forward-looking, upward-striving people.
When all the original blues guys are gone, you start to realize that someone has to tend to the tradition. I recognize that I have some responsibility to keep the music alive, and it's a pretty honorable position to be in.
The blues is played everywhere. There's no place I've been where they don't have blues or aren't interested in blues.
The blues echoes right through into soul, R&B and hip hop. It's part of the make-up of modern music. You can't turn your back on the blues.