{"id":98566,"date":"2016-06-17T10:36:52","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T10:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/6toplists.com\/?p=98566"},"modified":"2016-06-17T10:52:52","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T10:52:52","slug":"the-top-6-blues-musicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/6toplists.com\/?p=98566","title":{"rendered":"The Top 6 Blues Musicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/em>[CustomTables]<\/strong><\/p>\n

–Tom Waits<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If American music is unique, it is largely due to its bedrock foundation<\/strong> of blues and gospel music, two forms of music that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century. Anchoring the sounds of African America, these styles underlay the musical innovations<\/strong> of the century: jazz, rhythm and blues, rock, soul and hip hop. They are known and cherished around the world and in every corner of the U.S. It would be impossible<\/strong> to imagine American music without them.<\/p>\n

The story of black music is also the tale of the enduring social struggles<\/strong> of American history. Blues and gospel, the secular and sacred songs of everyday black folk, are both bound up<\/strong> in sorrow, loss, despair, hope, redemption, resilience and dreams. While remaining recognizable over many decades, the spirit and musical forms<\/strong> of these styles have influenced<\/strong> much of the American music that has followed.<\/p>\n

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The \u201cblue notes\u201d that are characteristic of the form became prominent<\/strong> in country music, rock and roll and jazz. The simple 12 bar A A B form<\/a> of blues became the template<\/strong> for the first rock and roll songs, from \u201cGood Rockin\u2019 Tonight\u201d to \u201cRocket 88″ to \u201cHound Dog\u201d to \u201cJohnny B Goode\u201d.<\/p>\n

And the world wide interest in American blues inspired<\/strong> such musicians as The Beatles<\/a>, The Rolling Stones<\/a> and others abroad to not only take up their own instruments, but to re-influence American popular music, borrowing the beat, the form and the sound of the blues and infusing them<\/strong> with new sensibilities.<\/p>\n

Blues music characteristically features musical tones<\/strong> that differed from the Western diatonic scale (do re mi). The blues features notes that fall between the intervals<\/strong> of the scale, microtones<\/a> that flattened the pitch of conventional music, creating powerful tensions<\/strong> and resolutions. The blues also feature a heavily accented and often irregular beat.<\/p>\n

Simple blues<\/strong> forms follow an A A B structure over twelve bars; a form that has become the bedrock of jazz, pop, country and rock and roll over the years. Blues music drew on<\/strong> numerous African American sources. In Southern plantations, lumber camps, prisons and fields, black work songs, field hollers, chants, and ballads all combined to shape a unique new music<\/strong> with strong ties to African antecedents.<\/p>\n

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Blues artists became heroes<\/strong> and legends in the black community. One of the most enduring tales concerns the elusive bluesman Robert Johnson<\/a>. Johnson\u2019s music was so powerful<\/strong>, many of his listeners believed the myth that he had sold his soul<\/strong> to the devil in exchange for it. Similar tales of other musicians made clear that African Americans saw music as a spiritual<\/strong>, deeply powerful art.<\/p>\n

Such tales<\/strong> resonated with African stories and myths kept alive in the black community, and were embraced as well by a wider world eager to understand<\/strong> the source of blues music\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n

Similarly, gospel music<\/strong>\u2019s deep connection to religious faith often transported both performers and audiences: trances, speaking in tongues and ecstatic emotional outbursts<\/strong> often accompanied the gospel music and services. This music could and did change lives<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Let’s see now the top six blues musicians:<\/p>\n

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6. B.B. King<\/h2>\n

Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 \u2013 May 14, 2015), known by his stage name<\/strong> B.B. King<\/a>, was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/a> in 1987, B.B. King is known as “The King of the Blues”, and one of the “Three Kings of the Blues Guitar” along with Albert King<\/a> and Freddie King<\/a>. Truly, B.B. King\u2019s career was not just one of longevity but ongoing tireless performances<\/strong> averaging over 200 concerts per year well into his 70\u2019s; King died at the age of 89 in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 14, 2015.<\/p>\n

B.B. King started singing in the gospel choir<\/strong> at Elkhorn Baptist Church<\/a> in Kilmichael. Some say that at the age of 12 King purchased his first guitar<\/strong> for $15 while others indicate he was given his first guitar by Bukka White, his mother’s first cousin (King’s grandmother and White’s mother were sisters). A self-taught guitarist, B.B. King wanted to become a radio musician<\/strong> and so he did performing on Sonny Boy Williamson<\/a>‘s radio program on KWEM in West Memphis, where he began to develop an audience. King’s appearances led to steady engagements<\/strong> at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis and later to a ten-minute spot on the Memphis radio station WDIA<\/a>, as a result, the radio spot became so popular that it was expanded<\/strong> and became the Sepia Swing Club.<\/p>\n