Marquise Knox performs during day two of Music at the Intersection at the Grand Center Arts District in St. Louis on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. In one sense, the history of the blues in St. Louis ...

(ThyBlackMan.com) When I think about the roots of blues music—the raw honesty, the pain wrapped in poetry, the joy carved out of hardship—I think of Ma Rainey. Her voice was more than a sound; it was ...

(ThyBlackMan.com) When discussing the most influential blues musicians of all time, Howlin’ Wolf stands in a league of his ...

The blues is ripe with legends and myths, not least the oft-touted claim that W.C. Handy was the father of the blues. But as Darryl. W. Bullock tells it, there is an important tract of blues history ...

One of the biggest misconceptions about blues music is that the genre is all about doom and gloom. Naturally, many blues songs feature lyrics about being down in the dumps, love lost, and heartbreak.

The Delta stretches across northwestern Mississippi like a big fallen leaf, tucked between two rivers. It spans 220 miles north to south and, at its widest, 87 miles east to west. How can so many ...

Before he arrived at the Old Joliet Prison south of Chicago, now the Joliet Area Historical Museum, Erik Devereux made sure his ensemble was in appropriate Blues Brothers order. The basics weren’t a ...

Joe Ely‘s new album Driven to Drive is arriving Aug. 2, and leadoff single “Odds of the Blues” features vocals from his longtime buddy, Bruce Springsteen. The song was inspired by Ely’s time at the ...