In a cultural evolutionist perspective there is a long line connecting the blues music to the first slaves who arrived on the soil of the north American continent at the end of the 1610’s in Virigina and on the Sea Islands before the coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. In this approach, the African […]

There is almost a kind of romantic touch to it when we read that music was an essential part of the life of the African slaves who were brought to the colonies on the American continent. Music was not only the medium to express emotions at crucial life time events, but it was also a […]

I would like to start with a little anecdote that a French blues aficionado, Rene Malines told me, quoting Eric Bibb at a press conference some ten years ago in France, during a “Cognac Blues Passions”-festival. Eric Bibb had heard an album produced by Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Touré (whose music is regarded as […]

The story is well known, even outside the circle of blues lovers: Tutwiler, Mississippi, in 1903, W.C. Handy waits in the station on his train heading (presumably) to Clarksdale. His train was several hours late and he tried to catch some shuteye when he noticed that a “lean, loose-jointed Negro had commenced plucking a guitar […]