Eric Clapton

A single source of blues music cannot be traced, but Ma Rainey is rightfully credited with introducing it to the world. Hence the reason she was dubbed as “The Mother of the Blues”. During an interview in the 1930s, Ma told musicologist John Work, that she heard what would be called blues, for the first time around 1902. She was in a small town in Missouri working a show at the time, and one morning a local girl came into the tent singing about a man whom had left her. This new style of soulful music drew in Ma Rainey so much she later had the girl teach her the song. Rainey performed the song as an encore in a show soon after, earning a special place in the show, and marking the start of her career (Jas Obrecht Archive).

Eric Church is a country legend. He has written over 26 songs and achieved pure greatness. Eric Kenneth Church was born on May 3, 1977 in Granite Falls, North Carolina. He started getting into music when he was 13. Eric even taught himself to play guitar and by the time he was 21, he started to play for restaurants and bars. One day Terri Clark asked Eric if she could help him write a new song. Terri and Eric’s new song, “The World Needs a Drank” caught the eye of record company Capitol Nashville. Eric interviewed with Capitol Nashville hoping to get a recording contract, but he fell short to what they wanted and was declined. Then he started working with producer Jay Joyce, who perfected Eric’s singing and guitar playing. Capitol Nashville

Jimi Hendrix is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer who is widely considered to be the most important electric guitarist in the history of music. Although Hendrix is known for his outstanding ability to play the guitar, he is also a very famous name in Blues music. He played the acoustic guitar but is known for his outstanding ability to play the electric guitar. With songs such as Red House, Here My Train A Comin', and Born Under a Bad Sign, Hendrix is considered to be in the Chicago category and quickly made his way into the history of Blues music.

Playing the guitar in ways never seen before, Clapton was hailed as a god, and the genre of blues was re-instated into the music industry. Clapton then went on to form the first ‘super group’. In 1966, Cream were formed, and by combining Clapton’s bluesy styles with the more rocky style of Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, Cream created a new genre of blues rock. Zepplin could also be credited for pioneering this genre. It was this genre that got Cream and Zeppelin noticed in the US.

Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues” (Crossroads) released in 1937. Robert Johnson is a legend, known as a figure in defining the foundation of the birth of Blues. His blues style was also very influential in the shaping of Rock and Roll. Before his young death at the young age of 27,

Blues, along with the artists that produced it, was noteworthy in the motivation of the Beatles. The Beatles had a great deal of respect for Chuck Berry and what he did for music. The Beatles credited Berry for being an important piece for creating rock and roll. Chuck Berry also prejudiced the Beatles with the lyrical content within his songs. It is easy to see that blues had an impact on rock and roll because a rock and roll band considered one of the best that ever lived, integrated it into their

The main innovation in rock was the electric guitar. It brought a loud and free-spirited feeling that came with rocking out. It loosened up the music which brought many different styles and genres within rock. It broadened the horizons to rock and roll letting people express themselves through their music. This rock craze spilled overseas into Britain where many great artists were born. The British Invasion happened in the mid 1960’s when bands moved from the United Kingdom to perform in America. The two main bands coming out of this time period were the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Both left lasting impressions on American music. Led Zeppelin, The Who, and The Animals were also a part of this important time period in rock and roll history. In this era most of America’s top music charts all topped out with rock and roll songs coming from Britain. Some notable songs are “House of the Rising Sun,” by The Animals, “Want to Hold Your Hand” by The Beatles, and many others. Even though the British Invasion took the United States by storm, it was just the beginning.

The racial diversity of mainstream music in the 1960s was widely spread, which is why this was such a significant decade for music. There was a so called “British invasion” that took place roughly between 1964 and 1966. British bands like the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Animals, the Beatles, and many more came to America bringing their version of rock music with a British twist (British Invasion). The

In contrast, Blues music originated from southern Mississippi and was first recorded in the 1920s. Blues music is further differentiated from Jazz as it was originally played as a solo using a slide guitar. This is not the case today as it has been modified and adapted by practising artists and utilises complex bands.

Eddie James “Son” House, Jr., an American blues singer and guitarist once stated, "People keep asking me where the blues started and all I can say is that when I was a boy we always was singing in the fields. Not real singing, you know, just hollerin', but we made up our songs about things that was happening to us at the time, and I think that's where the blues started (Cohn, 1993).”

When early rock and roll began the major American record companies did not take the british invasion seriously. The Beatles first album had to be released through small independent music companies. The success of British bands began to get to large to ignore, it changed the styles of some American musicians as well. In 1965 Bob Dylan performed at a concert in which he used electrical instruments, this alienated many folk music purists in the process of changing music forever (Unterberger pg.165). The American band the byrds combined folk and rock which created a number one hit on the billboard music charts. A Band called Buffalo Springfield blended aspects of Rock, Country and western music to create country rock in 1966.

Jerry Garcia’s most obvious influences deal with music and the modern pop music band’s role. He has changed the way music is produced, the way music relates to its listeners, and how the band interacts with its fans. Jerry Garcia was the renaissance man of the 1960’s singing, writing, and playing many instruments including the acoustic, bass, and electric guitars, the banjo, and the piano, which was a revolutionary idea for the time. He and the Grateful Dead worked to successfully enable the elimination of a record company in the music world. Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead all worked together- blending different musical genres- to create new styles of music that will continue into modern day. Jerry Garcia is largely responsible for the revolution in the identity of the music artist, for the increase in popularity of the live album, for the divergence of many musicians from record companies, and for the changes in bands’ touring style and interaction with their

BB King is undoubtedly one of the greatest blues musicians, and an equally unparalleled pioneer of guitar music. Brought up in the midst of poverty, strife, and struggle of the rural Mississippi Delta, King experienced great hardships from a young age, and used this as a source of inspiration for much of his later music (King & Ritz, 1996).

The blues, a uniquely American art form, was born on the dusty street corners of the Deep South in the late 1800s. An evolution of West African music brought to the United States by slaves, created the blues which was a way for black people in the south

To remark on some of the different features of both the styles of music, the main difference between Blues and Jazz is the fact that Blues is characterized by the slow, melancholic tempo and lyrics, and the utilization of guitar and piano. Whereas Jazz music relies on the basic chord structure and breaks off into heavy improvisational sections being tied back in with the same basic tune. It is true that the advent of Blues music came well before Jazz, however, the great influence that Jazz has in the Blues music heard today is astonishing. Similar to the Jazz long improvisational sections, the Blues of today has adopted that strategy and added long sections of guitar solos being tied back with the same basic chord structure and vocal