INFO:

Source: WEBRip
Video compression mode: AVI
Size Mb: 250
Total Run Time mn. 82.33

This made-for-American-TV documentary is not a new one - it was made back in 1993 - but it does remain a great little documentary tracing the history of the blues over the last century.

The blues is a musical style that sprang out of nowhere from within the poor and isolated Mississippi Delta region in the early 20th century - the unusual singing style of a select few downtrodden and downcast negro cotton-growers - that then went on to grow beyond all expectation to the point that it now defines just about every style of popular music developed since, throughout the world right through to this day. The story of how the blues rose to prominence in America, and subsequently around the world, is a fascinating one and one that is well-told in this documentary.

Musicians:

Son House (raw blues beginnings),
Big Bill Broonzy,
Leadbelly,
Charlie Patton (the first officially recognised Delta Bluesman),
Blind Lemon Jefferson (the first famous recording bluesman of the 1920s),
Bessie Smith (development to performance/club blues),
Ma Rainey (the mother of performance blues),
Tommy Johnson,
Lonnie Johnston (the first truly versatile bluesman, playing across different styles, with a career spanning the 20s to the 60s),
Louis Armstrong (the first great figure in terms of blues impact - a sophisticated musician playing a completely different style of music, but highly influenced by the blues),
Jimmy Rushing (Kansas City Blues style),
Charlie Parker,
Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry (with their own raw and unique sounding two-man blues style)
Sonny Boy Williamson (the first radio blues star, as blues spreads and becomes more widely heard and appreciated),
Muddy Waters (the developer of the Chicago Blues style, and a bluesman to have unprecedented influence on future generations of Rock musicians),
Elmore James,
T-Bone Walker (Texas Blues, an expanded blues sound that required a group of musicians - the beginning of the modern electric group, including bass player and drummer. T-Bone was also the first to use the amplified electric guitar as an extension of the blues, in a style that was highly influential on future generations of bluesmen such as B.B. King),
Howlin' Wolf (who developed real blues attitude and took the 1950s songwriting style much further than anyone before),
B.B. King (the daddy of a modern up-tempo blues sound and R&B style),
Elvis Presley (the influence of blues roots on the newly emerging Rock and Roll music style of the 1950s is undeniable), and
John Lee Hooker (along with Muddy Waters, one of the more famous proponents of the modern 1960s blues style, bringing it all together).