Blues music emerged in the early twentieth century in the United States as one of the most distinctive and original of American musical forms. It is an African American creation and, like its distant relative jazz, blues music is one of the great contributions to American popular culture. Blues music encompasses a wide variety of styles, including unique regional and stylistic variations, and it lends itself well to both individual and group performance. As a cultural expression, blues music is often thought of as being sad music, a form to express the hardships endured by African Americans. And, while it certainly can be that, the blues is also a way to deal with that hardship and celebrate good times as well as bad. Thus, in its long history throughout the twentieth century, blues music has found resonance with a wide variety of people. Although it is still largely...