The Blues were born in the Mississippi delta in the early 1920's. Players such as Charley Patton and Son House just had acoustic guitars on which to accompany their vocals but, as the Negro population began to migrate North, styles changed depending on where they ended up. Those living in Chicago began working in clubs where the noise levels were high so, needing to be heard over the roar of the crowd, the blues men began to amplify their instruments thereby giving rise to a harder more brash sound which became the Chicago Blues. Meanwhile, out on the West Coast, there rose a more sophisticated smoother style popularised by T- Bone Walker an urbane guitarist who leaned more towards jazz and had a small group including trumpet and saxophone players. This 'jump blues' became the West Coast sound. In Detroit, John Lee Hooker, Eddie Kirkland and Baby Boy Warren played a more primitive electric blues whilst down in Texas, Lightning Hopkins, Little Son Jackson etc were playing in yet another style.So, you can see although the basic structure of the blues, i.e twelve bars and the three line stanza where the first two lines are repeated, remains the same, there are a lot of ways in which this basic form can be interpreted. Besides the ones I have mentioned, there is also Atlanta Blues, Slide Guitar Blues, Piano Blues, the list goes on. Try to listen to all kinds of blues, you may like em all!
