50 Fun Facts About Blues Music

The blues originated among African Americans in which region of the United States?

Its first appearance is usually dated after the Emancipation Act of 1863, as juke joints spread.

Which chord progression is the most common form of the blues?

It is built mostly on the I, IV and V chords and is ubiquitous in jazz, R&B and rock and roll.

"Blue notes" are usually which scale degrees, flattened in pitch?

They are also called "worried notes" and can be traced back to African music.

The word "blues" may derive from which old phrase for melancholy?

George Colman used it as the title of a one-act farce in 1798.

The three four-bar phrases of a standard blues typically follow which lyric pattern?

An opening line over the tonic is repeated over the subdominant, then answered over the dominant.

Which composer billed himself the "Father of the Blues"?

His signature work was "Saint Louis Blues"; he first heard the blues in Tutwiler, Mississippi, in 1903.

In which Alabama town was the "Father of the Blues" born in 1873?

The log cabin of his birth is preserved near downtown; he learned cornet after brief organ lessons.

Who made the first blues recording by an African-American singer, "Crazy Blues", in 1920?

More a vaudeville performer than a bluesman, she sold 75,000 copies in the first month.

Which singer was dubbed the "Mother of the Blues"?

Born Gertrude Pridgett, she made over 100 recordings between 1923 and 1928, including "See See Rider Blues".

Which singer was nicknamed the "Empress of the Blues"?

Her Columbia recording career began in 1923; a car crash killed her at 45.

The "Empress of the Blues" was born in which Tennessee city?

Orphaned young, she and her six siblings survived by performing on street corners.

In the 1920s, the record industry marketed blues by black artists under which label?

"Hillbilly music" was the matching category for white rural artists.

Kentucky-born Sylvester Weaver was the first to record which technique in 1923?

The guitar is fretted with a knife blade or the sawed-off neck of a bottle; it became central to the Delta style.

Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller played in which "delicate and lyrical" southeastern style?

It used an elaborate ragtime-based fingerpicking technique.

Legend says which bluesman, who recorded just 29 songs, sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads?

He had only two sessions, in San Antonio in 1936 and Dallas in 1937, and died in 1938 aged 27.

What was the title of Columbia's influential 1961 compilation of the crossroads bluesman's recordings?

It shaped the British blues boom; Clapton called him "the most important blues singer that ever lived".

Which 1930s urban blues style was built on a regular left-hand bass figure on piano?

Jimmy Yancey and the Boogie-Woogie Trio of Ammons, Johnson and Lewis pioneered it in Chicago.

Jump blues, pioneered by Louis Jordan in the 1940s, was based in which Missouri hub?

It grew out of boogie-woogie and big-band music and fed directly into rock and roll and R&B.

Which Texas-born guitarist dominated the Los Angeles blues-jazz scene in the 1940s?

He made the transition from early urban blues to jump blues and is associated with the California style.

Which event marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues?

The postwar years also opened the music to wider, especially white, audiences.

Who is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues"?

Born McKinley Morganfield, he recorded his first success, "I Can't Be Satisfied", in 1948.

On whose behalf did Alan Lomax record the future Chicago blues father at Stovall, Mississippi, in 1941?

Lomax came back in July 1942 to record him again; he moved to Chicago in 1943.

The Chicago blues father got his nickname from playing in the muddy water of which stream?

His grandmother Della Grant, who raised him, gave him the name as a small child.

Most Chicago blues artists recorded for which Chicago label?

Its sister label was Checker; both were run by brothers Leonard and Phil Chess.

The famous Chicago studio immortalized in a Rolling Stones instrumental stood at what address?

The Stones recorded the track there on their first U.S. tour in 1964; the building became a Chicago Landmark in 1990.

The Chess brothers' label succeeded which company they had founded in 1947?

The successor label was established in 1950 and sold shortly before Leonard Chess died in 1969.

Which bassist wrote "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Back Door Man" and "Wang Dang Doodle"?

He was the Chicago scene's most prolific songwriter and later sought new markets in Europe.

Blues musicians commonly call the harmonica what?

Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson and Sonny Terry were early Chicago masters of it.

Chester Arthur Burnett performed under which stage name?

A protégé of Charley Patton, he had a booming voice AllMusic called "a sandpaper growl".

Which A&R man recruited the "Smokestack Lightning" singer to record in Memphis?

His first record, "Moanin' at Midnight" in 1951, led to a deal with Chess in Chicago.

Which producer's Sun Records challenged the dominant Chicago labels in the early 1950s?

Based in Memphis, the label recorded B.B. King before he moved on.

Which bluesman named his guitar Lucille after a fire started by two men fighting over a woman?

The brawl happened at a show in Twist, Arkansas; he ran back into the burning building to save the guitar.

At radio station WDIA, which nickname did the young B.B. King earn?

It was shortened to "Blues Boy" and finally to the initials he became famous by.

Which song won the "King of the Blues" a Grammy in 1970?

It was a hit on both the pop and R&B charts.

On which 1988 album did the "King of the Blues" record "When Love Comes to Town" with U2?

The collaboration introduced him to a new generation of fans.

To whom did the "King of the Blues" present his trademark guitar at a 1997 Christmas concert?

The concert was the Vatican's fifth annual Christmas event.

Roughly how many concerts a year did the "King of the Blues" play into his 70s?

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

The "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" are B.B., Freddie and which other King?

None of the three are related.

Which 2000 album with Eric Clapton won B.B. a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album?

The title nods to his nickname.

Whose 1948 hit "Boogie Chillen'" reached number one on the R&B chart in 1949?

He developed his electric adaptation of Delta blues in Detroit; his style is sometimes called "guitar boogie".

The "Boogie Chillen'" singer developed his electric style in which northern city?

His popularity revived with the 1989 album The Healer, which won him a Grammy for "I'm in the Mood".

Which 1958 British tour laid the foundations for the UK blues revival?

The loud electric set jolted audiences and inspired Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies.

Swamp blues, with performers like Slim Harpo, developed near which Louisiana city?

It has a slower pace and simpler harmonica than the Chicago style, influenced by Jimmy Reed.

Which blues rock performer was a rarity in his field: a black man playing psychedelic rock?

The 1960s blues rock hybrid was driven largely by white American and British bands.

Michael Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites were members of which Chicago group?

Singer-songwriter Nick Gravenites was also a member.

Which Texas guitarist fronted the trio Double Trouble?

His debut Texas Flood in 1983 exploded onto the international stage; his older brother led the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Which rock star saw the Double Trouble frontman at Montreux in 1982 and hired him for Let's Dance?

The studio gig came months before Epic signed the band in March 1983.

The Double Trouble frontman died in a 1990 helicopter crash after a show at which venue?

The crash in East Troy, Wisconsin, killed five; he entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

Which 1986 album announced Robert Cray as a major blues artist?

It arrived three years after Texas Flood had put a Texan at the front of the blues revival.

Which 1989 album revived the "Boogie Chillen'" singer's popularity late in life?

His later albums won multiple Grammys, including a pop collaboration award with Van Morrison.