How the soundtrack to today’s protests against racism has roots in the blues
Rap songs from Public Enemy and Ludacris have been heard at marches over the killing of George Floyd. But the history of Black American music as a form of protest dates back to the 19th century.
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A music maker sings the coronavirus blues
Musician Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen has long met adversity with music. She lost her New Orleans home to Hurricane Katrina and relocated to North Carolina with assistance from the Music Maker Relief Foundation, a group that supports blues musicians. But…
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Shemekia Copeland: a new-generation ‘Queen of the Blues’
For some, 40-year-old vocalist Shemekia Copeland might seem out of step with a generation more in tune with hip-hop than the blues. But since her first Grammy nomination at the age of 21, Copeland has been working to push the…
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With the Juke Joint Festival, a Mississippi city aims to lose its economic blues
In Mississippi’s Clarksdale, the heart of the rural Delta, a celebration of the blues has been drawing thousands of fans to the area for the past 16 years. The Juke Joint Festival, named for bars and informal music venues scattered…
Singer/songwriter Billy Bragg gained fame as a punk rock and folk musician in the 1980s. Now nearing 60, he’s still singing songs of protest and passion, but also singing the gospel of skiffle, a folk and blues-inspired genre that helped…
It's called the blues, but Taj Mahal and Keb' Mo' are feeling nothing but joy. The two musicians have been writing and performing music a long time, but never together -- until now. Jeffrey Brown sits down with the two…
Taj Mahal and Keb Mo are both living legends in the blues music scene. But they haven't released an album together -- until now.
San Jose bluesman Aki Kumar has just released an album that combines old songs from Indian blockbuster films of his childhood with Chicago-style blues.
Blues legend B.B. King has died at age 89. The singer continued to perform until last October, averaging more than 300 performances a year for six decades. Jeffrey Brown, who once joined King on his tour bus, and remembers the…
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