THE VARIOUS BLUES STYLES, AND AN IMPORTANT NEW RELEASE

By GEORGE SEEDORFF

With the blues bigger than ever, there are still many different styles of the genre competing for top favor among the growing number of fans who can't seem to get enough blues power in their daily musical diet. First of all, there is B.B. King, the father of uptown blues originally from Indianola, Miss., who now makes the world his home. In addition to the much-celebrated Chicago sound of greats like Buddy Guy, Son Seals, Magic Slim, Billy Branch and countless others, the West Coast sounds of artists like Joe Louis Walker, Etta James and former Detroiter John Lee Hooker continue to command a great deal of attention as well as healthy record sales.

Rising stars like Long John Hunter are clear evidence that the always powerful Texas blues tradition, that gave us T-Bone Walker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Freddie King, Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan, remains one of the strongest blues strains. Of course, no discussion of blues is complete without a mention of the rich Louisiana sound that is still producing outstanding artists such as Kenny Neal and Larry Garner. And there are others, like Lonnie Brooks, who combine the Chicago and Louisiana sound with a little rock 'n' roll to reach new heights.

More than 30 years after the so called "British blues invasion," the combination of blues and rock 'n' roll, often affectionately called 'rockin' blues," is a dominant modern variation of the blues idiom that is probably the most prevalent music among the nation's bar bands. Blues purists often have trouble with this particular variation because sometimes the blues gets lost in the mix, particularly when the volume starts to rise a little too high. Yet there are many fine examples of this style when the marriage works well. In Detroit, the Sidewinders and the Glen Eddy Band are two bands that make it work.

All over the country disciples of the classic Delta blues style, such as Detroit's own Robert Jones, have made themselves heard, thereby keeping the legacy of Son House and Robert Johnson alive and well for the foreseeable future. Others include Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Keb Mo', who are collectively known around the country in blues circles as the "young fogies" because of their interest in the traditional slide guitar style of the old Delta masters.

Detroit's own blues guitar master Johnnie Bassett is one of the best examples of what happens when uptown blues is crossed with sophisticated organ and saxophone jazz. This "bluesy jazz" and "jazzy blues" style of music is what you can most often hear on WDET-FM every Saturday night from 7 to 10 p.m. when Gene Elzy spins the blues. Two other outstanding Detroit blues guitarists who are even more firmly rooted in the pure uptown sound of blues, without the emphasis on jazz that is Johnnie Bassett's hallmark, are Robert Penn and Little Jr. Cannaday.

Other Detroit outfits like the Sun Messengers and Hastings Street Blues Band have found that people enjoy a mixture of blues, R&B and a little good old fashioned Motown for fun. Detroit blues masters like the Butler Twins and Willie D. Warren continue to concern themselves with the electrified Delta blues style that first came into being in Chicago in the early 1950s by way of blues great McKinley Morganfield, who the world knows as Muddy Waters, and the equally great Chester Burnett, better known by blues fans around the world as Howlin' Wolf.

One of the finest Detroit-based bluesmen with a current national release to his credit is Johnny "Yard Dog" Jones, who came to Detroit as a young man by way of East St. Louis and Chicago. His CD, "Ain't Gonna Worry," released late last year on Chicago's Earwig label, is a particularly fine recording that provides a powerful dose of the classic Chicago-style blues and pure soul that is his trademark. Kenny Miller, also based in Detroit with a new CD to his credit, also brings a solid dose of pure soul to his blues.

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