Country blues, which is also known as “folk blues,” is a primarily an acoustic guitar-oriented type of blues from which many other styles are derived. It often incorporates elements of gospel, ragtime, hillbilly and Dixieland jazz.

Musical Differences The main differences between country and blues have to do with the music itself, rather than the lyrics. Country music, on the other hand, is less rhythm-driven and is often played with a heavier reliance on strings, such as guitars, fiddles, banjos, mandolins and other string instruments.

Modern studies of the blues identify a range of different styles of blues: delta blues, country blues, down-home blues, urban blues, harmonica blues and so on.

The blues came before country. Both jazz and the blues evolved somewhat in parallel from African slave spirituals and field hollars during the late 1800s.

The name of this great American music probably originated with the 17th-century English expression “the blue devils,” for the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. Shortened over time to “the blues,” it came to mean a state of agitation or depression.

The term “12-bar” refers to the number of measures, or musical bars, used to express the theme of a typical blues song. Nearly all blues music is played to a 4/4 time signature, which means that there are four beats in every measure or bar and each quarter note is equal to one beat.

Chicago

Top 15 Contemporary Blues Rock Guitarists 2020

• ERIC GALES. Eric Gales is one of the finest guitarists in the world right now in the blues based rock, jazz or any other style.
• JOE BONAMASSA. Another former prodigy, Joe Bonamassa is one of the most visible guitarists of today.
• JOANNA CONNOR.
• JOE LOUIS WALKER.
• ROBBEN FORD.
• JOSH SMITH.
• ALBERT CASTIGLIA.
• MIKE ZITO.

Illinois

Scat, also called Scat Singing, in music, jazz vocal style using emotive, onomatopoeic, and nonsense syllables instead of words in solo improvisations on a melody.