"Blues is a great outlet for your emotions, after a gig you feel like you have emptied your soul"

Norman Beaker: British Blues Crusader

Norman "Beaker" is a British guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and record producer, who has been involved in the British blues scene since the early 1970s. The Norman Beaker Band has toured and recorded with many…

"I hope that music retains some sort of value to people - both emotional of course but also regains some fiscal value too. The business model for recorded music is broken - too many people no longer pay for music."

Gary Fletcher: River Keeps Flowing

Co-founder and continuing member of the Blues Band with Paul Jones, Tom McGuinness and…

"Compassion and Loving Kindness are the most important things in the world and the more people incline to them, the less hatred and violence and selfishness there will be, and the world would be a better place, for our children and their children."

Hughie…

"Maybe musicians should play blues more with their heart instead of just playing it with their fingers…My fears are that almost anything could already be said, sung or played in the world blues and nothing more is left…Sounds a little pessimistic, I'm afraid."

Dinu Logoz: Swiss…

"I learn everyday it ain't always easy, so here it comes the Blues. To get you through on bad times and to let you enjoy even better good times. And to do this...you have to be true at heart."

RG Band: Ciao Italian Blues…

"Blues sunk into my heart and soul. Just as I had heard it the first time, Blues is the mirror of life, sometimes sweet, sometimes joyful at times desperate."

Herbie Goins: Soul of Joy, Heart of Music…

"Learning about the blues is like learning a language. It's a language that many people speak a little bit and that most people feel they understand. I like to think it's a language that I do and that I can converse fairly fluently."

Laurie Garman: Blue(s) Jean…

"Blues will survive anything, that is exactly what it is."

Diz Watson: The Keys of New Orleans 

Diz "Honeybear" Watson is a quintessential exponent of New Orleans style piano ­ an exuberant…

"I'd like to be in New Orleans in say 1916 just before they closed down the Storyville red light district and created the diaspora that spread Jazz and Blues all over America and then the world."

John Steel: Brit Beat and Blues Boom…

"The most important experiences are the ones where I have learnt something new...not necessarily music either. Knowledge comes from experiences you live through and you can channel that into music."

Mike Cooper: Sliding around the world…

"The blues is a music alive, and you can’t set its limits if you don’t wanna kill it. Of course you won’t find the blues nowadays in the same form and shape as it’s been in the past. But that means that the blues is still alive as I said."

Stefano Zabeo: Deep Groove…

Alexis Korner, John Mayall, Cyril Davies, and Long John Baldry are the founding fathers of blue-rock. In 1961, Korner and Davies formed a band called Blues Incorporated. Musicians who performed with Blues Incorporated, at various times, include Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Graham Bond, and Dick Heckstall-Smith, and most of the Rolling Stones.

One of the best concerts I ever attended was Alexis Korner opening for Humble Pie. It must have been around 1971 or 1972 (I know that Dave “Clem”…

"...The Blues has no boundaries…you are led completely by what's in your soul!"

Bron Buick: The Blues Bronster

London born of Polish…

"The blues for me is a way of expressing a feeling, you don’t have to be down and out to play the blues. It’s a vibration of the soul."

Papa George: Blues with a feelin'

Papa George is one of Britain's leading live…

"You’re a good musician if you can integrate all your life experiences into your music."

Axel Zwingenberger: “Boogie Woogie Be With Me”

Axel Zwingenberger is a blues and…

"Blues to me is truth, it can be happy or sad, but you must be sincere in what you play, there's nowhere to hide when you play that music!"

Colin Hodgkinson

Bassist/singer Colin…