“The blues also tells deeply human stories of love and loss, hope and struggle. The eleven songs recorded on the American Songbag include lyrics that are about hopes and dreams, lost love, mourning the dead, dreams of escape from jail, heaven and hell and the singers’ hopes and fears for the future.”…

“It’s so important that we preserve and spread blues music because it has such raw emotion behind it. Its origins came from a dark time in history that we can never repeat. Every word that those original blues musicians sang came from truth and heartache. As well, every form of modern music has some relation to the blues.”…

“I would like music to affect people in the sense that they can see and feel what happened to them. For example, that night when they listened to blues, did they feel that the music touched their soul? Or did they feel what the musicians were conveying while they played? Things like that.”

César Valdomir: Harp Attack Blues…

“Music of the past had soul...not after 1976...It's all production now...so it seems the AI may have a future with people that don't know anything about music...most of the music coming out seems to be more like Broadway musical theatre type of music...who knows? Maybe Robots will be the future singers and people will LOVE them!!”…

“The Arts in all forms, breeds empathy, compassion, sympathy, collaboration, communication and life skills like concentration, complex thought, scrutiny, questioning authority and self expression. Without these tools and skills we have no way to express our emotions which get bottled up and build a violent and depressed society.“

Doña Oxford: The Art of…

“Music today gives people a place to connect, escape, and heal. Blues is the root of it all — rock, soul, even hip-hop grew out of it. Preserving and spreading the blues matters ’cause it’s our history, our truth, and it still speaks to what folks are going through now.”

Jay Hooks: Tequila, Bullets &…

“My hope is that the Turkish blues community, which is already recognized and appreciated in the international blues world, will also receive the same appreciation here at home. Normally, people might phrase it the other way around—“we want the recognition abroad that we already enjoy at home”—but things don’t always work so logically in my country.”

Göksenin…

“Without sounding redundant hopefully. As I've said educating, and embracing our heritage, stop making Blues the last thought in the music field. And support the Blues, and live music clubs... Hopefully I made some sense in my responses to your questions. Thank you again for asking me to participate.”

Jimi “Primetime” Smith: My Blues…

“I think that the music is rooted in real southern culture. The bands that again “keep it reel“ are able to pull from their own experiences and translate that to a musical message that transcends and cuts through the noise of the world.”

Darrell Whitt: The Axe of Preacher Stone…

“The Blues will never die as long as we will need to exorcise our demons, daily struggles, heartbreak, or despair. Still, music won’t change the world—it just allows us to create parentheses, moments of peace, in a very troubled world. “

Manu Lanvin: Man On A Mission

Singer, guitarist,…