"The Blues and Roots music blossomed from cultures that vehemently punished those who would create art which challenged the oppressive nature of their society."

Justin Johnson: Smoke On The Strings…

"Language knows more than you do, how can you and language inform each other. Imagination can be contagious. This isn’t about you. Ask not what you can do with language but what can language do with you."

Dan Raphael: Music in Poetland…

"Blues and roots music is the undercurrent of American culture and has created most of it and supported and enhanced it in various, subtle ways."

Eric Sommer: American Songbook

Boston-based singer,…

"Blues and Jazz music allowed the African American community to have a voice and share their songs and stories. Many people of different racial and cultural backgrounds heard those songs and connected with the music, so the music has helped unit us."

Holly Hyatt & Jon Burden: Maple…

"I hope that the now predominately white audiences for the blues and “old-school” soul music will get more into the roots and culture related to it; that can only help in somehow ending the long cycle of racism that unfortunately still permeates our society."

The McKee Brothers: Music…

"Blues has connected separated cultures. The white and black gaps (generally speaking) are by no means perfect but in my opinion they would be much more divided if it wasn’t for blues music."

James ‘Buddy’ Rogers: By My Side…

"One of the biggest challenges for the future of music is how musicians will manage to find ways to monetize their music. Without financial support, artists will find it increasingly difficult to choose to make music professionally."

Sari Schorr: A Force of Nature…

"Today's music lacks intention. The most important part of the journey of songwriting and recording is the means, and not so much the end. The artists of today are too focused on the end result. Too many are busy trying to be successful or a star rather than working towards the intention of having a career and longevity."…

"They are all linked, but music is superior to literature and politics. You can listen to a great song 5000 times and grow each time. You can't read a novel or a poem or hear a political speech too often...its unmoving - sometimes it's rhetoric. Toilet paper."

Tom Russell: The Rose of…

"To me music crosses racial, political and socio-cultural lines. When musicians perform they don’t care about that. It’s about the music. Music is a Universal language."

Baron Raymonde: The Lord of Sound…

"Music from the Swing ear continues to captivate people, because it has a special quality of appeal to the widest demographic of music lovers. For example, when I perform in family settings, it is just as likely to see a 2 or 3 year old dance to boogie-woogie as it is to a 70 year old person do it."…

"My hopes and fears for the future transcend the blues and go into politics, greed, and man’s inhumanity to man."

Little Mike: Tornado In Blues Scale

Queens native Mike…

"I think the Blues is still there you know. Since I started to listen to the Blues people told me that the Blues is dead and is still there. Of course is not the same Blues. I would say that there are several kinds of Blues now, I would say several base music."

Gerard Herzhaft: Portraits en…

"In my opinion Blues, and it’s subsequent baby, Rock n’ Roll, has had arguably one of the biggest impacts in terms of bridging the racial divide that existed in America prior to the civil rights movement."

GT's Boos Band: Highlands Experiences…

"Music for all cultures gives us the ability to express pain, joy, hopes and desires. But is also gives us the ability to express subtler emotions including irony, satire, double entendre, and it allows us to imitate and distance ourselves from musical messages, too, while performing."

Kristina…

"If you look at any blues lyrics, the themes are always the same - the expression of tribulation and hardship, which originates from the slave trade in Africa and debatably the very place human life began."

Tom Bell: The Face of Classical Blues…

"Its known that Blues as an African American expression transcended the colors and us, white, Latin, Asian, and all kinds started loving it just as much. If anything, like before, art transcends everything else. And we are all one again, fighting the same fight, sharing the same pain, needing the same love."…

"I believe the impact of photography and music is tremendous, and the implications can be powerful."

Christi Bushby: Talking With The Lens

Christi Bushby is a Northwest Indiana photographer, residing in…