“The mash up between blues and jazz is in the DNA of the city. You can feel the ghosts looking down at you…and one of my main gigs is literally only a few blocks from the corner of 12th Street and Vine. The Kansas City sound moves people in a way that makes them want to dance.”…

“The impact of photography and music on socio cultural had be breaking down the barrier of racial prejudice and allowing black and white enjoy it together. I head stories from Buddy Guy where he would play gigs but was not allowed to stay in the hotels in the town he played in. I also think the photo of music album covers in some cases reflected the time they are changing.”…

“Music brings people together and connects them in ways that other mediums can’t. It’s a great healer,and comfort in times of need or an immense source of pleasure when times are good. It can be a teacher, give you a sense of pride, and a way of preserving your culture and heritage.”…

"The blues is not just music; it is a point of view, a friend, a source of humor.  In the day-to-day world it can be a constant companion. It brings with it a relationship for the self, and the ability to make the best of things, whatever, come what may."

Mark Adams: Blues Breaths

Mark Adams was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and it…

“God, music and sports have been the tip of the spear that has brought people together across the world. It is also the most polarizing of things also. If you think about civil rights, spiritual effect on the human soul, the general consensus on current politics and the woes of the human existence, it's all expressed through music. Music was the vehicle for the civil rights movement. It carried out to the people what was in the…

“Off the top of my head.. I think the Blues probably did a lot for civil rights back in the 60's.  You had all these young white British and American kids looking up to the old black Chicago (by way of Mississippi, usually) bluesmen and emulating them.  It hopefully helped bring the cultures together. Although it is worth noting that there was a lot of theft of songs going on around then too by white people from the black folks who started it…

“Blues is a very fundamental language in music. In essence, it speaks truer of emotion rather than vocabulary. While you can find plenty of sophistication, it, at base allows simple et profound understanding. That’s why it’s so popular around the world.”

Adrian Byron Burns: Don Quixote of Blues…

“My hope is that music and the arts in general are supported as a way of culture that supports the human existence… Europe treats the arts as an essential form of the learning process… whereas in the US, arts funding is being cut and politicized as being non-essential. That is ludicrous.”

Dave Keyes: The King of the Keys…

“Not everybody have the Blues, everybody can play the Blues, if they you don't learn how to play it, but I was having you know …but then again everybody can encounter some Blues and depend on how you feeling…And if you can feel.”

JW Gilmore: All About The Blues

Experience the master…

“I think that to make the blues more popular today, a musician needs to blend it with other musical styles, so that more people can relate to it. He can also write about universal or modern themes — subjects that people can identify with. That’s how you keep the blues alive and relevant.”

Enzo…

“It’s important to preserve the blues for its history for its raw emotion that crosses over into many different genres. Without blues as a foundation many of these styles would not exist today. I feel that it’s important to understand where the roots came from.”

Ben Brandt: Progressive Blues Rock …

“There should be new young artists emerging like in the 60/70's, but maybe that's wishful thinking, especially with the rise of AI. These days, the music industry is ruling the music business as it ever was, and it's heavily in the minority. Music is becoming purely a consumer product, and the artists are interchangeable.”

Harry Loco: The Music of…

“It’s important to preserve and spread the blues publicly because there are a lot of people who don’t know what an inspiration and balm it can be in your life – because they haven’t been exposed. There are other people who don’t know they can write, sing and, play blues to keep themselves sane and to cope with a crazy world - because they haven’t heard it. So we have to get it out there.”…

“Blues music is existential. It will never die. It reveals what human beings experience from infancy to old age. The intricacies, joys, and struggles of life are embedded in this profound music.”

Pierre Lacocque: Don’t Look Back

Pierre…

“What I miss most from music nowadays are, nowadays music with lyrics and stories that have poor substance and lack of a good melody line that songs of the past had. Many new artists don’t understand hooks and how to sing the song to deliver it out of a box.”

Larin Michaels: It’s All About Music…

“I think it's (Blues) important to preserve culture in general. So we know where things come from. The origins. That's important to me. I think music is more important thatn ever in society. For allt eh things...entertainment, joy, resistance, voicing what some people are afraid to do or say. Maybe that's the same as it ever was but I do think it is part of the mission for some. “

Ross…

“Simply put, I have heard too many other styles of music as a result of being born where and when I was. To deny their influence on me would be limiting myself as well as being dishonest. That said, if I can't put the Blues into what I'm playing then I feel like I'm not properly contributing to the music. The sound and feel of the great Blues musicians are what I aspire to first. The other stuff just seeped in as a result of…

“Blues is such an expressive style of music. It can bring tears to your eyes, Make you laugh, Make you think etc. You can feel what an artist is feeling through his or her voice. I think the Blues is an important genre of music and expression of what someone feels inside.”

Carmen Grillo: Walkin’ The Tightrope…

“The Blues is considered the foundational form for most modern American popular music, giving rise to genres such as jazz, soul, rhythm and blues (R&B), and rock and roll. Blues is an emotional style of music that relates to people for what they are going through. This is the way I try to approach playing.”

Jeff Stone-Skolnikas: Rolling Blues Stone…

“JB Hutto said, "Blues will be blues until the end of the world". He was right. Look at Jimmy Reed and the spectrum of emotions he takes you through with a simpler but greatly effective technique. He can do more with less. It is harder to do more with less, but when it reaches the soul and move a person, you know that the artist is hitting his mark.”…