"I think soul and blues music is introspective, it helps you examine your thoughts and situation, make decisions based and your thoughts and hopefully come out the better for it. It helps you put things in perspective."

Willie West: Soul Survivor, R&B…

"The Blues is the lifeblood of most forms of music and I find my everyday life is affected by the heartfelt feelings that the music exposes me to. Blues means freedom to express and I do."

Brothers Groove: Let The Good Times Roll…

"I hope that the public at large will begin to gravitate back towards more organic, rootsy artists and bands that can actually reproduce the sounds on their records in a live setting."

Scott Boyer, Jr.: Muscle Shoals Legacy…

"Blues is a feeling, happy or sad, that is put into the form of music. Whether it is humming a Negro spiritual, scatting down a swing or be-bop tune, or skanking an island song of peace, love or revolution."

J.J. Thames: Soul Emotions…

"The Blues is a music that allows you to be yourself and to me being a bluesman is one of the highest callings on God's earth."

Eddie Cotton, Jr.: Here I Come 

Eddie Cotton, Jr. is an electric…

"Love what you do & Do what you Love...and always do the very Best that you can...Be the Best You!!"

Good Girls Go to Heaven, …

"The blues is our soundtrack. It’s not a sad music – in fact, it’s often about deep joy, celebration, and has far more meaning and depth than people realize when they hear it first off."

Mississippi MacDonald: The Thames King…

"I do fear that the next generation may not pick up the traditional New Orleans jazz sound and it will be lost. What's ironic is that the jazz taught in school isn't going to get a kid a job playing anywhere."

Joseph Lastie Jr.: The Beat of Crescent…

"Across the whole planet, populations are dividing into futurists and conservatives. Obviously a peaceful revolution which celebrates humanistic change at the expense of small power elites will make this world a better place."

Daevid Allen: From Another…

"You can't fake playing in Jazz; it's your real self. This attracts people at many points in their life, when they're ready for it."

Carol Kaye: The Reality of Jazz Feeling…

"In my opinion it is all real if played with feeling and passion. We can’t go back to the old cotton picking days. Blues has many genres and it is here to stay!!"

Mike Rivers: The Knight of Crawdaddy…

"My hopes and fears are that music will continue to be something that people to work for and not something that just happens when you think of it. I believe that striving to accomplish good music creates better people."

Scott Boyer: Reach For The…

"When I’m playing blues or blues based music there is a zone like no other - where nothing else matters and time doesn’t exist. Blues means freedom to me."

Becky Barksdale: Dark Heavy Blues…

"The blues is very personal and direct. Deep, true, unvarnished emotion is at the core of the blues. It cuts to the core and when I open myself to it, the blues teaches me that we are all the same, but our pain and joy is specific to each of us."

Hard Garden: The Gumbo Of…

"Blues is an emotion so what I play is an expression of how I feel from slow to fast blues to strange it’s important to voice and share it Blues is a vehicle it gets me from A to B via C with F and G along for the ride."

Big Wolf Band: Howlin In…

"I would love for the music industry to go back to the days where the writers get just as much credit as the singer."

Hannah Aldridge: Dark Country, Bright Songs

Hannah…

"People can identify with the blues because it is mostly simple themes and real stories. Also the music is simple and it more or less pushes a button in people and evokes emotions of certain feelings."

John Lyons: KISS the Soul Blues…

"The feeling you get when you hear something good, the way the music grooves, makes you feel something special! That must be it as a listener and if it isn’t the same when you play why bother!"

Ben Granfelt: Handmade in Finland…

"Business and all the middlemen seem to have de-valued Artists to the point that often the money end has more influence over quality or loyalty."

Steve Johannsen: Rock Art Liberation…

"Music is the language of the spheres, and lately popular music is just horrible in my opinion, void of emotion or talent. It has become a commodity, formulaic, derivative and entirely unoriginal or dangerous."

Steve Grandinetti: New York Gumbo…