Last week all I wanted to listen to was metal. I played a lot of Slayer, Motorhead, Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth, whatever I was in the mood for as long as it was loud and fast. Today I've been feeling like the Blues a lot. I'm not down, which I usually am when I'm in the mood for it, I just haven't listened to it a lot. I put some Leadbelly on and it was just what I needed. This is a good city for it but I've always been more for the Delta Blues than Chicago Blues.

After the Civil War many freed slaves, who had developed what would become the Blues while singing call and response hymns working in the fields, migrated to the North. During the early part of the Twentieth Century, as the Northern and midwestern states needed workers for their factories and mills, many blacks were given a better chance at life than they had in the Jim Crow South.
New Orleans and the Mississippi area was where the Blues first originated, with Robert Johnson and Leadbelly, among others. As the migration went North, it spread to Memphis, where W.C. Handy wrote "Memphis Blues" and Memphis Minnie became well known. It traveled up to St. Louis, before stopping in the Great Lakes States. Chicago eventually formed its own version of the Blues, relying on electrical guitar and harmonica to differentiate itself from its predecessors. Chicago Blues was more elaborate, professional and more produced though not any less authentic. It told of the hardships of urban poverty rather than the pain of sharecropping.
Chicago introduced such musicians as Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Son Seals, J.T. Lenoir, Otis Spann and Howlin' Wolf (who became well known in Memphis as well).
I've always leaned towards Delta Blues, especially John Lee Hooker and Robert Johnson but living here I've been more and more in the mood to go the Chicago route.

Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker


Muddy Waters and Son Seals

One thing I've noticed about this city, it's a great mix of Memphis and Boston. It has less of the bad things both have and more of the good things.
Like Memphis it has good food and a great character without all the racial problems.
Like Boston it has good jobs and it's easy to get around. In terms of residents it's a very young city while Memphis is old.
It has more to do, more shows, more people, more things to see and though it doesn't have as much influence on history on Boston does, it has a more macabre background though Memphis comes close.
It's not as cheap as Memphis but it's much cheaper than Boston. Not as uncomfortably humid like Memphis but colder than Boston. Apparently it's more corrupt than Memphis, which is pretty corrupt.


Memphis


Boston


Chicago