[MUSIC] Well, welcome back. [LAUGH] We have been taking a very special journey along the Blues Highway, US Highway 61. Last week, we spent time in New Orleans. And today, we are traveling to Chicago, Illinois. Before we do that though, let's briefly recap the Mississippi Delta or Rural Blues. This is the music that eventually became urban blues and electric blues centered around Chicago. You will recall that we met Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, Lead Belly and Son House while we were visiting the Delta that long flat fertile area along side the Mississippi River. We met them before the Depression and World War II when they were playing acoustic guitars, usually steel bodied guitars made by Stella, because they were loud for unamplified instruments and they sang. Mostly, they played and sang solo. These guys recorded for John Lomax in the Library of Congress. They also recorded for a few record labels that catered to black consumers, labels such as Paramount and Black Swan, but rarely was there any crossover. Rarely were there records sold across racial lines. Rarely was this music sold to white audiences, even to rural whites. The audiences in those days were very segregated. The music of Patton, Johnson, House and Lead Belly were rural blues. Often called country blues or Delta Blues. It had folk, country and gospel elements. All of which were essential in the development of urban blues and that development happened primarily in and around Chicago. Now at its most basic, Chicago Blues is the upbeat or electrified version of Delta Blues. It's got a hard driving rhythm, louder electric guitars and it usually was not played so low. Now every musician that we're covering today is originally from the Mississippi Delta. Technology moved forward, jobs moved with technology and all of them moved up north. So, it makes perfect sense. Electric guitars became popular in the 1940s. Blues moved to a more urban environment, because of the economy. And finally, blues is plugged in, literally. Now there was a major population shift from the rural south to the cities of the north for several decades. It started with that big flood of 1927 that we talked about before. It was exacerbated by the Depression of the early 1930s and even that was eclipsed By World War II, and the mechanization that came after World War II. The development of tractors and other farm machinery that eliminated jobs for share croppers and field workers. The American population and the economy shifted from rural agrarian to urban manufacturing. Thousands of workers moved north for a better life in the factories. The solo guitar sound of the early Mississippi Delta Blues of Charlie Patton, Lead Belly, Son House and Robert Johnson was too quiet and subdued for the bars and nightclubs of the big city. Audiences just couldn't hear it. So, it was adapted to the city environment using electronics. A once quiet guitar could become a behemoth, thanks to amplifiers and speakers. So musically speaking, the style, the sound, the distorted electric guitar, that sound became much harder and more rock oriented. It became much rougher and tougher than rural or Delta Blues sound wise. Rock and roll, baby. We have to talk about this migration though, in parallel with the Great Depression, the dust bowl, the flood of 1927. By the early 1930s, the urban population was outnumbering the rural population for the first time in US history. So these young, aspiring musicians were traveling north on the railroad or along Highway 61. Those big cities in the Midwest became their destinations, Chicago was one of them. It was the terminus of the Illinois Central Railroad line, which connected the Mississippi Delta to one of the biggest cities in America. The windy city, the city of fanatic sports fans, the city of the bulls and the bears. And of course, a city of blues and jazz as well. Nice picture of the Chicago skyline here. I once lived in Chicago and I would mind going back, if it weren't for the winters, they're pretty tough. The Rural Blues tradition was waning somewhat by World War II and the new electric blues emerged in Chicago in the mid 1940s and through the 50s. When we come back, we'll talk about the holy trinity of Chicago electric blues.
