(ThyBlackMan.com) When I think about the roots of blues music—the raw honesty, the pain wrapped in poetry, the joy carved out of hardship—I think of Ma Rainey. Her voice was more than a sound; it was ...

One of the biggest misconceptions about blues music is that the genre is all about doom and gloom. Naturally, many blues songs feature lyrics about being down in the dumps, love lost, and heartbreak.

(ThyBlackMan.com) There’s something about Buddy Guy that hits you right in the gut—the way he bends a string, the way his voice trembles with heartbreak, the way he pours a lifetime of joy and sorrow ...

As the National Museum of African American Music opens its doors, journalists from the USA TODAY Network explore the stories, places and people who helped make music what it is today in our expansive ...

For Buddy Guy — a stalwart and staunch defender of the blues — there’s nothing more important than keeping his chosen genre at the forefront of conversation. It comes naturally: Guy is one of ...

The story of how Muireann Bradley got signed to a record label at the tender age of 13 reads like the opening act of a biopic about a future pop superstar. As a young lass growing up in Ballybofey, a ...

NPR's Scott Detrow talks with Smithsonian curator John Troutman and blues musician Dom Flemons about the new folk music album, Playing for the Man at the Door. DOM FLEMONS: This is a collection that ...

NPR's Scott Detrow talks to Smithsonian curator John Troutman and blues musician Dom Flemons about a new folk album, Playing for the Man at the Door, from late chronicler Mack McCormick's collection.

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. David Chiu is a freelance music writer based in New York. A still from 'The Blues Society.' Mention the historic music festivals ...

The blues is ripe with legends and myths, not least the oft-touted claim that W.C. Handy was the father of the blues. But as Darryl. W. Bullock tells it, there is an important tract of blues history ...

Ryan Coogler's latest film, "Sinners," a spicy cinematic gumbo of African American folk tale, painful racial history and vampire horror starring Michael B. Jordan, has bolted out of the box-office ...