where do i start?
I was brought up into electronic music, still love it but have recently found myself wanting to listen to more and more stuff, kinda widening my horizons a little. I remember hearing Muddy Waters as a kid on an old LP, and now i really want to get into some stuff, but theres so much out there, where do i start?
I'm getting an acousitc for xmas so i'll be learning to play blues on that once i get used to playing one again(sore fingers time!)

I'd suggest you explore the roots of modern Blues and Rock first -- the acoustic country Bluesmen. Obviously, this is hardly a definitive list, but these artists are definitely essential. I'd suggest looking for some good compilations/retrospectives of the following:

Robert Johnson
Muddy Waters
John Lee Hooker
Howlin' Wolf
Charley Patton
T-Bone Walker
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Lightnin' Hopkins
Big Joe Williams

Basically, check out this record label called Yazoo.

http://www.yazoorecords.com/

I posted this in another thread and there are others, but this should tide you over.




Son House
Charley Patton
Robert Johnson
Tommy Johnson - the actual person behind the story of selling his soul at the crossroads, belongs to Tommy Johnson and not Robert Johnson. Their is a character based on Tommy Johnson in the Coen brothers movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? They even named him Tommy Johnson in the film.

Sonny Boy Williamson II (Aleck Ford Miller)
Blind Willie Johnson
Howlin' Wolf
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Blind Blake
Lonnie Johnson
Skip James
Blind Willie McTell
Willie Dixon
Muddy Waters
Lead Belly
Blind Boy Fuller
Brownie McGhee
Reverend Gary Davis
Little Walter
Big Walter Horton
Junior Wells
Sonny Boy Williamson I (John Lee Williamson)
B.B. King
Otis Rush
Bessie Smith
Ma Rainey
Memphis Minnie
Ida Cox

Interesting piece of trivia there -- I'd never heard that before...

I'm sure a lot of bluesmen told that story to their wide-eyed nephews.

Maybe Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues on PBS would be helpful.

I only saw the Charles Burnet one...which I liked. Burnet did To Sleep With Anger among other films and a lot of stuff for T.V.

http://www.pbs.org/theblues/

Stevie Ray Vaughan first got me into blues. I love how he took material from older blues musicians like Albert King and Howlin' Wolf and put his own twist on it. I guess you could say he "modernized" blues, and he's an awesome guitarist to boot.

thanks guys, a lot of names there, many I am familiar with of course, but Ive not really heard their stuff. Will have to do some serious checking out!

Thanks for that link Roivas, that yazoo site looks the biz!