Delta Blues

7 Pages 1849 Words

emphis Blues" and "St. Louis Blues". Soon after came 1920, and by that time the blues had spread across the country like wild fire. Famous blues singers such as Billie Holiday, and Bessie Smith became house hold names across the country.
Across the south different styles of blues varied as one traveled from one city to the next. Each style in turn got it's own name and characteristics. Some of the more well known types of blues are the Mississippi delta blues, East Texas blues, rural blues and East Coast Piedmont blues. In this paper I chose to focus on the effects the Mississippi delta blues had on Rock and Roll. The Mississippi Delta stretches from Vicksburg, Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee. The Mississippi Delta was arguably the worst place in the United States for a slave to work. It was not uncommon for a slave to be worked to death as a punishment for disobedience. Life was a little better when the slaves were freed, however many of the newly freed slaves had no other choice but to continue to work the land. The work was still very difficult, and they incorporated this tremendous harshness of life into the blues. The Mississippi Delta blues was...