Genres: Blues & Blues Rock

Celebrate the modern blues scene and keep the blues alive with this mix of strict traditionalists and artists who are willing to bring a more modern touch to (arguably) America's greatest musical export.

Long before the blues went electric and urban, these rural pioneers were laying down the foundations of the genre, usually with no more than a voice and acoustic guitar.

Classic in-concert moments from blues kings and queens, from the Mississippi Delta (Johnny Shines) to the Windy City (Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf), and beyond.

Funky rhythm & blues punctuated by sleazy guitar bursts; a playlist celebrating loose morals and unchaste pursuits.

A playlist for late nights, barroom dancefloors and jukebox romances; dance to these sexy blues, mod, rock and soul records from the '50s, '60s and early-'70s.

Like the blues music they're grounded in, The Black Keys possess both timelessness and staying power. Listen to the greatest songs from their influences -- including band favorites -- as well as those from their contemporaries and side projects.

Greasy guitar licks, honkin' harmonica lines, and pounding piano riffs take the forefront in these killer blues instrumentals.

Been done dirty by a no-good lover? Fixin' to do something rotten? Vent your frustrations with this sexy, cathartic mix of blues licks and whiskey-soaked rock from today's finest and the legends who inspired them.

In 1955 Cosimo Matassa opened Cosimo Recording Studios in the French Quarter ushering in the "New Orleans Sound" (R&B heavy on the guitar and vocals). Cosimo fostered and attracted remarkable talent including Ray Charles and Allen Toussaint.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was one of the most talented and influential blues guitar players of all time. This playlist features songs by his greatest influences, his closest contemporaries, his indebted followers, and Stevie Ray himself. http://srvofficial.com

Essential songs born out of 1950s Chicago blues. Influenced by the rural, Delta Blues, Chicago's bluesman introduced amplification and electric instruments into the genre which led to the birth of rock 'n roll.

Listen to this slow, stripped-down take on the blues while sitting on your front porch with your grey-faced dog and a mug of 'shine.

Dating back to 1930s, these are some of the earliest recordings of blues music. Though it had humble beginnings, the blues music of the Mississippi Delta paved the way for rock & roll.

This playlist includes all of the early Texas blues pioneers, some of whom were the first to play the blues with an electric guitar.

A retrospective of Chicago's legendary Chess Records, America's greatest blues label. Chess was the home of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James, Little Walter, and many more.

The British blues boom, from its purist mid-'60s beginnings to the early '70s, when a new breed of bands brought a harder edge to England's take on U.S. blues and R&B.

When the midnight hour comes, the blues turns its attention to love lost, love won, and everything in between. From vintage acoustic Delta blues to swaggering modern electric blues rock, hear the blues after midnight.

Listen to the best songs from Jack White's prolific career featuring the best of The White Stripes and his various side projects, songs he's produced as well as songs from artists on his record label, Third Man Records.

Classic female blues singers from the 1920s through the '50s, from the lowdown dirty Beale Street blues to the sanctified gospel of the storefront churches.

With the onset of Prohibition, the country went dry and the party moved underground. Revisit American pop music's salad days, when ragtime was morphing into dixieland jazz and the first recordings of rural blues were being heard in major cities.

A unique selection of stirring laments, sobering reflections, affecting pleas, and chilling whispers that can depress and uplift concurrently.