I count myself among the small group of people who can’t help but feel blues music spiritually.

I don’t mean people who take their interest in blues as far as the Rolling Stones or the Black Keys – I am talking about those of us who may have been exposed initially through a mainstream rock band but who quickly discovered a nugget of Gold in the rhythm, power and raw emotion produced in the Blues.

Those of you who know what I’m talking about, you have all had that “Ah- Ha!” moment where you finally put it all together and said, it is the Blues at the root of the music I know I like that is responsible.

This leads us to pay more attention to the songs, where they came from, past performances, and finally the legends, stories and homage that are paid toward history to this fabulous tradition of roots blues music.

At that point, you go back to Robert Johnson, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, Lightning Hopkins, Hubert Sumlin, Muddy Waters, the Wolf, Pinetop Perkins, John Lee Hooker and discover the rich history of emotionally-charged, message laden, simple yet deadly blues music that essentially built the foundation for rock and everything that has come since from pop to punk, rap to hip-hop.

At the root of the blues is the feelings and meaning they provide for you…what does blues music mean to you?

• Authenticity – in an era of falsehoods, there is no mistaking the authenticity in blues music – you can tell when the blues is coming from somewhere real within a performer and performance versus being faked
• Escape – when many people listen to blues their brain can finally let go of stress, fatigue and anxiety allowing what many will call a “cleansing” experience
• Sensuality – hard to argue that blues is some of the most fundamentally sensual and raw music ever produced
• Community – if you have ever been to a blues festival you have experienced the community feeling with both the crowd and the performers – that just doesn’t happen in rock and most other forms of music (traditional country and bluegrass are pretty good for this too)
• Good – despite them being called the “blues”, may people actually feel better after listening
• Sad – nothing wrong with working through hard times with the support of some great blues music, hitting rock bottom can be the start of amazing recoveries in people’s lives…often the blues accompanies us and helps us through

What about you, how does your favorite blues music make you feel?  What does it mean to you?