Electric Blues - Contemporary Electric Blues

Contemporary Electric Blues

Since the end of the 1960s electric blues has declined in mainstream popularity, but retained a strong following in the US, Britain and elsewhere, with many musicians that began their careers as early as the 1950s continuing to record and perform, occasionally producing breakthrough stars. In the 1970s and 80s it absorbed a number of different influences, including particularly rock and soul music. Stevie Ray Vaughan was the biggest star influenced by blues-rock and opened the way for guitarists like Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Jonny Lang. Practitioners of soul-influenced electric blues in the 1970s and 80s included Joe Louis Walker and most successfully Robert Cray, whose Strong Persuader album (1986), with its fluid guitar sound and an intimate vocal style, produced a major crossover hit.

Since her breakthrough commercial success Nick of Time in 1989 Bonnie Raitt has been one of the leading artists in acoustic and electric blues, doing much to promote the profile of older blues artists. After the renewed success of John Lee Hooker with his collaborative album The Healer (1989), in the early 1990s a number of significant artists began to return to electric blues, including Gary Moore, beginning with Still Got the Blues (1990) and Eric Clapton with From the Cradle (1994). There were also many new acts who played a version of blues-rock, including Clarence Spady The White Stripes, The Black Crowes, The Black Keys, Jeff Healey, Clutch, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Joe Bonamassa. This renewed interest in blues in general and electric blues in particular has led to talk of another blues revival or resurgence.