How did the blues fare in 2024?

In recent weeks there have been many rankings of the best records or songs of the year, often generic lists of approval, which include rock, pop, rap (in many of its declinations). Often these rankings do not look the bluesa genre which is evidently considered niche and whose specific “treatment” is reserved for a few specialized newspapers.

This is not the place and the time to consider the impact of the blues on modern music but rather it is the opportunity to rely on the lists of the best albums of the year according to some sites that deal with this genre to also see the state of health of this music.

To help us in the analysis we took three into consideration: Rockandbluesmuse, Rushonrock And Bluesrockreview. The result is very fragmented, everyone has their own list and the qualitative preferences are “spread” across a fair number of artists. Given this, it could testify to a rich production in numerical, but also artistic terms.

What catches the eye is that blues is often “contaminated” by rock (or vice versa), in the majority of cases it is an electric and powerful blues, but also very versatile like the one proposed by Gary Clark Jr whose fifth album “Jpeg Raw” is considered the best of the year according to Rushonrock (a record that Ultimate Rock places in tenth place in its rock album ranking). The American guitarist, considered a promise, manages to introduce, with an interesting experiment, rap elements into the blues.

Together with Gary Clark Jr Rushonrock also places on the podium, on the lowest step, The Black Crowes with their “Happiness Bastards” (read the review here) (record that Ultimate Rock places at the top of its rock album rankings). Silver medal for Ezra Collective with “Dance, No One’s Watching” (Read the review here).

At the top of the rankings on the Bluesrockreview site we find the album by Slash. With his “Orgy of the Damned” (Read the review here) the Guns N’ Roses guitarist also appears in tenth place on the Rockandbluesmuse chart.

Bluesrockreview completes the top three positions of its ranking with the third place of “Movin’ On” signed Dan Patlansky and the second place of Tab Benoit with his “Hear Thunder”. The latter also appears in 17th place in the Rockandbluesmuse rankings.

In the top triad of this last site we find three blues “specialists”. Starting from the third position of Chris Cain with “Good Intentions Gone Bad”, the second is occupied by Joanne Shaw Taylor (“Heavy Soul”) and the highest position goes to Michelle Malone with its “Southern Comfort”.

Both Rockandbluesmuse and Bluesrockreview include in their list (in eighth and fifth place respectively) “Broken” by Walter Trout. The two sites still share the records of Mike Zito (“Life Is Hard” at 18th and 10th place) and the guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd (seventh and ninth place for “Dirt on my Diamonds Vol. 2”). In ninth and seventh place on the lists of the two sites we find signed “Saratoga”. Eddie 9V.

Also the singer-songwriter’s album Beth Hart appears in two charts: those of Rushonrock which places “You Still Got Me” in eighth place while it stops at 11th place for Bluesrockreview.

Among the names also known to blues rock enthusiasts (and not only) we find the leader of Gov’t Mule and former Allman Brothers Band, Warren Haynes with his “A Million Voices Whisper” in 20th place for Rockandbluesmuse, which placed 18th Steve Cropper & the Midnight Hour (“Friendlytown”). According to Rushonrock “Mood Swings” by Marcus Miller deserves the fifth step in the ranking while Rockandbluesmuse reserves position number 16 for the orchestral live performance of Joe Bonamassa. For the same site “Be Right Here” dei Blackberry Smoke deserves tenth place.