Ray Charles: 'Brother Ray  - Ray Charles'  Own Story'

The cats in the band could play the Blues. That came first. Show me a guy who can't play the Blues and I'm through with him before he can get started. If you can't get nasty and grovel down in the gutter, something's missing. It's not that the Blues are complicated. They're not; they're basic. There are hundreds of versions of the same Blues - the same changes, the same patterns - just as there are hundreds of versions of the same spirituals. The music is simple. But the feeling - the low-down gut-bucket feeling - has to be there or it's all for nothing.

"The Blues is the source. It has to do with people, places, and things. It's life, with all the emotion and passions. As long as we have them, we'll have Blues. The Blues contains all the basic feelings of human beings: pain, happiness, fear, courage, confusion, and desire, told in simple stories. That's the genius of the Blues."  --B.B. King

"Some will say to you anybody can play the Blues, but that doesn't mean everybody'll like it. You have to express your self when you play the Blues. Some people will just play the notes. It's a very simple music, but I think that simplicity makes we that play the Blues work harder at it."   --B.B. King