The '70s The Hard Years
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With the rise of glam rock, country rock, and progressive rock on the white side, and funk and disco on the black side, the blues suddenly sounded irrelevant to pop music fans in the 1970s. Still, the blues survived.
A young fan, Bruce Iglauer, started Alligator Records in Chicago, making records and selling them out of the trunk of his car. Johnny Winter and Muddy Waters created the best records of Waters' post-Chess period.
Down South on the Chitlin' Circuit, blues artists went back to entertaining black audiences, avoiding blues-rock and focusing on Southern fried blues that was greasy and steamy. The concluding performance comes from the inimitable Bobby Rush.
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.