Blues timeline

By jmcmillan1

  • Maple leaf rag was published

    Maple leaf rag was published
    Scott Joplin publishes "Maple Leaf Rag." Ragtime will become a key influence on the Piedmont style of blues.

  • The first African music gets recorded

    The first African music gets recorded
    Victor Records issues the first known recording of Black music, "Camp Meeting Shouts."

  • The Bluesman gets diiscovered

    The Bluesman gets diiscovered
    The musician W.C. Handy sees a bluesman playing guitar with a knife at a train station in Mississippi.

  • Blues songs are first recorded

    Blues songs are first recorded
    The first blues songs, including W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues", are published as sheet music.

  • Mamie Smith

    Mamie Smith
    Mamie Smith records for Okeh Records. Her "Crazy Blues" becomes the first blues hit, beginning the business of "race" recording.

  • Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey

    Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey
    Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, the defining performers of the classic blues, make their recording debuts.

  • Folk Blues Debuts

    Ralph Peer, the famous Artist & Repertory man for Okeh and Victor Records, makes his first field recordings in Atlanta, Georgia, marking the recording debut of both the folk blues and what will later be called country music.

  • First blues record

    First blues record
    The first male folk blues records, featuring singers Papa Charlie Jackson and Daddy Stovepipe, are issued.

  • Blind Lemon Jefferson

    Blind Lemon Jefferson
    Electrical recording technology is introduced.

  • Charley Patton

    Charley Patton
    The early Delta bluesman Charley Patton is first recorded.

  • Robert Johnson

    Robert Johnson
    Legendary Delta bluesman Robert Johnson begins his short recording career.

  • Electric Guitar Introduced

    Electric Guitar Introduced
    Eddie Durham records the first music featuring the electric guitar. The modern instrument, first developed by musician George Beauchamp and engineer Adolph Rickenbacher in the early 1930s, will help to transform the sound of the blues.

  • Muddy Waters Recorded

    Muddy Waters Recorded
    Alan Lomax records McKinley Morganfield, better known as Muddy Waters, for the Library of Congress at Stovall's Farm in Mississippi.

  • T-Bone Walker uses the electric guitar

    Bluesman T-Bone Walker plays electric guitar on the recording of his standard "Call it Stormy Monday."

  • Rhythm and Blues is born

    Jerry Wexler, an editor at Billboard magazine, substitutes the term "rhythm and blues" for the older "race" records.