blues müziği abd’nin güneyinde ortaya çıkmışsa da, kuzey’de olgunlaştığı kabul edilir. yirminci yüzyılın başından bu yana, zenci toplumunun kendini ifade ediş biçimleri arasında ön sırayı alan blues müziğinin mississippi deltası şarkıcıları ve gitaristlerinin performanslarıyla 1940’ların sonuna dek “
delta blues” olarak kaldı. sonraları zenci halkın büyük kentlere yerleşmeye başlamasıyla elektronik ağırlıklı “chicago blues” doğdu:
"to me, chicago blues just stands out over any other music, so far as the blues is concerned. that's just like years ago, when i was growing up down in memphis it wasn't like it is today. they called that delta blues, memphis blues. they didn't have the horns, they didn't have all this fancy stuff. they didn't even have guitars, some of 'em didn't. and if they had a guitar, it wasn't no electric guitar what you need an amplifier like you do today. they just be standin' up there playing an old acoustic guitars, and somebody blowin' their ol' harmonica. somebody beatin' on an ol'washtub. same one we used to wash our clothes, 'cause we didn't know anything of no washing machine or dryer! that was what they called delta blues. but when we got up here to chicago, they was playing electric guitars. now, see all of that is something new. but the sound of the music still brought out the delta blues. that's what i call the difference. we still are singin' and playing delta blues. "
koko taylorhttp://www.gritz.net/inner_views/koko_taylor.html