Blues » Country Blues » Blues Gospel

There has always been a point, both stylistically and philosophically, where the sacred (gospel music) and the profane (blues, the devil's music) strike an uneasy alliance. Consisting almost entirely of performers who are lay preachers or street-corner evangelists, Blues Gospel features use of blues guitar patterns that are tightly interwoven to the most heartfelt statements of religious conviction. Embracing everything from ragtime fingerpicking and knife-edged slide techniques to crudely strummed rhythm patterns, the style owes less allegiance to a particular kind of guitar than to using the instrument's possibilities to propel its lyrical message. Though its proponents are few, there are few sounds in the blues that are as alternately spiritual or as bone-chilling as blues gospel music.