Stevie Ray Vaughan - I'm Leaving You (Commit a Crime)

This is a performance by blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. He performs the song "I'm Leaving You (Commit a Crime). A performance of this is featured on the classic live album "Live Alive" bye Stevie Ray Vaughan. It's a live record that boasts a lot of different types of material. Vaughan draws in all of his influences, performing rather contemporary tracks such as "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" by Hendrix and "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder, but also includes a lot of the old school blues feel.
This is one of those old school songs. The performance is simple, pretty much repeating the same little riff over the entire progression, and adding pauses where Stevie just gets to sing. It's really a performance that shows how good a singer Stevie truly is. He does a small guitar solo, but nothing fancy or flashy, and then ends it with a simple take on a turn around lick. It's just classic old school blues. This performance is inspired bye Howlin' Wolf, and Stevie definitely does him justice. It's just a great performance.

Enjoy ; )

OutKast - Idlewild Blue (Don'tchu Worry 'Bout Me)

(Haven't been able to find a version of this that is embeddable, so click here to go to the youtube page of the song)
This is the video for the song "Idlewild Blue (Don'tchu Worry 'Bout Me) by the rap duo OutKast. It's a song built around a classic 12-bar blues and it's sung by André 3000. It's nice to see newer artists incorporate blues elements into their songs, and especially when it's done well like this. It's basically the 12-bar in the front with a funky electric beat, and a little synthesizer towards the end.
The subject matter of the lyrics are also very bluesy, it's simple, but tells a story. It tells the story of a character trying to break free and gain independence, by leaving family, friends and the home town which is just classic blues. A lot of blues texts deal with trying to break free and leave, songs like "Dust My Broom", "Crossroads" and "I'm Leaving You (Commit a Crime)", to name a few.
The video displays André 3000 playing the song in an old house in the middle of nowhere that starts to overflow with water. There is debate of the meaning of the video. Some fans believe that the proximity of the video and the flowing water are visual allusions to the flooding that occurred as an aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Other fans see the water as an image of the blues, and that the blues can overflow and choke someone's life.
(Another artist who sung about hurricanes was Lightnin' Hopkins in the song "Hurricane Beulah" click here for that performance)

(A couple of pictures of André 3000, the first one is a capture from the video. Thought I'd at least give some sort of visual aid to this post!)
Any ways.

It's a great song, and it's nice to see talented people like OutKast doing a bit of blues.

Enjoy ; )