Changing colors

I have a deep love of good old, greasy, stinky blues. Old juke-joint stuff. Robert Johnson, Son House. Mississippi Delta, Piedmont, early Chicago.

A friend just sent me a link to some historic photos of blues musicians on the web.
It's called The Blueheart Archive. Quite an impressive collection.

Scanning through all those photos I got a visual impression of what I've been hearing and seeing over the years as a Blues fan. Most of the photos in the last 5 or 10 years are white people, while the older photos predominantly feature black people.

You've seen it, too. Blues certainly has changed.

With the exception of a few "hardcore" individuals who are almost scholars (historians, really) in their approach to the music, we've changed the sound of the blues too, and often not for the better, in my opinion. I'm not talking about The Blues had a baby and they named it Rock & Roll. I'm talking about trying to cover Lowell Fulson, Houndog Taylor, John Lee Hooker, and just totally mangling the song!

I'm not sure how adding my white voice to the din can help the situation. Probably it can't. I'm likely part of the problem. But I sure love to play and sing the Blues.

Is there a solution? Or is it even a problem?