Damnit posted one times long long one dunno go where...
Anyway, good to know there are at least 3 of us here digging the same thing. Jo mentioned some great names, though I don't think you'll find much for download. Some of them can be pretty tough listening though, you might like to try these 2 albums for a start.
Eric Clapton - Unplugged
Keb' Mo - self titled?
The tab book is available for the Unplugged album, that should give you a good start. I lost my copy otherwise I'd give it to you.
My personal favourites for acoustic blues are Lightning Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Son House, Robert Johnson, Fred McDowell as well as the Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee combo on harmonica and guitar. There are probably more, just can't recall right now
Electric-blueswise, there are just too many to mention. Good start would be to listen to ppl like BB/Albert/Freddy King, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy (earlier stuff), Little Milton etc.
Learning wise, concentrate on getting the 12 bar shuffle rhythm real tight. Don't worry about the licks and riffs first, the rhythmic foundation and groove are the most important basics. Get used to playing it at different tempos, play along to CDs and get it burnt into your musical psyche. A good example of such a shuffle would be "Before You Accuse Me" on the Unplugged album. That one has a quick change, but you don't really need to worry about that yet.
For developing ideas and "feel", listen to the vocals as well, since blues is essentially a vocal music. People like Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf are the 2 biggest names. Elmore James is more famous for his mean slide guitar, but he's an underrated vocalist too.
Listening to other instruments is also a great source of ideas. Harmonica(harp) players like Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, piano players like Pinetop Perkins, Johnnie Johnson, even B3 organ players like Jimmy Smith. He's more known for his jazz, but he's got the blues all over.
To use a cliched but appropriate analogy, you've got to learn the words and sentence structure before speaking the language. Copy stuff note for note for a start, then forget about it for a while and play along. You'll be surprised what you can come up with.
Oh, and lose the pedals. After you've got your sound and feel, then you can start working on the tone.
Hope this helps.
