Blues are growing up with young musicians

" A look at some of today's best young blues musicians in Memphis and beyond. "

By Norm Shaw

For many people, when you talk about the blues, they envision older men and women who've spent years honing their craft in obscure locales. And that's often an accurate picture.

But today, there are different types of blues musicians emerging. They are younger, better educated, more racially mixed, but every bit as driven to play the blues as the generations before them. They are more savvy, thinking more about marketing, publishing and such things as the Internet. But in the end, it's still about the music.

In the past, BlueSpeak has featured many of these folks. Corey Harris, Dave Thompson and Big Mike Griffin come to mind. This month, we set our sites on some even younger musicians. And some closer to home. People like Billy Gibson and John Scalici, seen together on the cover. Both in their 20s, Gibson and Scalici are passionate about their music. It is their lives. David Bowen and the King Beez are no different, although they are a little older. After six years of working four nights a week at B.B. King's Blues Club, they are putting the finishing touches on their first CD. "Monster" Mike Welch and Sean Costello are 17-year-old whiz kids. Both are lighting fast guitarists who have made a choice to play the blues instead of joining some local alternative band and staring at the floor for hours on end. All of them represent the best of what's happening to the blues today. In many ways, it is growing up. But it is growing up through the work of these younger players. They are the future of the blues.