It's not a joke; these are real blues musicians, some of them (Joe Louis Walker, Donald Kinsey, David Honeyboy Edwards, Otis Clay, Pinetop Perkins) quite well known. And yes, the blues has often had to struggle and compromise to reach a wider audience.
At its peak, the program offered up to 99 weeks of coverage. It's been scaled down gradually ever since. Two states with high unemployment, Illinois and Nevada, had offered 73 weeks of benefits. California had offered 63 weeks, and most others offered 43 to 63 weeks.
After you exhaust your 26 weeks of basic unemployment from Georgia and your 53 weeks of Federal extensions you can apply for State extended benefits (SEB) which last up to an additional 20 weeks bringing the total number of weeks of unemployment available in Georgia to 99 weeks with State and Federal benefits included.