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.
At the height of the jobs crisis, unemployment benefits lasted as long as 99 weeks in many states. Today, they last less than half that long in many states. The situation in Michigan, where unemployed workers will soon qualify for a maximum of about 49 weeks of benefits, helps explain the three major factors behind the reduction. (See related article.