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.
Known as Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC), these benefits are organized in tiers. They are provided in addition to the about 26 weeks in standard state unemployment benefits. States will, of course, vary in terms of how many weeks of unemployment they offer. Tier 1 for EUC is 14 extra weeks and is available for all states, regardless of how high your state's unemployment rate is.